O

[tielan]

The scent of sexual obsession, slavery to sensual pleasure, and the undercurrent of innocence defiled utterly. Amber and honey with a touch of vanilla.

O is what turned me to the vanilla side of the force.

I purchased a bottle of aged O, curious about the obsession that so many people seemed to have for it, and opened it up with a little trepidation. Would O work its magic on me?

One sniff, and I was lost. It sashayed up to me with the rich overtones of vanilla and honey, oozing sensuous amber undertones, and seduced my scent preferences.

I used to like the rich floral scents; now, I'm all over anything with honey, vanilla, and caramel. And I blame O!

It even likes my skin! I put some on for my mother's birthday dinner last night, and this morning when I woke up, it was still there! O for the staying power!

(Someday, the lab is going to put out a vanilla-honey-caramel-dark red rose scent and I will buy bottles by the bucketload. Until then, there's O.) Edited May 3, 2009 by Shollin

[ShadowsDance]

From the imp I get a lot of honey..

Hmm.. on my skin, it smells very similar to Dana O'Shee. In fact, they're almost exactly alike, even after a few hours on my skin. Dana O'Shee is actually one of my favorite scents.. but, yeah, I already have it!

[Veronica]

This smells exactly like its description. At first, the amber drowns out anything else, as my skin tends to amp amber, which I'm not very fond of, but as it dries, the honey and vanilla come out to create a beautifully complex, sexy scent. Every time I sniff, I get a whiff of amber followed separately by the vanilla, it surprises me a little. Definitely keeping the imp, considering a bottle!

[scarrengirl]

Here's my first attempt at a real, serious review. Woo! *ahem*

 

In the imp it weirdly enough smells bubblegum like at first whif. I really get the honey in there and..maybe it's the amber? (i'm a new nose.)

 

On the skin wet - it's strange...almost a licoricey undertone to it. I'm thinking again it's the amber, it's surrounded by that honey. We'l see how it ages. I have high hopes for this one, I really want a sexy scent and I hope my body chemistry doesn't eff it up.

[riflmom]

What a superb blend! O is warm and sexy and sweet - I love what Beth does with honey! The vanilla and amber stand up nicely against the strong wild honey. It does remind me of Dana O'Shee, but where Dana is light and airy and an outdoor-daytime scent, O is perfect for a night in front of the fire, with a glass of red wine and a certain someone

Edited July 21, 2009 by breadwoman

[ClareDeLune]

This is a pretty simple scent. It's exactly what the description says.

While I wouldn't normally desire to smell like honey and vanilla, I am pretty certain that this is the kind of scent men would find sexy.

 

It lasts a long time. I've gone to the dog park and then cleaned the house for hours on end, and I still smell pretty damn good.

[liquidtrance]

Warm and soft and round. Smells just like its described, though theres almost a mustyness from the amber perhaps. Really mild, unobtrusive, and sweet, almost sexy? Good scent.

On full dry down, it actually smells pretty similar to Mr. Butterball.

 

Retest-- A little musky musky on contact. The honey isn't quite straightforward, but I can definitely smell it as a RAW honey. A little unattractive, as huffing large quantities of real honey is. I think that must be the "muskyness." Pretty heavy. Not exactly cloying, but very.. thick. The thickness seems to wear down as it dries out more. Much more vanilla and amber instead of husky honey. Lasted a surprisingly long time! put on at 10pm, could still smell clearly at 4am, and was noticeable when I woke up the next morning (10am or so).

 

O, NO! Retesting a week before RMW... gross. No idea WHAT this is, but it's not happy. Tested on crook of arm, though-- not wrist. Weird body odor type smell. Not horrible, but not.. good. How strange!

[Ceri]

In the vial: This smells both sweet & sour at the same time, way too sweet

Wet: Honey & cough syrup. There's a touch of artificial sweetness to this.

Dry: A sweet mix of honey & vanilla with the salty tang of sweat.

Overall: I like the honey & vanilla combo, but I'm not too fond of smelling like sweat.

[maggs24]

Everyone had such a fantastic reviews of O and on my first imp order it was the only one I was truly dying to try. Alas and alack, it smells like Playdough on me. I mean strong Playdough, that's all I got. Am I a freak of some sort that it morphs into this on me?

[sylvanusurban]

In bottle: Sweet baby powder.

On me, wet: Sweet baby powder.

