Tombstone

[greenranger]

Tombstone

A celebration of one of the first commercially produced perfumes of America's Old West. A rugged, warm blend of vanilla, balsam and sassafras layered over Virginia cedar.

 

 

In the imp, I am smelling mostly balsam and cedar, I think.

 

Wet on me, The cedar is jumping forward even more. The other notes are going to have to shove it out of the way to get noticed. Everything is locked up tight in a cedar box.

 

Well, the box may be locked, but, the other scents are attempting to seep through the wood to get free. I think I can detect the vanilla, and maybe the sassafras. Mostly they seem to be the sweet edge to the cedar. On me this is a very woody scent so far.

 

Now it is vanilla and cedar. This isn't a delicate scent, to me. It feels more outdoorsy than most of the vanilla scents that I have tried so far. There is still a lot of cedar there, and I think that a guy could wear this, easily.

Edited May 26, 2008 by Aerinha

[VioletChaos]

in the imp: cedar and vanilla. yum! usually i don't care for cedar as it reminds me of a hamster cage. but this is warm and woodsy. very nice.

 

wet on skin: the vanilla is opening up. this is a very 'warm' scent indeed.

 

dry down: it has stayed the same. average throw, warm, sweet and woodsy.

 

in all: lives up to it's evocative name- reminds me of warming myself on a desert rock while someone cooks something over a wood fire for the evening's dinner.

 

 

[Lamia]

Oh, this is NICE!

 

Fresh it smelled of tobacco, vanilla and dirt. About 20 minutes later pine developed. BPAL vanilla seems to work very well on me, and this is thick and dark. A direct sniff seems almost mentholated, with black pine and tobacco, but the scent aura is murky vanilla. Yum! Someone in an earlier review said that this reminds them a bit of a brandy caramel sauce, and I can certainly agree with that.

[caffinatedangel]

Well, this is one of my first 6 (well 8, counting the frimps) imps I received from the lab. For me, I was about the same as everyone else. For my sister: Completely different (mentioned at end of review)

 

In the bottle: Rootbeer. (Which is what sassafras is most widely used for. Silly people not knowing what it is )

 

Wet on skin: For a few quick seconds it was nothing but solid dust. Like I had to bunker down for a mini dust bowl. It was only a wiff for me, and then vanished as quick as it came.

 

Drying, stage one: Dust vanishes, sassafras screams with me. I think the Balsam helps give it an extra kick. Vanilla and Cedar and lying low and being lazy.

 

Dry, stage two: Vanilla is oozing over me. Delicious and warm. Slightly spiced from the Sassafras, which is there but so faint I have to eat my wrist to get it. The cedar is strong, second only to vanilla, in a woody way, not a fresh cedar chest way. Vanilla is overtaking, everything else becoming background. It's soft, delicious, and somehow a bit musky on me.

 

Dry, stage three: Vanilla and Cedar have merged into a neo-vanilla of deliciousness. The Sassafras and Balsam seemed to have become a neo-rootbeer as well. And now they're in an epic battle on my skin. Mostly it's soft, like a hazy bar room during the prohibition years (no booze... lol). But then I'll shift around and get a giant wiff of nothing but tangy rootbeer, harassing my nose in a pleasing, and shoking way. It IS a bit foody, now. And I want to eat myself... these BPAL scents are becoming dangerous.

 

Overall, for me: I've tried Dee and Bengal in the past few days, both ending with vanilla overtaking and becoming a musky delicious sleep-aid. Which is strange. I'm new to scents on me, so it seems either everything turns to musk on me, or vanilla just sits and brews on me. Delicious, but becoming slightly limiting. In Tombstone's case, the vanilla is overtaking and being strong (with it's new merged-cedar state), but it hasn't gotten rid of the spice. It's still there, but faint and wafting through with a punch every so often. I'm rather fond of it.

 

 

However, on a different note, I had my sister apply this at the same time to see and compare skin chemistry (I got her interested, yay!) and my sister is going a completely different direction. The sassafras has literally EXPLODED on her. With me, It's a cedar room painted with vanilla, and maybe an open rootbeer somewhere in the room. For her it's a bottle of vanilla root beer. It's light, tangy, with just the slightest undercurrent of cedar/dustyness. The sassafras has completely OWNED my sister.

