O

[reconditarmonia]

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

I was hoping this would be a perfect honey scent, and instead it's all vanilla and amber. Woe is me.

[MadameGorgon]

I thought this would be much too sweet on first try. It was tooth-achingly sweet. It does warm up considerably once the amber comes out to play, and the honey doesn't go all wonky on me like in Alice, Sudha, and Against Idleness & Mischief. But mostly, I use it to layer with Bastet and other oils to warm and enrich them.

 

If it were a bit less sweet and not nearly as strong, it would smell like my skin smells to me on a warm summer day.

 

There is the most gorgeous depth to the amber. It brings to mind learning to play the violin. I pick up whiffs in the deepest depths of the rosin that I used for my bow. Its a dry-woodsy richness, the rosin was always so clear and the color of amber. I always wanted to bite or lick it, although I knew it wouldn't taste good. I'd scratch at it with my fingernails so I could get fresh whiffs and get the scent on my fingers to smell all day.

 

I don't get individual honey & vanilla notes, they blend to a kind of generic sweetness, so this doesn't come across as "foody" on me at all, and don't mind smelling like food. But, even though it doesn't smell like food, it does smell lickable. It makes me wish I were a guy or a lesbian so I could smell this on my partner.

 

Bastet and at least a couple of others just don't smell the same or as good on me without it. I'll always want to have some around and I imagine that there will be times I want to wear it all by itself.

[Tiada]

Add me to the list of those who ADORE "O". I don't really find it sexy though, more comforting and warm.

 

Vanilla, with the amber for richness and warmth and depth. Absolutely gorgeous! My only wish is that the honey came out more when it dries, it seems to disappear.

[agirlnamedfury]

I was all set to love this, based on the notes (I love honey and vanilla and gourmand scents are my favorites, and I THINK I like amber, but I'm a perfume newbie). Unfortunately, when it dries down it turns into straight baby powder on me, and I am not a fan of smelling like babies' bottoms. I've had this happen with a number of other scents but I'm still trying to nail down if it's a specific note that reacts badly on me.

 

I wish this just stayed in the wet stage forever because it's sweet, delicious, and absolutely beautiful like that! But alas, it is fleeting, and then the baby-powder lasts forever and has serious throw. I'm considering going to wash my wrists off.

[venusinfurs]

I really wanted to love this, because I like honey and vanilla. It isn't bad at all, but it just wasn't completely what I wanted something called "O" to be

 

In the bottle, it's quite sweet smelling. I can smell honey and vanilla with some warmness/perfumey-ness in the background.

 

Wet on my skin, it smells divine. Like vanilla sugar and honey with a faint amber background.

 

Dry on my skin, the amber amps up, and it smells like amber with a touch of vanilla. The honey seems to fade away completely. It's a "nice" scent, but I don't think it's particularly sexy or unique on me. I woke up in the morning, and it smelled faintly of amber and baby powder, which wasn't bad, but not my favorite, either. This wasn't one of those "OMG I NEED TO SCRUB THIS OFF NOW" scents or anything, but it just didn't do it for me.

 

I think I will use up the imp bottle, but I won't be buying a big bottle of it.

[TastyMischief]

There HAS to be some civet in this. The depth, the warmth, the oomph are characteristic in a way that differs from musk alone. It's naughty goodness writhing in a bed full of honeyed amber. My guy has been sniffing me all day and commenting very positively. Another bpal favorite.

[Medievalmaniac]

Great God(dess)(e)(s)! At first I thought "Oh, it's nice", but I was rather disappointed with the much-hyped "O" - it didn't smell all that sexy to me, and DH had no reaction to it. I thought it was rather on the sweet side, wasn't getting any of the muskiness, and it kept drying down to straight vanilla/baby powder. Pretty, but not sensual or sexual. Love's Baby Soft pretty. ewwwwww.....

 

I mixed it with a bit of unscented lotion figuring it would stay longer and maybe the scent would travel better. Oh, did it ever. I'm not sure what shifted, but by the second decant I am a full-on convert. O makes me want to go to town, and not in the leaving-the-house way!

 

(You guys need the eyebrows smiley...!)

 

With the lotion, the dry-down goes to a honeyed vanilla with a slightly musky quality - exactly what I originally expected. I love that! Yay!!

 

DH still hasn't had the "oh, wow, what IS that?" response to any of the BPAL scents except Eve (go figure!) but I am definitely sold on the sensual nature of O. Definitely upgrading to a full bottle!

