Tombstone

[Theravada]

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 vial and when first applied this smelled mostly of deep, sticky sassafras with just a suggestion of cedar and a warm vanilla note. After a few minutes the sassafras fades and the vanilla takes center stage and the cedar becomes stronger. Thankfully it never becomes the overwhelming, pencil-shaving smell of the cedar in Lear and other blends. The vanilla in this one isn't my favorite. It's more of a "commercial", fake vanilla scent on my skin.

I have a feeling this one would work out better on a man. But for me, I already have a vanilla and wood scent-Golden Priapus. So Tombstone doesn't make the cut.

[isyche]

Tombstone is all cedar and vanilla on me - it's actually quite similar to the drydown of Velvet without the chocolate, it has the same "sweet dusty warm wood" feeling.

 

It does make me think of Western ghost towns with old wood cabins, but the cedar ends up very sharp and pencil-shaving-ish on my skin and it isn't really me.

[tangle]

Tombstone in the bottle smells a little sweet (vanilla, something like coca-cola syrup) and a smokey (like wood smoke, not like cigarettes) or woodsy underneath. It's masculine but not exclusively so. I'm definately getting the old-time cowboy, campfire, outdoors vibe, but this cowboy is drinking a soda.

 

On me, the sweet smell completely disappears. My bf wanted to know why I smelled like aftershave. Darn!

[bellis]

In the bottle this is an interesting mix of cedar and vanilla. Once it goes on, the cedar became the prominant note, which I'm beginning to expect from my skin. I spent the first half hour or so wishing I had a man to put this on, because it was incredibly yummy, but a bit too masculine for me. A few minutes of sawing through bamboo later, the cedar gave some ground to the vanilla and sassafrass. I really like this. I'm trying to convince myself not to impulse-order a bottle of it right now, actually.

[anmorata]

Tombstone:

 

Wet: VANILLA.

Drydown: Still vanilla. Could we have a winner?

Longterm wear: The sassafrass pops up and leaves a rather unpleasant smell.. and the cedar reminds me of mothballs. Not for me.

[joseybird]

Sassafrass!! Smells like bitter herb root I smell a bit of vanilla, but it's waaaaaaay in the background. Couldn't stand this one =(

 

ADDED July 15:

 

Sweet, fresh cedar, light pine, and sassafras (root beer!) are the first notes that pop out in this blend. It’s a causal, laid-back masculine scent—the scent of a rugged man who lives in small, dusty town surrounded by a beautiful old-fashioned wilderness. The vanilla bean comes out soon after, rich and creamy. This is a rootbeer float slapped down on a freshly-sanded small-town bar, handed over by a blowhard but kindly barkeeper. Wonderfully evocative, but I can’t really imagine this worn as a perfume!

[Janie]

Dusty, swirling empty streets, shadowed sidewalks and searing heat. A tumbleweed rolls across the path of a lone rider as they ride in to town.

 

I honestly get dust. And trust me, I've lived in the outback of Australia for the last 8 years during the worst droughts in living memory, so I know dust.

 

It's actually a really enjoyable oil to wear, even the opening dusty notes.

[Ajila]

I really didn't like this when I smelt it in the bottle, it was like very sour smelling cedar. On me at first I was even less keen all I smelt was rubber, possibly even burning rubber, not good. An hour later it's wonderful, the vanilla has exerted itself and the whole scent is one of a well used kitchen with wooden surfaces. It's a bit too masculine for me to wear regularly, but I still like it and oddly I think it's the sort of thing I'd like more at my time of the month.

 

ETA Weird, I said I thought I'd like it more around my time of month, having tried that, when I'm starting my time of the month the final dry down stage is pure creamy, rich vanilla, it's gorgeous .

Edited July 28, 2005 by Ajila

[Electra]

Wet, first 30 seconds: a hot, dry wind sweeping across a sun-baked prairie. There's a dusty, rugged one-street town visible in the distance. How is it POSSIBLE to get the Old West into a bottle like this?? Genius. So very evocative.

 

Dry, first five minutes: sinus-clearing root beer. Spicy kick-you-in-the-teeth root beer. I guess that's the sassafras.

 

Dry, next hour: root beer and cedar. Sharp and dry.

 

Final drydown: a gorgeous, soft, sawdusty-cedary vanilla. Absolutely marvelous. I won't be sitting through the first stages again, as I don't like them enough, but I wish I could find something else that smelled like this drydown.

[tinyvulture]

the rich, buttery vanilla (sometimes I think it actually smells more like honey or --this is weird-- peanut butter) is tempered by the sharpness of the root beer/sassafras, and the warm, woodsy cedar brings it all together. i want to wear this while relaxing by a cozy campfire. it smells good on me and even better on my man, so we are going to have to get a bottle to share.

