Lawn Gnome

[copagirl]

Red currant, molasses, vanilla cream, moss, and patchouli.

In the imp I smell red current, molasses and a teeny touch of patchouli. Once it's on, it's more Red Current and molasses. Once it dries down, however, it's RED CURRENT! I wish I could smell the vanilla more.......

ETA: As time goes on I find myself wearing this more and more. I really love it! It's still red current on me but it may soften with age. Edited July 12, 2009 by copagirl
Added scent description.

[bubblefish]

Oh wow.

 

I was expecting something sweet and foody. I wasn't expecting I would like this. But this is marvelous! I LOVE IT.

 

In the imp it smells sweet and foody, but on my skin it's amazing red currant with a hint of molasses sweetening it up and moss and patchouli balancing it to keep it from being too foody or sweet. In short, it's simply AMAZING. I must get more, no I NEED more.

[Iceblink]

Lawn Gnome begins as a blast of oakmoss that quickly becomes a tasty blend of currant and molasses and vanilla--but it's never overly sweet or foody. The patchouli and oakmoss keep it earthy and and give it a darker feel than a straight foody oil would have. It doesn't have a ton of throw but it's very rich, and it's a nice way to wear some deeper notes even in summertime. Like it a lot, think it will age fantastically, and probably need a bottle.

[Ravenclaw79]

Patchoulli and a dark, wine-like berry smell, which quickly becomes PATCHOULLI PATCHOULLI OMG PATCHOULLI DON'T FORGET I'M HERE, NOW, I'M PATCHOULLI! Boo. I love gnomes, too -- they're so cute. This scent is total fail on me, though.

[Gardenia]

Lawn Gnome is a blend of fruity and earthy. The moss and patchouli really stand out, but the creamy fruit adds a bit of sweetness. It's an interesting blend of foody and deep earth.

[fairnymph]

Sniffed: This smells extremely convoluted. Foody, with creamy vanilla/molasses and a whole lot of green smelly moss, with a sort of dirty patchouli below. Eek.

 

Wet: I think I'm confusing the moss and red currant, it's weirdly tart/green/astringent and not in a good way. It's almost a little soapy? Less heavily molasses, more vanilla cream.

 

Dry: This is not a good moss on me. It's like Spanish I think, it goes very dank and musty and dirty on me. The patchouli, too, is the soil-rooty type and these along with the molasses are the remaining notes on drydown.

 

Later: Appropriately dirty and horrible (not a fan of the tacky, even though I do like David the Gnome).

 

Summary: I find this revolting in every stage, and I never got any red currant (or as someone mistyped to my amusement, red current, which makes me think of some huge gushing menses). Lower throw at least, but this stuff lasts forever.

 

 

[sharybaby]

I received this little guy by accident in a decant circle. He's sweet molasses-vanilla-creamy in the vial, and sweet-molasses being punched in the gut by patchouli once dry. Since I'm not a fan of patchouli, I wish the sweet foodiness were predominant... but, ya can't win 'em all. I suppose a lawn gnome would have to be sort of dirty anyway...

[loverstreet]

Mine starts out as thick, sweet blackstrap molasses with a little currant on the side. The dry oakmoss chimes in after about 30 minutes, with the patchouli very faint in the background. LOVE IT!

[CynicalPink]

Imp: Earthy and kinda boozy

 

Wet: Gah! Patchouli and moss, with the molasses making it smell like the little guy's keeping a bottle of cheap rum under his hat!

 

Drydown: Oh that's much better. The molasses has calmed the hell down along with the patchouli. There's a bit of that vanilla cream, and the fruity currants are finally showing up.

 

Overall: Gnome, I'm sorry I ever doubted you! This scent was cringeworthy when it first hit my skin but now that it's settled it it has an earthy cheerfulness. The longer I wear it the more I love it. I'm springing for a bottle...I think. I gotta know if it overlaps too much with Dionesia (which I just bought a bottle of) but it's totally bottle-worthy if you can get past that initial application terror

 

Now that I have a Bottle: It was totally worth it. This scent really needs to be experienced to by understood. I think of it like a "pretty stink." It's very earthy but also sweet and fun. I get a feeling that this is going to be one of those "Legendary Scents" in the future. Glad I got in on the ground floor before this thing gets MB:Underpants hard to find.

Edited August 14, 2009 by CynicalPink

[Lamia]

In the bottle: Cake? A brown sugar-based cake? Yes, brown sugar-ish.

 

Applied to skin: Yep cake NO WAIT, WHOA! Er, a plant? green? (checks ingredients) AHA! That would be the molasses and moss.