On me, drying: Now the vanilla’s starting to come out, and it’s sweet vanilla-y baby powder. I’m not getting the "defiled" part of the description’s “innocence defiled” – this is all sweetness and girly pastels. Pleasant enough, though. It has a nice pale golden honey overtone to it.

 

Later: This is very pretty and warm and inviting. Morning sunbeams and a saucer of sweet cream and lingering in clean rumpled sheets long past sunup. It isn’t a smell of raw sex to me – it’s a sweet, intimate cuddle.

 

Still Later: I bet this would smell really good layered with a chocolate scent. Nom.

 

Still Still Later: This is smelling a bit less like creamy honey and a bit more like a waxy honeycomb. It’s not bad but I liked the smoothness of the previous smell better.

 

Finally: It fades to baby powder again.

 

Boy’s input: “It smells like perfume. They all smell the same.”

 

The Verdict: Nice enough to keep the imp, at least. Not instant Must-Have-Bottle-inducing, but we’ll see what future tests reveal.

 

[copagirl]

O how I wish this were STRONGER! I love this! O my. This is one of the few scents that actually last on me. Lasts and lasts but my nose needs to be 1 inch from my arm to enjoy. I'll have to find more creative ways to wear this, scent locket perhaps.

 

O goes on at first smelling a little sharp and almondy with a little honey to me, which I like. Much later it has turned into HONEY and incense in the background. Yum yum. Love it. I will be buying big. I like to layer Snake Oil over the top, because when the S.O. fades, O is still there.

[bubblefish]

I love this scent! It's this dusky warm smell, with just the hint of vanilla. I'm not getting any sweetness, just the more sensual side of vanilla. There's also a bit of dark honey in there. I'm definitely going to have to get a bottle soon, since this is very enjoyable. And very sexy. Though my skin seems to drink it up fairly quickly.

[lilacea]

Oh lord. This is gorgeous. Vanilla with a touch of honey, some muskiness. Soft and so close. When it dries, it um.. how do I put this... smells like the most divine part of a woman.

 

I can certainly see the sexual connotations here.

[ladyl]

Yup very vanilla and honey. I smell like I came out of a sugar factory, in a nice way. I would rate it maybe 3 out of 5. Not a must have but a keeper.

[samanthagr10]

edited because I clicked too fast! I wanted to post about my beloved O. I have been wearing this scent for a couple years. I love the soft vanilla and musk of this one. I sometimes use the Castitas bath oil to layer. The scent are so similar on my skin and the bath oil extends the lovely scent. My boyfriend just loves this on me and he loves to breathe deep around me! Edited October 27, 2009 by Shollin

[vampirate]

O smells really nice in the bottle, sweet but I can smell more of the amber then than on. After its been on I get mostly honey with the vanilla and then a bit of amber in the background after that, which I love. It smells delicious. If I had something that tasted like O smells I would drizzle it over cakes!

[redderz]

In the imp: Honey. I have bad luck with honey.

 

Wet: Yeah, the honey is pretty sour on me. I keep testing O to see if it will change, but alas... I think it hates me.

 

Dry: I get a hint of vanilla, but mostly honey. Sorry O!

[claudia6913]

In the imp it's a very sharp almost harsh smell. Lots of honey and some vanilla. And seeing as I was totally brilliant and just spilled this on myself, I better like it. >.<

 

Wet on skin this is again a very sharp smell. Nothing headache inducing, but very much in my face with just a hint of vanilla. It's not even very sweet.

 

As it dries down I have a feeling this is trying to turn on me. On my skin it's starting to turn sweet, almost too sweet. On my shirt where I spilled it, it's still a very sharp smell. I'm not sure I like this scent. It's not horrible .... but it's not appealing either. I hope that has nothing to do with me spilling it. I've got enough to test again later and I just might.

 

A little bit later it gets a powdery sweet scent with almost no hint of vanilla anywhere. It's all amber and honey.

 

Jury's still out on this one.

[SlySionnach]

This is a new imp, so it may be different with age, but so far:

 

Imp: It's honey. Lots of honey. Oh! And there's some amber.

 

Wet: Gah! Something is sour here. Something is really not good with my skin chemistry. I'm going to assume it's the honey just because that note shies on the side of "almost never works". No amber, no vanilla, just sour.

 

Dry: The honey dies down (Thank the gods) but still remains pretty strong and what comes out is a mix of powdery amber and sickeningly sweet 'n sour honeysauce. Bluh.

