Thorns

[IronMollyBlack]

`Ah, ah! you thought to find your lady love, but the pretty bird has flown and its song is dumb; the cat caught it, and will scratch out your eyes too. Rapunzel is lost to you for ever--you will never see her more.'

The Prince was beside himself with grief, and in his despair he jumped right down from the tower, and, though he escaped with his life, the thorns among which he fell pierced his eyes out. Then he wandered, blind and miserable, through the wood, eating nothing but roots and berries, and weeping and lamenting the loss of his lovely bride.

Thorn-spiked vines, blood, and tears.

Warm, polished wood and what I'm guessing is dragon's blood? A bit of a "salty" note to it--the tears, I suppose. The wood predominates initially, as it dries down, the spicyness comes out bit more. Definately a gender-neutral scent, I bet it would smell really good on a man.

Edited to add: Took a second sniff after the lovely Sookster's review, and of course she's right, that's vetiver! I think I must've burnt my nose on Rumpelstiltzchen prior to this review! Edited November 5, 2008 by IronMollyBlack
Fixed BPAL tags --Shollin

[sookster]

straight sniff from imp is superbly harsh vetiver...

not for the faint of heart...

 

once applied there is the dragon's blood and the ever so quiet

scent of the sea...

 

i like it but it is too similar to other blends i love more...

[TrailerTrashPrincess]

i was hoping for a green and woodsy scent... was hoping the tears would be a bit of an aquatic touch.

 

sniffed from the imp: breath-stopping, choking smoke. charred vetiver.

 

on skin, after it settles down a bit it smells exactly the way our house did the day after the fire... all wet ashes, charred wood and water everywhere.

that being said, it might smell delicious on a man.

[Gwydion]

In bottle: It really does smell like old vines, with a bit of blood and salt. Wet: This oil is surprisingly rich. The vine/blood combination is unusual and rather pleasing. The sharpness of the salt and vines is well balanced by the sweetness of dragon’s blood. It lightens as it warms, but never loses that organic vine edge. Dry: pleasantly sharp. Really I like this and it embodies the concept well.

[Iceblink]

Thorns: chokingly strong vetiver when wet. Drying into a much nicer's dragon's blood/greenery blend. The wet stage is very hard to get past for me, though. Maybe this'll mellow out a bit in a few more weeks.

[windbourne]

Very dry wood -- hard and sharp and vicious. Touches of sweet blood -- fresh and red and almost glowing in the shadow of the vines. Just a hint of salt.

 

This scent, while not one that I want to wear as a perfume (blargh initial vetiver-y blast; can't handle it.), is wonderfully, amazingly evocative of the story; the first that really has been for me from this series. I don't think I'm impressed enough to keep it, but it is amazing when it happens.

 

A for achievement. May try it on boyfriend.

[butcherbaby]

so far, this is my favorite marchen of the few i've tried.

in the imp and wet on the smell is quite strong and distinct- vetiver, smoky & charred. but it's not unpleasant or harsh in the way some strong vetivers are. and well i do like me some good vetiver now and again.

the vetiver stays strong with the same smoky tang, but is now in the background and melding with something sweeter, incensey. could this be the dragon's blood i seem to be missing? hard to say, as it's held in check by the smoked grasses. it settles into a lovely, dark, smoky sweet incense, with that sharp burnt note always hovering in the background behind the smoldering purple red sweetness.

this on s a winner and int he big bottle list already!

Edited November 22, 2008 by butcherbaby

[isisonearth]

Imp: Sharp, smoky and woody.

 

Wet: My nose is really having trouble picking notes out of this one but there is a metallic edge for blood and a salty tang of tears. The vine scent itself really puzzles me. It is a dry woody vine not green. I really just can't spot some of the notes I'm seeing in other reviews.

 

Dry: The blood and tears have faded and left me with that woody scent I don't have a definition for.

 

Overall: I'm going to pass it on to Mr. Isis to try. It says man to me.

[rayvn1]

This one is all salty aquatic and sweet blood. A little green vine smell at first, but the blood and aquatic just isn't working on me for some reason. Strong, though.

[zankoku_zen]

This blend also has vetiver in it --- because I detected the smoky baconness of it. It didn't last past the first few minutes, and then it became a sweeter woodsy blend with a touch of smoke. As it dries, I think there is a tiny sweet floral to it, which I occasionally get from certain aquatic components, so I am guessing that might be the tears.

 

If you are looking for a good starter blend in the smoky category, I would heartily recommend this one. It's a light, slightly sweet woodsy blend and you just get enough smoke that it isn't overpowering.

 

A good introduction to vetiver as well. Not as a main component, but it teaches you not to fear it as a note in general. Meaning, there are blends... like this one... where is works wonderfully.

[Little Bird]

This is pretty awful on me. I get a really ashy, smoky vetiver that starts off strong and lingers in the drydown (reminds me of dirty ash trays). Then there's something like a chemical-y nail polish remover and perfumey rose that's similar to the weird Peacock Queen variation. Nail polish remover, dirty ash tray, perfumey rose and a hint of something sweet and oddly like bananas. It's just a mess on my skin.

