Zenobia Bath Oil

[angelicruin]

Zenobia was Queen of the Palmyrene Empire. She assumed leadership of her nomadic tribe after her father’s death, eventually marrying King Septimius Odaenathus. Zenobia seemed a contradiction: chaste, dark-eyed, and lovely, but able to drink, fight, and make war like a man. She fought, on horseback, alongside her husband in many battles, and ruled the Empire with a fair and just hand after her husband’s passing. To her people, she was the Lady of Victory, conquering several Roman provinces, including Egypt, and expelling the prefect, Tenagino Probus, who was beheaded after he led an attempt to seize back control of the territory for Rome. Her conquests enabled her to control many vital trade routes, further earning her the ire of the Romans. Unfortunately, she eventually overextended her reach. She was betrayed, and then captured by Emperor Aurelian, displayed in chains in a triumphal procession through Rome, her Empire dissolved. Rather than capitulate to misfortune, she made a new life for herself, and became a Roman matron, philosopher, and socialite.

Orris, amber, balsam, calamus, and frankincense.

Inside the bottle, it's mostly orris and frankincense to my nose.

I tend to use the bath oils directly on my skin, rather than in a bath. On my skin, the orris is definitely there, along with the calamus note that is sweetening the scent on my skin. Amber is very subdued...it's definitely there, but not as strong as amber usually is on my skin. Frankincense is very faint on me and I'm not really picking up the balsam note either. It's mostly this lovely sweet root scent on my skin. A very relaxing scent. I could definitely fall asleep wearing this. Edited June 11, 2009 by angelicruin

[VioletChaos]

i, too, use the bath oils in an unusual way. i sometimes use them on my skin, but mostly i use them in my hair. for the purpose of this review, it'll be about the oil on my skin, but i may edit later after i try it out in my hair if the scent is much different.

 

in the bottle: the orris is strong, with a bit of a powder-y undertone to it that's making me a touch nervous.

 

wet on skin: the frankincense is balancing the orris at this point, taking away the powder, but leaving the woodsy aspect.

 

dry down: a lovely mix of the two, but no sign of the other notes on my skin.

 

in all: i can tell that this will be something i'll want to put in my hair after being at the beach all day, when my skin has been crusted in salt. a perfect reprieve for sure.

 

[AliBabble]

tried this in the bath last night - the oil has a great texture - silky, and sticks to the skin but not heavily greasy. the scent is 90% orris - to me, with a chocolatee-y undertone, for some reason. the scent lingers after the bath - a bit fresh, from the orris - but not obnoxious or loud. gives a luxurious feeling, befitting a warrior queen. nice, a treat.

[Monster]

Yup, mostly orris with a touch of incense and resin. As this dries into my skin it becomes a powdery, resin scent.

Not sure of this one is for me. I agree with angelicruin, this is a very relazing "curl up in a blanket" sort of scent.

[ravenfeathers]

in the bottle amber and orris

wet on skin amber and a weird, dry, plasticky vanilla-type scent??

dry on skin sort of rooty and that plasticky thing is still going on, although the phantom vanilla has left. it smells a little like a carrier oil that has gone "off" on me.

 

zenobia is a lose/lose for me.

 

eta i put my finger on what's bothering me about this oil: it's almost, but not quite, hellhound on my trail, as though a commercial perfumer tried to dupe hellhound. it's almost a little bit foody. it's heckhound on my stovetop.

Edited June 25, 2009 by ravenfeathers

[steelfaerie]

I love this stuff. The balsam and amber come out in my bathtub and make me never want to get out. I haven't tried it on my hair yet, but this is definitely the kind of smell I'd like my hair to have, so I'll have to give that a whirl. I've got two bottles of this and I hope I can pick up some more from folks who aren't crazy about it!

[moonstonemama]

 

 

in the bottle: um, this smells like a dumpster to me. I don't know why. It just smells like the residue of old rotted things.

 

 

as an in shower moisturizer mixed with warm water and my skin chemistry it starts to smell lovely.

 

on skin after shower: it's mostly amber and resin on me. but it's not a powdery amber. it's faintly sexy and seductive. very little throw, it stays really close to the skin.

 

 

 

[Wwindy]

This oil smells *amazing* when I pour it out. I got all swoony over Zenobia when I took that first whiff of her... and then, like ravenfeathers, I wound up with plastic on my skin. *sigh* I think the calamus must be the problem note -- I'm not really familiar with it, but everything else here usually behaves just fine on me!

 

I mostly use the bath oils like body lotion, but clearly I have to try something else with Zenobia, because I'd really like to be able to hang on to that initial fantastic rich resiny scent...

[hlinspjalda]

Mostly calamus in the bottle, a bit on the woody side.

 

On my skin I could smell the balsam struggling to come out, but it just wasn't working. Ordinarily something with this many resins should be singing on my skin, but instead I was getting mostly orris with its dusty, rooty violet-like scent.

 

Half an hour later, under air conditioning, the scent developed into a nice restrained frankincense/balsam one. It appears not to like heat or humidity on my skin. But once the scent developed, it lingered for hours.

 

[Little Bird]

In the bottle, this smells like a smooth, cool incense & soft, light wood note (reminds me of Midnight Mass, actually) with a bit of sharp floral to it. I also keep thinking that it smells like it has some beeswax in it for some reason.

 

In the water, this smells like sweet beeswax and incense. I really don't know where my nose is getting the beeswax from. It leaves a soft, sweet incense smell on my skin after the bath.

 

Applied directly on my skin, this is just gorgeous. It has that cool, dark, velvety night sky feel that I got from Midnight Mass. Cool, dark incense and soft wood notes. The amber comes out in the drydown and goes slightly powdery, but even that is kept in check by the resins and woods. I'd wear this one directly on my skin, because it has that exotic, slightly powdery, sweet, dark resins & woods skin scent that I love. It makes me feel sexy and mysterious.

 

Semiramis is still my all-time favorite bath oil ever, but Zenobia can take second place .

[milo]

Hmm, this smells pretty much like the Templum Victoriae Atmosphere Spray, which I did grow to like. This is quite resin-y with the frankincense I believe, dominating with a bit of beeswax thrown in. I used this as a moisturizer after a shower, and it was quite nice at the beginning, sweet resin goodness, but after 15 minutes or so, it fades into something barely there, with a bit of an "old" plastic smell. Like an old shampoo bottle that has been sitting in the sun and then microwaved. I'll probably age her a bit to see if the yuck goes away, but I must say that the Bpal bath oils are GREAT moisturizers straight on the skin, and I may keep her just for that.

 

Hmm, this really does turn into something very mysterious, but soft. I'm really digging this now, and looking forward to trying the perfume.

Edited September 15, 2009 by milo

[zankoku_zen]

Orris so doesn't work for me. This smelled like sharp dusty powder on me. Warm, slightly musk, sharp powder.

 

[theseagrows]

got a frimp of this in a swap

 

at first, it has that mushroomy note that i get from death cap. (i am trying this on my skin.) in fact this smells almost identical to death cap to me, except it's a bit more sweet due to the orris/balsam. i am guessing the calamus is the mushroomy/earth note. at times it almost smells like something subtly minty in the background, but not exactly. hard to describe. the amber/orris becomes more prominent, getting a bit powdery but in a good way, with just a hint of frankincense. it's as if death cap got ambery and a bit resiny.