 

I want to lick her, she smells like a root beer Popsicle to me. She loves it, but I'd hate that smell on me. It matches her personality: Light, bouncy, happy, in love with smiling food stickers. It's kind of creepy. While I'm a much more grounded, dark, in love with night and the moon sort of person.

 

So I'm weirded out. There didn't seem to be many reviews that mentioned the sassafras owning the scent. I felt it was important to mention the possibility. The dark tones seem to mostly vanish on her skin, leaving lighter bright tones. I didn't think it was possible o.O

[galahad]

In The Bottle

Vanilla and cedar. Soft and sweet.

 

On Application

Very dry and dusty vanilla and woods

 

Dry Down

Wow. The dry cedar, the sweet vanilla and a cool, almost-minty note in the background make for a beautiful blend. This will be a favourite once I experience more of it.

 

Rating (0-5)

5

[ouch!]

This is lovely!

 

I'm a fan of vanilla so..I'm kinda biased. I'm also lucky (Or unlucky, depends which way you look at it) to have a body chemistry that makes vanilla pounce off of my skin!!

The downside is sometimes it can take over a blend completley!

 

This is the case with Tombstone.

 

When it's first applied it's a gorgeous woodsy/sharp vanilla! The imp I have of this is aged alot...so it's very thick! This is the kind of vanilla that is in Snake Oil. On me..very potent, thick and noticable. Unfortunately all the other notes get drowned out pretty quickly by the vanilla in this, but the cedar holds on for the longest. It's hanging by a thread though...

 

After a while it's just straight up vanilla...

 

I still really like it though, and I'm going to put it on a few friends hands to appreciate the other notes because vanilla just loves me far too much!

 

ETA: I actually let this dry right down today for the first time, right down. (And I'm a person who applies regularly) But...until it was almost not there anymore and YAY!!! I smelled wood! Ok, that might not seem cool but for a vanilla blend that's dry? on me?? That's very good. We have a breakthrough!!!

Edited July 24, 2008 by ouch!

[Seismogenic]

This is the last imp from my order! Nooo!

I don't think it'll be a case of last as least - at least, I hope not! The cap on this imp is a tad loose, so some got on my hand when I was opening the box containing my order. I thought it smelled wonderful, so I figured I'd try to send this order out out on a good note. (Though, fortunately, most of the things in this order would've been ending on a good note!)

 

In the imp: Strong, warm, and sweet. The vanilla is dominant, but I get a whiff of the sassafras under there, and the wood adds a dusty element in the background.

 

Wet on skin: Pretty much the same as in the imp. (Yay!) The wood is maaaybe a bit more prominent.

 

Drydown: Whoa, this is taking much longer to dry than anything else I've tried so far. I can still see the oil glistening on my wrists a little at nearly ten minutes in. At half an hour in, this still really isn't changing very much from the smell in the imp, except for a small increase in the prominence of the wood notes.

 

Five hours later: The scent is still very present, even with my walking around outside in hot weather and sweating. The sassafras is much more prominent now than it was in the wet and early dry stages, and the wood has somewhat faded in comparison. This is vanilla root beer on a hot and dusty day. Nice!

 

End of the day: This has't faded much more than it had at five hours. There is more wood relative to sassafras again, but the whole blend is still very smooth and warm and dusty.

 

Overall: This? Smells SO GOOD. I enjoyed each of the stages this went through over the course of the day, and the repeated sniffs of my wrist were just as much because I wanted to keep smelling it as for the sake of writing a good thorough review. In the stages where the wood notes are more prominent, this reminds me of the open desert, with heat surrounding and steeping soft sandy soil; it reminds me of one of the places I did geologic mapping, which is, interestingly enough, very close to another silver mining ghost town. And the vanilla sarsparilla smell at other times? Very Old West. Seriously, though, connotations aside, I think this smells great. A bottle is a distinct possibility, when I have funds.

 

ETA: I didn't wash this off at night, just to see what would happen. I woke up this morning and can still smell dusty cedary vanilla sassafras. Now that is staying power.

Edited July 24, 2008 by Seismogenic

[AthenaRose]

Strongly cedar with a hint of vanilla. I kinda wish it was the other way around.

 

I love cedar personally, but my fiancé isn't much of a fan of it on me. So sadly, i probably won't wear this one that much. Maybe i can layer it with something a little sweeter.