[girlcalledmoment]

O is a classic Loukhoum scent, close to Keiko Mecheri's version, or Montale's Sweet Oriental Dream. These rich and sweet powdery gourmand fragrances tend to the love-it-or-hate-it category, and whilst I love them, one dear to me finds them difficult to bear. Very heavy baby powder is ground into sweet caramel, deep vanilla, almond extract and honey. To me, there is also a bitter cocoa element that's pleasing. I would get a lot of wear out of O, if it wasn't offensive to my beau.

4/5

Edited March 28, 2011 by girlcalledmoment

[coreysyd]

in the imp: sweet honey that's slightly fruity and almost tangy

 

on the skin: sweet and turning slightly powdery

 

20 minutes later: why am i smelling horse manure? AHHHHH this is absolutely terrible on my skin...it's sweet honey and horse manure!!!!

 

NEVER EVER putting that on my skin ever again.

[RebeccaRose]

In the bottle - Honey. All I get is honey.

 

On me, wet - Yup. Honey. This is like I just stuck my hand in a beehive and brought it out all nice and coated with honey. If I sniff *REALLY* hard, I can get some amber and a hint of vanilla, but it's overwhelmingly honey. Really wanting to love this since I had to decide between ordering a bottle of this, Dorian, or Snake Oil, and I know I already LOVE Dorian.

 

On me, dry down - Dry down is showing promise. Amber is coming out to play and changing this to a much more musky smell, which is a huge improvement IMO. Honey-musk....interesting....

 

On me, dry, several hours - Vanilla-honey musk. Okay, I like it. That's a lie. I LOVE it. I may even love it more than Dorian, which I am already planning to keep a lifetime supply of. This is incredibly fabulous and totally sexy.

[TheFrenchWaffle]

I wasn't too sure about this perfume so I tested it as a sleeping scent.

In the imp: Honey, but a super sexy honey that has something more to it

Wet: Oh wow, smells like sex. Very VERY honey. The amber is there (I get a slightly fruity[?] scent from the amber)

Dry: Honey honey honey honey and amber are there. A very sexual perfume. This scent fits perfectly with O, which I keep buried at the bottom of my dresser safe from prying eyes.

In the morning: Oh there you are vanilla, I didn't see you come in.

 

Final Verdict: I'm not sure I would wear this as a normal everyday scent, it seems too racy on my skin for that. But oh dear lord, I am in love with this scent. I know I want a bottle at some point. Perfection!

[imaginepageant]

This is my second review of O. My first review, in 2005, was not a good one, thanks to honey being my mortal enemy back then. But I'm having much better luck with honey nowadays, so O deserves another try and another review.

 

In the Vial: Honey, amber, and... grape juice? It kind of smells like grape juice. Okay. It's juicy, yet dry and dusty at the same time. And very sweet, obviously - kind of unavoidable in a blend that combines honey and vanilla. Though I can't really pick out the vanilla.

 

Wet: Ah, there's the vanilla! It's making the blend creamy, and even sweeter than it already was. It gets a lot softer and lighter as well. The amber smells almost floral.

 

Dry: Oh yay! The honey is going thin and green - something I'm learning honey now does on my skin, and something I like quite a bit. The amber's still there, giving it a slight spicy floral quality. And if I breathe deeply, I can still catch the vanilla.

 

An Hour Later: I am happy to report that it doesn't smell like rotten Play-Doh! Or really, any kind of Play-Doh! Hurrah! It's a soft, slightly powdery honey.

 

Overall: I think I can officially say my honey curse is broken! However, I still don't find O to be the pure sex scent that so many others do - and sadly, the boyfriend had no reaction to it whatsoever. I'm happy that I can wear O now... but I'm not entirely sure it's something I'd keep in my collection. I'm going to let it age for a few months, though, and try it again then.

[Balame]

In the Imp: I can't believe I haven't reviewed this, I've had it for a while. Ah well, sad to say that I had a lot of high hopes regarding this one both because of the buzz and the fact I like all of the involved notes in and of themselves, but together this just didn't work out. In the imp it's all honey and sugar.

 

Wet: I first get a big waft of sweet vanilla that lingers for around five minutes. Then...