Edited March 6, 2012 by Little Bird

[Juushika]

In the vial: Blood over vetiver, a smoky, ashy, dark-red combination.

 

On me: It goes on with a plume of dry smoke and ash which honestly makes me feel like I need to cough. Slowly it calms, growing richer and lower, and the other notes rise—more blood than tears, and neither particularly distinct. This is an odd scent: thin ash settled over dark dry wood, made slightly richer by flakes of dry yet ruddy blood. It's surprisingly light and hovers like smoke over skin-level. Scent-color is charcoal gray just touched by dry dark red.

 

Verdict: I'm not quite sure what to think. For all its vetiver and blood, this is a surprisingly light and unassuming scent. It's not unpleasant, but neither is it lovely. It's just sort of there, unusual but uninteresting, somewhere between acceptable and pleasant, and I'm not sure what to make of it. I guess I'll keep my imp and test again, and then decide whether or not I want to keep it.

Edited December 30, 2008 by Juushika

[anastasia]

I always feel somehow that I have an unfair advantage because I like vetivert and I believe that it smells good on me. Also, there are many different vetiverts to me. I think I have a couple of blends with vetivert in them and this one smells extremely different to me. This smells very fresh. Even in the bottle, Thorns smells good to me. I don't get any smoke out of this at all but the kind of green around the edges rooty smell of like, a bowl of vetivert root. I never really liked the prince in Rapunzel. Apparently I don't want princes of fairytales to be enfeebled in any way. But this is kind of a skin scent on me and makes me picture a very beautiful and tormented young man sweating beautiful sweat as he wanders blinded by the witch. In other words, the gratuitously kinky implications of the tortured prince have been made apparent to me for the first time, through this lovely fragrance.

I get a greeny garden dirt out of this vetivert and I get the dragon's blood...I used to make my own blend and crumble whole chunks of dragon's blood into the bottle. The resin I used may have had a saltier quality to it so this smells more like the dragon's blood I am used to but may be because of the "tears." I don't really get "aquatic" but again this may be what is making this smell fresh and skin musk ey to me.

It is a little neutral and smells even better on my shirt than it does on me which makes me think I may want to make a linen spray out of it for late spring as the weather is warming up but the warmth and greenyness of the scent will still be appealing. To me this scent is light and clean and kind of jeans and a t-shirt and no makeup sexy.

[femmefatale]

Hmmm. Not as smokey as I expected given the other reviews. I do get a bit of vetiver, but it's not overpowering. I also get a little dirt, something sweet, a bit of saltiness, and a hint of soap (which I'm assuming is the dragon's blood since that's what it normally does on my skin). It's a light scent and I would say very unisex.

 

I'm not really sure how I feel about this one. I think I'll try it a coupl more times to see. It is interesting though. I just need to decide if it's wearable for me.

[sarada]

The combination of bitter, smoke-tinged vetiver; a clean, green ivy/vine/stem scent; the whisper of sweetly resinous dragon's blood and a hint of metallic tears is definitely something to sit back and try to wrap your head around. While i like the scent, it does command your attention for a bit as you comprehend how all of these disparate elements are interlocking. Like many BPAL scents, it tells a story as it unfolds.

 

That clean ivy/stem scent constrasts sharply with the darker, bitter ashen/smoky vetiver. It is both clean and dirty at the same time. The 'clean' note suggests innocence; the salt and dragon's blood connote sadness and tragedy. But the darker, ashen notes add an additional ominous touch. I normally find vetiver (one of my favorite notes) to be a smooth, sweet deep polished wood, but this particular perfume comes a cross a bit more like dampened ashes. Sweet, almost fruity dragon's blood constrasts nicely with the salty "tears" and gives it a metallic tinge.

 

It is more of a conceptual scent than something for everyday wear, I think. The odd juxtaposition of salty, fresh and resiny notes with the woody/burnt background is not exactly something I'd find wearable, since I always find myself a little annoyed by dragons' blood, and I don't like salty notes at all. I would wear it for walking in the woods on a winter day, or to a meeting in a wood-panelled room. Although I prefer masculine scents, personally, I find this blend to be almost a little too serious for me.

 

 

[obsidienne]

In the imp I get a blend of dragon's blood and vetivert, but it's not strong, which is the way I usually perceive those scents. In fact, it's very pale and thin smelling. Which is not what I am reading from others' experiences!

 

On the skin, same, but the vetivert amps a bit and I get a sense of thin, dried wood, faint dragon's blood, and a hint of salt. It's a tiny bit sweet, too; am I smelling a very light floral as well?

 

Drydown was the weirdest. Pale, thin and sweet: It reminds me of the thinnest dragon's blood watered down with lilacs and a teensy hint of salt. Vetivert melted into it to provide the faintest hint of those thin, dried woods. Just a hint.

 

Not entirely my bag, yet I was drawn to keep sniffing my wrist. I'm going to try this again in a few weeks; I feel like I'm not "getting" it.