 

Immediately on skin: Moss, how bizarre, who knew there could be a moss perfume?

 

Drydown, sniffing skin: Man, are we sure there is no vetiver in here? That's the butchest most bad-ass patchouli I have ever sniffed.

 

Throw: Oh, my, there is the red currant. But it's throw only - sniffing my wrists it's the cranky patchouli.

 

10 minutes later: Walking in a cloud of currant, buttery cream, molasses and patchouli. Here is my expression =

 

I ... I think I need more of this. This is AMAZING!!!

[iiinterstate]

Fresh out of the vial, this is straight red currant, but everything melds together pretty quickly once it hits my skin.

 

As it dries, I get mostly patchouli and moss, with the currant still in the throw.

 

This stays pretty earthy for a good 10 minutes, but then the vanilla starts to show up and makes this really yummy. It doesn't have a foody feel to me at all, and I really love it. I think a couple of bottles are in order, as this one is sure to age INCREDIBLY well!

 

 

[naeelah]

I have a certain life-long affinity for gnomes, especially of the lawn variety, so I really wanted to love this. About half the notes are hit or miss -- really, pretty much miss -- so I was worried. But I am very pleasantly surprised.

 

Red currants sometimes smell like plastic on my skin, patchouli tends to turn into extremely strong dirt, and oakmoss turns even shriller than patchouli. (Wasn't sure what kind of moss would be in this. The moss in the shunga blends wound up smelling like some kind of awful cologne on me, so I was not optimistic. Moss and I just don't go well together.)

 

Wet, this is a ton of tart, slightly jammy red currants -- just like the currants in Tomoe Gozen -- with a liberal drizzling of molasses. The molasses is perfectly true to life. Dark and thick and sweet, but not overwhelmingly sugary. A hint of bitterness. Behind those is a thick vanilla buttercream, but not as sweet as frosting.

 

Grounding the scent is a hint of moss (fuzzy and sharp at the same time -- sure there is a little bit of oakmoss or spanish moss) and fresh patchouli. The patchouli here is a more elegant variety, sort of like the one in the Grindhouse blends.

 

As it wears it becomes more and more earthy (as patchouli always does on my skin), but the red currants never go away. So, after an hour or so, it's a light earthy scent with currants a hint of molasses and vanilla.

 

Even as someone who hates earthy blends, I love this. It has just the right balance of notes. It's earthy enough to suggest gnomey goodness but, uh, non-earthy enough for me to like it. I really hope that the patchouli doesn't get stronger with age (as every patchouli blend I've ever gotten a bottle of has), because I want to keep this forever and ever. Definitely give it a try if you're a fan of currants or earthy blends.

[Schmoozy]

 

 

Earthy burnt sugar and red currants. Right after applying I can smell vanilla cream, but just as fast as it appears, it also disappears just as fast. The burnt sugar note aka molasses is similar to sugar skull and it's not really my cup of tea, but again most notes in Lawn Gnome disappear in the wind. What I left with is earthy, green, berry smell with a hint of burnt sugar. Meh.

[Gin]

Lawn Gnome is all currant, patchouli, and molasses at first. I like the currant, but I'm not sure about the rest. Dries down to ... dirt. Smells a bit like a basement--old dust and dirt.

[caffinatedangel]

In the imp this was... molasses. Sugary, creamy, almost batter-like foody glee. With a bite of something almost metallic- I'm guessing the currant?

 

Wet on skin - HI THERE PATCHOULI AND MOSS. It went from foody in the imp to WHAM green. Give it a moment... and ah. There's the bright grin of the currant, and the vanilla cream slowly takes it place once again.

 

Drying- Tart, sweet, earthy. This is a bizarre scent. I must have a thing for bizarre scents. Because lawn gnome is now on par with Crawdad. Which was, until now, untouchable in amazing glee by any other bpal. The bite of currant gives it spunk, it's dirty in a green way - which I just adore. Then it has this sweet, buttery, delicious vanilla and molasses undercurrent. which glues the oddness together. This is so bizarre. You have to at least hunt down an imp to test. No sniffies either, you'll miss out on the fun.

 

And omg. I may have to order a few more bottles of this. I just got one, to try it out. Thinking hey, I loved Depraved (patchouli and apricot. yum) so why wouldn't I like a little fruity dirty lawn gnome too? More bottles. Many more.

 

Edit- It has endurance. Hurrah! This is a very solid scent on me. In the later drydown, it gets a little creamsicle-esq on me. But in currant flavor and not orange. I love it.