 

3/5

[jehrichardson]

In the Bottle: Root beer and cedar. Must be the sassafrass. I'm getting the vanilla warmth and sweetness. No balsam yet.

 

On the Skin: Root beer with a minty medicinality.

 

After a While: The cedar and balsam pull ahead continuing with the vanilla sweetness. I'm still getting root beer though.

 

Verdict: Extremely interesting and it is easy to imagine the wild west. I'm not getting wide open spaces though, more like baked wooden buildings, root beer, and dust. I like it a great deal, but this isn't a keeper. I just don't like root beer!

[gchris]

In Vial: Wood

 

Wet: This really smells like fresh cut wood

 

Dry: Dark vanilla and wood

[Delirium1009]

In bottle/imp: Cedar, leather, and a light touch of vanilla.

 

Immediately on skin: I’m getting an interesting blend of sharp cedar and soft, sweet vanilla.

 

After a few minutes: When I’m not sniffing right at my arm where I applied this, I get a soft, sweet, slightly woody vanilla that I rather like. When I sniff it up close, however, the cedar is stronger and melds with the vanilla to create a very different feel. It’s not as sweet up close, and the cedar is stronger than the vanilla note. It’s a little too heavy on the cedar for me.

 

2 hours later: The cedar continues to soften as I wear this. It’s nice, but I don’t know if it’s “me.”

Overall Impressions: This blend is soft and warm sweet vanilla with cedar blended in. The cedar is strong at first, but as I wear it the vanilla comes out more and more. If you like softer, creamier and wood blends, try this one. It’s a lovely scent, but unfortunately not for me.

[ravenfeathers]

in the bottle MMM! i could eat this! the sassafras and woods are really soft and the vanilla is forefront. very sweet and oddly unisex.

wet on skin okay, the sassafras is really getting on my nerves here. it drowns out all the other notes and has a big, ol' root beer-y party on my wrist. and that nice sweetness has gone cloying.

dry on skin ghastly, cloying root beer candies with pocket fuzz on.

[Argentwolf]

I think that, for me, cedar is going to be one of those scents that shoulders its way to the front and tries to hog all the attention, and that's certainly what it does here. Fresh out of the imp and wet on my skin, all I can smell is the cedar. As it dries, thankfully, the creamier, refreshing vanilla note becomes evident. This mostly becomes a balance of the vanilla and the wood, though the sassafras does peek out from time to time in sweet, delicious little wafts. Unfortunately, however, on me the cedar note just turns a bit rank and ruins whatever sweet dusty qualities this blend might have had. If one likes vanilla and can have the wood note behave on them, though, I think they will enjoy it.

[kjirstiben]

Ahhh, Tombstone... my first love of the BPAL world!

 

Tombstone hits my skin all cedar and a little bit of sassafras-vanilla. In the first five minutes, the blend is a little harsh (the cedar) and a little plasticky (probably the sassafras), and then...

 

The vanilla blooms on this one. The longer I wear it, the more like vanilla I smell. I go from smelling like dusty, scorched, outdoorsy vanilla for the first couple hours to smelling like vanilla frosting. I suspect this is a case of my skin chemistry amping both sassafras and vanilla and I must say, I like the results!

 

I've worn Tombstone as a pick-me-up in the middle of field training (tramping through the San Antonio wilderness in full body armor in late July, all day long), and had someone comment to me--AFTER all the sweating and general grossness--"WOW! You smell good!" Tombstone is that great.

 

All in all, Tombstone is a smoky, woodsy, outdoorsy vanilla. The reviewer who mentioned toasted marshmallows around a campfire isn't too far off! This is a delight to smell all day long and my scent of choice whenever I'm feeling down-and-out.

 

(One caveat: if foody vanillas aren't your thing, you may want to be careful around this one... Tombstone smells edible, like frosting, in its later stages, and rather than dying down, seems to amp more and more over time.)

[milo]

Well, this to me smells pretty much like rootbeer and cedar, a little too cedary in fact. Although I like to drink rootbeer, I don't like to smell like it. I Don't get any vanilla at all. Maybe it'll tone down after awhile, but right now it's a little too woody. I could imagine a hunky outdoorsy guy wearing this, near a cabin among the forest. *must try on my so*

[thomasblackthorne]

WOW! Never have I been THIS pleased with a BPAL scent, granted Brimstone, Jolly Roger and Dorian did take my breath away.