 

Dry: The goopy honey shows up. The "sugar" note, believe it or not, is actually the amber in this. And therein lies the problem. As a whole, O feels "fake" to me. It smells a little plasticky, more like a shortcake then fully indulging in the rich, true scent of any of the amazing notes alone. The honey is milky and subdued, not rounded, decadent, and wild. The vanilla is not a powerful vanilla extract, but as if it's been weighed down by too much sugar and flour. And the amber is the saddest version of itself, not royal and powerful, but like some sort of cheap knock off. Obviously other people don't see it like this, and I'm sure Beth uses plenty of great ingredients, but how it actually turned out was a massive disappointment.

 

Overall: A popular one that's just Play-Doh on me. Don't like it at all.

[calivianya]

I just received a frimp of this with my Ebay win. Hopefully I like it - I have another on the way with my Lab order.

 

This oil is dark! I'm a little surprised - I'd think anything with notes like vanilla, amber, and honey would be a light-colored oil, but this is not the case. It is a burnt red/rust color. I can definitely see why this scent is so popular now. O is very sexy on my skin. I do indeed get all three notes - vanilla, amber, and honey, and they all meld to make a very deliciously sweet scent. It becomes a skin-scent on me, making me smell more like I smell like delicious sex than my perfume smells like delicious sex. I do like it.

 

Edit: On the far drydown, O becomes straight honey/beeswax, and is indistinguishable from The Lights of Men's Lives on my skin. If you like that, give O a try.

Edited July 6, 2011 by calivianya

[StevenBoatman]

Oh. Oh my. Wow. Um, yeah.

 

This is quite possibly the closest thing to sex in a bottle I've ever encountered. I would grab someone wearing this and ravished them on the nearest horizontal surface. And mind you, I'm asexual-so for a smelly to inspire this kind of reaction in me, you know it has to be good!

 

Imp: Amber, with a touch of sweetness. Not bad per say, but amber tends to make my nose itch.

 

On, wet: Ooooooh yeah. There's that honey-vanilla! Work it baby!

 

On, dry: The amber has come back a bit, but it's still dominated by the sexy Honey and Vanilla sisters (brothers?). It gets a teeny bit of baby powder to it, but not enough to ruin the scent.

 

O=awesome!

Edited July 22, 2011 by protoomega

[stellamaris]

Honey Vanilla heaven. That said, it's not so foody that I feel like a cookie, it's the amber that saves it from being a cookie. Very Big Bottle worthy.

[Gargoyle]

This ends up smelling like vanilla and chocolate. I'll keep it around for a while to see how it ages, but it really doesn't make me feel sensual or sexy. I feel more like I ought to be sticky from eating some sort of gooey dessert.

[yakiguri]

Wet: Soft honey and the tiniest bit of vanilla. The honey isn't screaming like it did in Black Hellbore Honey, but it's right in the front like a single-note. I'm starting to suspect I amp honey...

 

Drydown and Hours Later: The honey has scaled back some to let the vanilla and amber come to the surface as well. Yum!

 

Overall: O is indeed a sexy scent, but it's less raw hardcore porn and more my-SO-and-I-just-joined-the-mile-high-club-and-hope-you-don't-notice-our-flushed-skin-and-slightly-disarrayed-appearance. O sticks very close to skin but with this kind of scent you want people to get close to you to sniff. I agree with others that it's a comforting scent as well. Definitely buying a bottle!

[terriblethrills]

Hmm...I was really hoping this would be a sexy scent on me, but all I'm getting is baby powder and Play-Doh. Amber, I caught a hint of you out of the bottle, but you vanished the first instant on my skin! Wet it was all honey on me, and then the dry-down....powder and Play-Doh. So sad.

[Klolly]

In imp: Yummy! A thick, melting honey with the faint hint of amber in the background.

 

Wet: The honey is less thick smelling now. It's more like thin, brown cheap honey, and the amber is getting louder, almost becoming floral-like. The combo of these smells is totally reminding me of the way public restrooms smell. Yuck.

 

Dry: Not much difference. It's sweeter now because of vanilla, but the vanilla is only thinly veiling the nasty bathroom scent. To me, Morocco is a WAY sexy scent. O is not.

 

A few hours later: It's crazy the way some of these perfume oils morph! That bathroom smell has vanished and the vanilla has really become powerful. It's a gorgeous vanilla. I actually really like this now. I would still say Morocco is sexier though, and I don't think I'd get more of this because the bathroom scent at first freaked me out to much. But it really is very nice.