 

I'm gonna let this age and keep retrying it. I don't want to give up on it yet!

Edited September 6, 2009 by SlySionnach

[Scarah]

I wanted to wait to be sure before writing this one. But since wearing it every day for almost a week, I think we could be safe.

 

O Yeah.

 

Imp: I have never smelled anything like this in my life ever ever and I love it. It is sweet and sour, in the best of all possible ways. How can three so simple ingredients end up like this? Genius. I want more.

 

Freshly applied: Same as imp! So far so good! Dear my wrist, I love you. Love, me.

 

Dry: The amber really warms up. I'm a person who can't do too many spices or incense or anything, because they become self-aware like Skynet and then take over the Earth and convince everyone I just came from my errand of buying three screens and a lighter. But I love warm, kinda spicy-but-not-too-spicy things, so I'm finding that notes like amber and dragon's blood are the perfect compromise.

 

The tangy honey dies down on me some, but never ultimately finally. I can get a waft of it now and then. And it's AWESOME.

 

The overall impression that one gets if they are standing a polite distance from me, actually *may* be vanilla baby powder. But I simply don't care because I KNOW THE REAL TRUTH. Let them go ahead and think my pants are full of baby powder. O makes *me* happy, so who cares about the rest of the world.

 

In conclusion: Yeah, I've been in BPAL fandom less than a week (if you count actually possessing scents as opposed to just having ordered them and waiting), everything else I've tried so far has been tried once, and the O imp is half gone. I would say bottle please.

 

Side note: I like this scent so much that I decided to reread part of the novel, which I did read the whole thing about 20 years ago. This time, I was just all like "LOL WHUT?" I can't recall if O's preferred fragrance in her "normal" life (as a fashion photographer) is mentioned, since I didn't reread that part. But I figured at least at Roissy, the chambermaids would have done her up with some kinda Serious Floral Business. Thank deity(ies) the lab has more creativity than I do, because BPAL O is awesome!

[teamilk]

O (Aged about two and a half years, at least)

I don't remember liking this scent when I first received the imp and I can't say that I held onto it for two years just for aging purposes. I actually lost it and didn't find it until I was gutting my bedroom! Wet, it's sharp and a little offensive to me. I'm not usually an amber scent lover, so I think that had a lot to do with why I was repelled by my wrists and pulse points.

 

Now that it has dried-down, it's a more mellow. I don't get a playdough aspect until my nose is smashed against my skin. Other than that, it has a nice little waft of sweetness. I prefer more honey and vanilla to amber, and it's not quite there for me, but it's pleasant. Not a big bottle (two and a half years to get this?) But I can see what other people like about it.

[Venneh]

Got this in an imp pack in a recent order, eager to try it out.

 

In the imp, this smells like honey and vanilla and amber, oh wow, that's really good. It's the same on my skin; sweet and just absolutely lovely. I think this is going to be a bottle, just even wet in the first minute, here.

 

An hour later, and it's still going strong and lovely. O(hhh yeah.) This is definitely going to be a bottle.

Edited October 7, 2009 by Venneh

[Alexanne]

O (Aged 10 Months)

Wet = Allll amber. Almost a nauseating amount of amber. It is quite literally the slightest touch of vanilla and honey at first. But after it dries it mellows out and all of the notes intertwine with each other. A very wholesome scent, but with a touch of robustness. Like elegant seduction. Like a orgasmic honeymoon. Not a whole lot of throw (dries close to skin), but it lasted for four or five hours.

Verdict: The strong amber smell at the beginning gave me a headache that just didn't go away, even after all of the scents merged together. That ruined it for me completely. *Sighs*

[ami226]

I tried this scent when I first joined the forums awhile ago. It immediately went into my swap pile because it smelled like buttered popcorn to me. Very strange....

 

I just received a new imp of it through a swap and This scent is amazing! Amber and honey with a bit of vanilla. I will have to get the SO's opinion, but I am sold. This scent stays very close to the skin.

[MinxyMinou]

I was super excited to receive this after reading all the rave reviews..the whiff out of the bottle though...sharp and not so enticing. You get the honey..but also a very scary cherry nyquil note..eww.

 

On my skin..for the first half hour this persists...*shudder*

 

BUT it dries down to be an absolutely gorgeous honey vanilla that has decent lasting power on me.