 

The Cedar is most prominent, and the vanilla amps on me, but the sassafras is like a devilish little imp sneaking around, at least to me. My wife and my mother both say that I smelled like Root Beer. I did not smell it all.

 

However, my wife and I were at Borders and she kept smelling her hair, and her wrists and asked me, "Do you smell that?" I looked and said "Smell what?"

 

She then slinked up to me and sniffed and then buried herself in my neck..."IT'S YOU!" and continued to sniff for about 15 more seconds...

 

Thank you BPAL!!!

 

TOMBSTONE! You just made the top 10!

 

Quite an accomplishment. Beth you should be very pleased with Tombstone!

 

 

Easily a favorite here and definitely a 5 ML NEXT ORDER! (This is the first time I had an easy decision on what to put in my next order, much less a 5 ML)

 

Ladies if you love your men, and want them to smell irresistible, buy Tombstone!

Edited October 26, 2008 by CaptainBlackthorne

[Lumina]

Frimped as part of a swap!

 

In the imp: Oh, this is going to be good. Yes it is There's no mistaking the vanilla, but right now the woodiness is the strongest element. To my nose the cedar smells smooth and fresh, and it's coupled here with another woody element - balsam, according to the notes (which I've never knowingly smelled before) - which is adding body to the cedar and giving a lovely warm/dry aroma to the blend. I confess I would not know what sassafras is if you smacked me over the skull with it. Probably we don't have any in England

 

Wet on skin: First few seconds: okay, the vanilla-bomb has landed!.... No, wait a minute... there comes the cedar/balsam again. And then there's a new smell, which is kind of very slightly bitter/spicy and oddly familiar. And deep rusty-orange coloured. It's not very prominent - just a hint that plays around the edges. I know what it smells like: Angostura bitters, which my mother used to put in her tonic water. ?!? That's weird.

 

Drydown: I agree with Seismogenic, this one does take its time in the drying - oil sheen is visible on skin for quite a while! As far as the scent goes, it does change somewhat during the first ten minutes. The vanilla becomes nicely rounded: it's not too rich or sweet, but has a strong presence. The woods remain more prominent, which is very much as I prefer it. The warm dryness of this scent is really fantastic - it's kind of like the feeling of somebody's warm breath on your neck, if that makes sense. And, um, I mean that in a good way! Personally I wouldn't call it outdoors-y, but I strongly suspect that's because I've not yet encountered quite the right sort of outdoors (living in England, here!). Myself, I'd say it's like being in a log cabin surrounded by cedars, snuggled up with a creamy vanilla tea and a sexy cowboy guy who has just been riding through the woods, dressed in leathers. (There's not actually a smell of leather, but it does fit in with the overall impression!)

 

Wear length: 4.5/5 This lasts all day. And I keep catching wafts of it.

 

Overall: 4.5/5 I confess that I have issues with vanilla: I want to like it but hate smelling too sweet/cloying, which is how it usually comes out on me. Tombstone is pretty much my perfect vanilla scent, because it doesn't come out sticky-sweet but just mellow and smooth. I also confess that I am a massive fan of cedar, and of woods in general. This is a vanilla-woodsy-warm scent, gender-neutral but it would be utterly lovely on a man.

 

Keep the imp? I'll give this imp to the first person who can prise it from my cold dead fingers. Mine! Keeping! You no can have!

 

Bottle? Heck, yes!

[Gwydion]

In bottle: Wow, the cedar and balsam combo really hit one over the head. It’s a little like getting locked in a Cedar trunk. Wet: Oooo! Okay, now I get it. The vanilla and sassafras soften and sweeten the dry itchy cedar/balsam scent, creating something like old West general store. I’m generally not fond of sassafras in oils as my skin amps it, but the way that root beer odor plays with the cedar is like time travel. I don’t think it would work without the vanilla, particularly, but it totally works as it is. Dry: A little too much sassafras, but that is likely my skin amping. The vanilla really came out as it wore, and the cedar/balsam retained their dry visceral affect.

[femmefatale]

Oh yum!

At first it was a dusty, woodsy vanilla. Then the sassafras came out out and the cedar calmed down a bit. Now it smells like the most delicious rootbeer (not the cheap stuff, the really good stuff). When I smell this I think of drinking bottled rootbeer in an old time saloon. This the "on the wagon" cowboy.