[Muppetk]

First thought: ick! Smells like car!

 

5 min later: okay, cedarwood and vanilla are pretty distinct, no longer a confusing pile of smell. But I'm just not diging it.

 

Later: Nope. Boy does this disagree with my skin!! Swap pile. I'm thankful this one washes off!

[Elanya]

In the imp: Hmmm... smells like Velvet. Must be the delicious vanilla-wood combination!

 

Wet: Vanilla wood is vying with something... something... mint? Eucalyptus? no, sorry, that's sassafrass! Yum!

 

Dry: Okay, they weeod/vanilla/sassafrass are no longer distinct, but are blended by a hint of smoke.... Smoky sweet wood, with a clear tone of sharper sweetness from the sasafrass, and possibly the cedar. Oh, lovely! I knew I would love this, and I was right! the real test though... how long does it last?

 

It fades and stays close after about an hour, and is more smoky... But still had the sweet, vanilla wood.... So yummy! This goes on the ever-growing bottle list

[quimerula]

A lovely frimp, thank you, lab!

 

Wet it's vanilla and cedar. Warm.

 

After a while sassafras and balsam come out, giving it a bitter-sweet touch.

This one is unisex and sexy for both genders.

 

Dry the cedar comes out, balancing with its dry touch the sweetness of the other notes.

Warm, sweet and very nice.

[cuervosueno]

Tombstone! Yum! Thank you MupppetK for swapping with me so I got to try this. I'd completely forgotten what the notes where, so I had no idea, but when I opened it--delicious, delightful vanilla!

In bottle: vanilla, though oddly my first thought was what wasn't in here--leather, but not the heavy leather of say iago or loviatar, but the soft doeskin of Coyote---hmmmm....wonder what Coyote and Tombstone would smell like together? Just a bit of smoke too, though I see that's not in here, so I don't know why I smell that.

Then I read what was in it. Vanilla of course, and I get the creamy sassafras spice (yes, like sasparilla or root beer!). I didn't get balsam at first or cedar, but after it dries down, those scents are beginning to come out, but all in all this is so well blended nothing really dominates after that initial vanilla blast.

Yummy! I want to lick my hand. I think I like this more than Snake Oil or O!

I may need a big bottle of this.

[Julilla Regina]

Oh, this is amazing! And it works with my chemistry and everything, huzzah! I actually had someone tell me how good I smell. Yay!

 

I love cedar, so I am biased in that regard. This doesn't go sharp on me like Snake Oil did after awhile. This is vanillawood goodness all the way. I thought it might be more manly and guy oriented, so I bought it for my son to try. He is not getting this. I think the vanilla would be too sweet for him anyway. This is a very deep vanilla, not like extract or cooking vanilla, but a creamy yellow vanilla. Drizzling the cedar over it has made it truly exquisite. How much do I love this one? There aren't words.

[stardreamer]

First impression: chocolate and booze?! WTF? I thought this was supposed to be vanilla and wood!

 

Fresh on: Not so sure about this. Usually vanilla is my friend, but there's something very dark and bitter overriding it this time. Could be the cedar, but I'm more inclined to suspect the sassafras. R. comments, "I need to stay upwind."

 

After an hour or so: Now I'm getting my normal vanilla amp-up, with the same kind of woody goodness underneath as Golden Priapus. The chocolatey note disappeared along with whatever was making it unpleasantly bitter. It definitely wasn't the cedar causing the problem; I can still smell that under the vanilla, and it's nice.

 

Final opinion: If it weren't for that dark, bitter note, this would have been a very nice blend. But the opening takes quite a while to fade, and the final result is not very much different from GP, which doesn't go thru that unpleasant phase. This one will be re-swapped.

[pkwench]

Tombstone

 

I almost think I'm growing to love the blends that I didn't think I'd like more than the ones that I knew I'd love from the start. Tombstone was on my last imp order (I don't usually order imps-it was a treat!) because I was feeling a bit saucy. Sassafras? Well, don't know much about that, but cedar is a come and go sort of scent. But? I love warm and woody usually. So, maybe it's not such a stretch.

 

HOLY GOD, I LOVE TOMBSTONE.

 

It starts out so dusty. You can feel the wild west in this one. Tumbleweeds and warm, rough hewn floors under and open sunny window is the predominate feeling I get from it. The vanilla sweetens the works up. I still don't know what straight up sassafras smells like, but something gives this blend a bit of a bite. A good bite to my mind. Though, it does sting a bit if it's too soon out of the shower.

 

On the love scale, we're somewhere in orbit.

[OriginalWacky]

Bottle (Imp): This actually smells like the Old West to me. There's sand, just a bare hint of something green, and maybe a little bit of leather?