Edited August 12, 2011 by Klolly

[whataboutprom]

I want to bathe in this! I was almost certain I would like this from the description, but I never know what will work with my body chemistry. When I first applied O, I thought it disappeared into my skin. I could barely smell it with my nose against my wrist, but I already loved it enough to want a full bottle. I decided to reapply and added some to lotion that I applied to my arms and dabbed a little of the oil on my neck and wrists. I forgot about it until I arrived at work and kept getting whiffs of this gorgeous blend!

 

I don't think the throw was overpowering at all, but I got sporadic whiffs for at least five hours. I guess my skin amped it up, and I'm so glad it did! Every note stayed blended in perfect harmony with the others, with no single note dominating or disappearing throughout the day.

 

On me O smells exactly how one would imagine from the notes listed. It's warm and light and golden and sexy all at once. My boyfriend thinks it smells like baby powder, but he thinks that any time amber is in the mix. There is nothing baby about this blend, and I can't really stand the smell of baby powder, so don't let that comparison scare you. It's a very adult scent, and it reminds me of something from the 1970's. Sultry without being cloying or overpowering.

 

I think I found my new almost every day scent!

[PumpkinGuts]

What a lusty smell. I get all sticky-sweet honey and powdery amber from this and none of the vanilla (which is fine, since I have a lot of vanilla smellies). My liking for O has waned over the years, not because it smells bad, but that it's just not very "me". I always get a ton of compliments whenever I wear it. Give it a try if you want to smell like a sex kitten.

 

Throw: Jeepers! [5/5]

Longevity: Impressive [5/5]

Rating: Good, but doesn't wow me [3.5/5]

 

[snapesgirl34]

In the bottle – Sex and honey. Yum.

 

Wet – Amber and honey, the vanilla is very faint. I really wish the amber were stronger. It still smells wonderful though. I have to remind myself this perfume isn’t edible because I really want to lick my wrist!

 

Dry – Now it’s mostly honey with the faint scent of amber. But not cheap, supermarket honey, the expensive, dark amber-colored stuff you buy directly from the farmer. It’s sweet, and very erotic! I guess there’s a reason it’s called “O.” I wouldn’t have thought of honey as seductive scent, but this smells pretty naughty, like dripping honey on your lover’s body then licking it off. I almost feel embarrassed wearing it around other people. If I scent can be R-rated than this is it!

 

Overall – Wow, this stuck around a really long time. Usually these smells only seem to last a few hours on me, this lasted about 12 hours! Wow. And my skin chemistry seems to LOVE O. The only problem was the smell of honey kept making me want to lick my wrist. It layers well with other scents (so far I’ve tried it with Titania, Al- Shairan, sugar skull, Pele, and New Orleans) making them smell warmer, sweeter, and sexier. So it’s good on it’s own or combined with another scent. I am definitely going to have to get a 5 mL of this.

[Alethia]

Oh good lord, I adore this scent.

 

Wet: Straight up honey on my skin. I adore honey, so this is good news for me.

 

Dry down: The amber starts to come out and play, and it's a little powdery at this point, but nothing overwhelming or scary.

 

Dry: Ah! Honey + vanilla = LOVE

 

Verdict: This is truly a sexy scent. Bottle!

[KatharinaNordh]

I can stop looking now - O is everything I wanted and more.

 

I disliked the book, because I don't appreciate a Weak sub (and to me, she is - the way she falls apart at being left, the way she needs him to Have an existance - weak women, weak subs of any gender, weakness - offends me.

 

This is not weak! It is sexy, it is inviting, it does have something rather sub'y and inspiringly welcoming about it, but also decadent and experienced, intoxicating and very Present smell - and I can't wait to see the male again next month, as I'll wear O and not much else

 

Edit; this was a frimp. I thought all the notes in it were too soft and "pleasant" for me - I may have to change my mind. And clearly, I need a bottle.

 

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Second edit - I know others have mentioned it, but this also works Miracles for being layered with just about Everything; sharp smells become rounder, heavy smells become lighter, faint smells become stronger - fantastic

 

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Third edit - wearing O today, as I was getting a bit nose-tired of all my New stuff, and O is very soft and nice to my nose.

I applied it Exactly 10 hours ago now (together with some Dia de los Muertos in my hair) and it doesn't actually smell on my skin anymore - yet oddly, when I move, the air is somehow still O'ish - I catch whiffs of it here and there and am re-reminded why this was my first Bpal-love

Edited October 28, 2011 by Asinya