I love this and honestly, I didn't expect to. I'm hooked.

 

ETA: Once it's completely dried it is the most delicious woodsy vanilla. Most vanillas disappear on my skin, but not this one. I think this just made my top 15 easy.

Edited November 19, 2008 by Femme_Fatale

[Lyrical]

In imp: At first it's WOAH CEDAR! with balsam, then vanilla and the sassafras note from Stimulating Sassafras Strengther join in.

 

Wet on skin: CEDAR! Almost immediately vanilla comes out to sweeten it, and it's rather nice.

 

Dry on skin: sweet, woody, and a bit nose-tickling. It's nice! Then the sassafras note comes out, and I'm not sure whether I don't like it, or whether I just don't like what it does on my skin, but anyway - I've not yet tried a scent with sassafras that I want to keep! This is by far the best of the sassafras bunch, though! Strong, with lots of throw!

[hlinspjalda]

In the vial: Vanilla first, but then the wood overwhelms it. Sharp, too.

 

Wet: Very intense woody, almost rooty, a scent I associate with tannin. Yet there's a sweetness lurking in it too, and I think it's going to develop more in that direction.

 

Half an hour: Cedar mostly, then sassafras, with the vanilla-evergreen making up the base. Still woody-rooty, tanninish but not so salty now.

 

One hour: Cedar-sassafras, still very woody-rooty and tannin. The vanilla can't keep up with the evergreen, so overall this reads as a slightly sweet woody scent.

 

Two hours: Yep, more of the same. This is very pungent on me, and I'm really not liking it very much as a perfume although it might make a delicious incense.

 

Three hours: There's more vanilla evident now, but it's still too woody-rooty for my comfort.

 

I traded this to someone who adores it (and does well with the cedar note).

[blacklacestatic]

In the imp: Very woodsy, with an underlying sweetness.

 

Wet on skin: Here, the cedar is the strongest note, which worries me as I don't care for cedar. Still very strong woods, but the vanilla can be detected.

 

Drydown: This gets more and more strongly vanilla as time passes. It reminds me a great deal of Love's Philosophy. It starts to get a little plasticky as it dries though. Not terrible, but it's there. Plastic vanilla.

 

Overall: I think that I'll stick with Love's Philosophy when I want an over-the-top creamy vanilla. It's not bad, it's just certainly not my favorite of vanilla scents.

[lupidog]

This was a freebie from the lovely savage_rose!

 

First sniff from imp: intriguing, but there is a harsh note that I am not familiar with.

 

On: It had one dominating note I did not like, to start. Seemed low in the mix, but powerful and strong. I think it was the cedar but didn't register "cedar" in my brain, so it could have been the balsam or sassafras I suppose. Thankfully the culprit receded some and it became more or less vanilla over a strong, grounding cedar.

 

It is kind of growing on me. I like it, but the cedar is just a nab too strong. I keep switching between "oooh that's a GOOD, manly vanilla" to "oh god I've been taken hostage and locked in a brand new cedar closet nooo god why," in pretty rapid succession. My best guy friend said it smelled, "Brown. Light Brown," which I thought was great, and fairly accurate.

 

I've got some O on the other side of my wrist (added hours later) and wonder if layering it would pump up the vanilla and tame the cedar ever so slightly. Intense throw (I walked into my friend's living room and her daughter was like WHOA, and I only had this on one wrist), and really lasts! Verdict is out on the final judgment.

Edited December 13, 2008 by starryeyedcrocodile

[janelle_hell]

I have a new favorite! A friend gifted me some imps that she didn't want, and this was the first one that I tried. I had to order a bottle of it immediately, it's that good!

 

Tombstone really fits its name; this is "Wild-West-ghost-town-in-scent-form", truly. It's a very androgynous scent on me, which is what I'd been looking for. The sweet sassafrass really balances out the heavy cedar, and vice versa. There's a slight "dustiness" to this scent, which is what makes it so evocative.

 

Easily in my top 10 favorite BPAL scents, no contest.

[Ceri]

In the vial: A woodsy, nutty scent.

 

Wet: Sweet and woodsy. The vanilla pops up after a minute, but faintly.

 

Drydown: Still slightly too woodsy, but the vanilla and sassafras are more prominent now.

 

Overall: I quite confuse to whether I like this scent or not. I will give it another go before finalizing my verdict.