[Ajila]

In the bottle – Instantly a thick, dark green note. It feels like vetiver, but doesn’t smell like it, if that makes sense

 

Wet on me – A dark, almost musty green note

 

Dry on me – The dark green note remains, but gets gentler and gets more herby

 

Overall – I’m sure people who like this sort of thing will love this blend, but it’s not for me

 

[Dominique]

In the vial: This was an imp I received as an addition to an order, from the description, not something I’d typically wear. That said, I’m trying to go through my collection, if only to get an idea of what oils sit well on my skin. The oil is a mid-tone yellow brown, not really pale and not orange enough to call ‘warm’.

I’m not entirely certain what it smells like. It has a note similar to the smoky myrrh of Priala, but it’s not as warm as the Carnival scent. Other reviewers mentioned that it smells like smoke, so apparently I’m not completely off base. There’s a strong note of what’s probably vetiver.

It’s a gender-neutral scent, but either because of how it’s blended, or my own unfamiliarity with the ingredients (I haven’t worn vetiver or dragon’s blood before), none of the notes really leap out to me.

 

On me (wet): Applied to inner wrists. Oh. Wow. I just discovered why I don’t typically wear vetiver – I can’t bloody stand it. The scent itself isn’t bad, but the dominant note isn’t one that I’m fond of. I’ll see if the scent changes during dry down.

 

After a while: It’s been about half an hour and my nose wrinkles every time I smell Thorns. I hate to scrub off a perfume without giving it enough time to settle, but if I have to go through an hour of ‘I can’t stand the way I smell’ to get to a workable scent, I’ll wear a different perfume.

 

Verdict: Doubtless, there are some people who like Thorns and who can deal with vetiver. I’m afraid I’m not one of them and that I won’t be wearing Thorns again.

Edited August 5, 2009 by Dominique

[fairnymph]

Sniffed in imp: Orangey-amber oil. Sharp and artificial, and VERY strong on the dragon's blood. A bunch of somewhat bitter greenery - the vines? No salty notes. Maybe some vetiver? It makes me cringe to sniff it.

 

I'm pretty devastated that none of the scents from my all-time favourite fairy tale worked. At all. *cries*

[savage_rose]

Crouching Marchen, hidden vetiver...

 

Yuck. Vetiver, dead branchy smells, and something a bit salty...I can't tell if it's the blood or the tears. I don't know quite what I'm smelling, but I know I don't like it!

[asciident]

Wet: Smells strangely like rotten fruit. I'm nervous about putting it on.

 

First on: Still rotten fruit...

 

Dry: ...and still same on drydown. Ew.

[angelicruin]

Sniffing the imp, it's a bitter metallic blood scent.

 

Wet on my skin, same scent...bitter blood that takes on a vetiver quality to it. I like blood scent, but need something softer to temper the bitterness.

 

I had to wash this off before it really dried. Reeks too much of vetiver.

[mhickle]

VERY much evokes the image included in the description. Sharply woody, sticky with blood and salt tears. A very warm scent, somehow comforting despite its inspiration. There's a slight sweetness to it that tips the blend into a decided richness.

[Leopard403]

Got this as a frimp, and bluh. All I get is salt and rusty iron.

[Seismogenic]

I started writing the date I acquired a given imp on the label several months ago. Now, looking through the pile of untested ones, I see that this one is dated April, while everything else is from June or July. Somehow it has kept slipping through, but that stops today!

 

In the imp: Sharp dry wood and saltwater.

 

Wet on skin: Immediately, an odd metallic note comes out and pretty much covers up the woody note. Still getting the salt, though now it's pretty much just salt without water. I'm assuming the metallic note has to be blood, and I suspect that the aim here is actual blood, not dragon's blood.

 

Drydown: Freshly dry, it's salty metal. There's something a little bit smoother under there, with an overall dark color to it, but I can't figure out what it actually is. The salt and metal are immediately obvious. Overall, it's pretty strong, and my gut reaction is that it's not a pleasant kind of strong. At one hour in, this has shifted to metallic salt and vetiver. It has faded enough to not be overpowering, and I think the vetiver actually mellows it in general, which is not a thing that usually happens with vetiver.

 

Five hours later: Salty vetiver, fainter than before, though still quite evident. The strong metallic note from earlier is gone now, making the whole thing more subdued and less strange.

 

End of the day: Slightly dusty salty.

 

Overall: There may, perhaps, have been some sort of grand cosmic reason that I didn't get around to trying this until today, despite my having the imp since April. That reason may, perhaps, be that it really really didn't work on me. I found the earlier stages of drydown unpleasant enough that I thought about washing it off, though I opted for the benefit of the doubt. It definitely did improve with time, but even then, salty vetiver is not very me. I wish I'd gotten more of the actual thorn note in here, rather than a whole lot of blood and tears, but that just wasn't to be on my skin. So - rings pretty true to the description, but it's a description that other people are bound to enjoy far more than I did.