Edited July 24, 2009 by CaffinatedAngel

[strangemodegirl]

I haven't done a review in a very, very long time, and I am not all that good at them, but I wanted to pipe in here and say that I think Lawn Gnome is one of the best things I have ever smelled in my life.

 

On me, it is all currant and vanilla cream. I get nothing else. Well, maybe a bit of musk, which is strange since it's not a listed note. Could be the patchouli acting weird. I know that ever since I quit smoking last year, things have smelled differently on me.

 

I do enjoy foodie smells, but not usually on me as much. This is too tart to be foodie, at least, to me.

This might be my first back-up/multiple bottle purchase in a long ass time!

[obsidienne]

I can see why people are all ga-ga over this: it's quite lovely and fun. Vanilla, molasses and fruity red currant deepened with green moss and patchouli. The molasses note it quite subtle and well-blended into this; I note this because I found it off-putting and plasticky in Kill-Devil. This dries down to a soft creamy vanilla with all of the other notes adding complexity and interest; that said, it's incredibly faint and fades faster than fast on me, which is so not my favourite thing in a perfume.

[Champagne]

It is lovely on me and it smells exactly like I imagined, the red currant is tart and fragrant and mixes perfectly with the moss and the patchouli, two notes not on my top list, but here necessary to create the earthy gnomy character! They fade soon and the vanilla that remains, together with the burnt molasses, is soft and white, and just a little fruity. This is a must for berry lovers like me. I like and reapply a lot! The essence of this blend is rooted in my fairy tale subconscious!!!

[Gwydion]

In bottle: Sweet and creamy current. The vannilla cream spiciness of it is fascinating. Wet: On me, it’s less so, being mostly patchouli and current with less nuance. The result is… hippy Christians rather than spicy, creamy goodness. Dry: Patchouli with a hint of current.

[rayvn1]

This was one of the most anticipated scent of the summer series for me. I love masculine blends and every one of the notes could spell winner for my skin chemistry (although moss can be a little sketchy). Instead of a sweet versiou of Mole though, I get a rich smell an older gentleman might wear or a lovely scented tobacco. Masculine, but not overly so. Keeper

[Dymphna]

In the imp: I can definitely smell the patchouli, molasses, and red currant. I think I'm getting a touch of creaminess from the vanilla cream, even though it doesn't smell like vanilla per se. This is a lot nicer than it was when I first got my decants a few weeks ago. Then, I opened this to sniff and just put it aside because the patch was so strong and heavy. It's much smoother now.

 

Wet: The red currant comes out a lot more on my skin. The patchouli and moss make an appropriately earthy base, but it's not heavy at all, just the suggestion of dark earth and green growing things. The vanilla cream and molasses are sort of mixing together to form a middle ground of creamy sweetness that bridges the sweet, bright currant and the deeper earth notes. This is the definition of "well-blended": every note has its purpose and its place, and gets along well with all the other notes.

 

Dry: I know it's part of a summer series, but this makes me think of an autumn "berry" (where "berry" equals "sweet red fruit") scent. It's earthy, but it doesn't smell summery to me. I'm not sure I'd need a whole bottle of this, but I can see myself pulling out my decant (why does that sound dirty?) on a nice autumn day when I want to smell like I've been wandering through the woods, picking berries and getting my clothes caught on brambles, and maybe meeting an actual gnome, an Earth spirit, along the way. It's a charming scent with a charming image attached, and it captures the concept really well.

[pugmom]

First application - currants and moss are at the forefront. The patchouli is not overly evident to me, but DH picked up on it.

 

Dry down - moss/dirt feel goes away and left with creamy currants. The vanilla keeps the currants in check and it doesn't go nearly as tart on me as tomoe gozen.

 

I don't get much of the molasses in this, but overall a lovely blend. It doesn't last super long on me and I did have to reapply at midday.

 

keeper.

[Ajila]

In the bottle - Sweet, slightly smoky vanilla

 

Wet on me - An odd, dry sweetness with a slight hint of the currants and the earthiness of the moss and patchouli

 

Dry on me -A soft, sweet, but also dry vanilla with a fruitiness that makes it like skittles

 

Overall - Right up my street; vanilla with depth

 

[mand]

Fruity patchouli, it reminds me of Dionysia. So autumnal I just can't wear it now, but I'm sure I'll love it in fall!

[jizatt]

This to me was a cross of the fruit aspect of Bordello and the cream of Love's Philosophy - I will say I think I like Bordello better though, a bit darker maybe?

 

(eta: over a year later - turns out I love this, and may be giving Bordello up to keep this one. I get an earthier Bordello, maybe with a hint of cream)

Edited March 30, 2011 by CaudaPavonis