 

Just On: The sand sort of fades, and the leather comes forward. There is still a hint of green. There's something sweet just on the very edge of this, like smelling something baking from miles away.

 

An hour or two later: Leather, the barest hint of sand and gunpowder, and dry heat.

 

Around 6 hours: It's pretty faded, so it's hard to tell what's left.

 

12 hours: It went totally away now, so I can't smell it anymore.

 

Overall: I like this, though I'm not sure if it's the scent for me. I may have to try it on The Mate and see how it works. I might consider trading a scent I don't like for this, but I'm not sure I'd buy a big bottle.

 

After reading other reviews: I got almost NO vanilla out of this, which is rather sad, because I adore vanilla. I also didn't really get sassafrass. If this works on The Mate, it's a keeper, if not, then it may just get swapped.

[Little Bird]

I really thought that I would love this (maybe just because of the name and wild west images that it conjured up?). Unfortunately, this blend didn't work well with my skin chemistry.

 

At first it smelled most strongly of vanilla. The same smoky vanilla that I got in snake oil (gah I hate snake oil ). Then the vanilla was slowly gobbled up by cedar and sassafras. I'm not sure if it was the cedar or sassafras that started to make me ill, I'm not sure exactly what sassafras smells like and I'm usually okay with cedar... but this started to smell very dirty on me. Like sweat and soil and wood chips.

 

I wouldn't necessarily say this is masculine (moreso a unisex blend) but it still didn't work out on me, sadly.

[quikslvr]

Mostly cedar on me at first. Later, warms to a dry, incense-y vanilla, with a touch of the more pleasant tones of Dorian.

 

Love it, although it's a bit masculine sometimes. Ordered a 5 mL.

[MsBraz]

Wet: Cedar and Vanilla, a sweet woody smell, resinous, yummy

 

Drying: I smell tobacco, leather and something metal. A gun?

 

This reminds me of my dad’s old desk he had while I was growing up. He had a drawer that smelled like this. Weird.

 

I love it.

[Phaedra]

I got a freebie imp of this with an eBay auction. I would have never chosen this scent to try otherwise (no offense). This one is extremely masculine. It smells strongly of vanilla mixed with cedar which on me smells like pencil shavings. I really hate the way cedar smells on me. It would be interesting to see how this smells on a man. I had to wash this off after a couple of minutes and ended up swapping it away.

[Eros]

This is NICE!

 

In imp/first applied~Fresh cut, but at the same time old, cedar.

Has a "dusty" feel to it. A warm, old west kind of dusty. A touch herbal, a very subtle spiciness with a wonderful, mild sweet vanilla. Soft and creamy. Soft undertone of sweet pine or maybe fir??

After a few hours got a bit of....funnel cake(??) to go with the above. *Very* slight, but yep, funnel cake. Can't wait to smell this on Hubby

Big bottle for sure on this one!

[JazzieCazzie]

BOTTLE: Strong cedar with a soft vanilla twist.

 

WET: The same as in the bottle. I generally love Beth's cedar blends. This one is somehow woody and girly at the same time.

 

DRYDOWN: Very strong with a PlayDoh throw. Both husband and daughter ask simultaneously what I'm wearing (they rarely do) as we're leaving the house to go to dinner ... and not really in a "wow we love that scent!" way ... Sadly, the drydown goes just too cloying on me. Not a keeper, alas.

 

On a scale of 1-5, I'd give it somewhere between a 2 and a 3.

 

REVISITED AND RE-REVIEWED APRIL 2013:

 

So as I'm working my way through all of my BPALs from A-Z, I come to Tombstone. Interestingly enough, despite my previous review, I actually have two imps of this ... one I ordered from the Lab earlier this year based on notes (and before I re-read my old reviews) and one I received from a forumite as lagniappe in a swap/purchase. Because my plan was to try EVERY scent in my collection, I gave this another go ...

 

IN THE IMP: The Wild West name is so appropriate. This is sharp and woody with a sweet tinge and very very hot.

 

Dabbed on wrist and in crook of arm.

 

WET: While I really couldn't put my finger on the vanilla (the culprit in the earlier PlayDoh incident) it amps upon application. I TOTALLY get the "PlayDoh" association but it's not superstrong and it's more the cedar-vanilla, I think. It doesn't suck. I don't feel the need to wash it off. I'm not sure it's something I'd wear again but it's really interesting.

 

DRYDOWN: This has a lot of legs and the drydown is definitely that sweet wood. But much much much later ... finally ... I keep getting this "this scent is SOOOOOOOOO familiar" feeling and I finally realize that it is dead on pipe tobacco.

 

OVERALL: I like this and respect the artistry in it. It's very appropriate for the name. I think it's a masculine scent in that guys could wear it but it's not so "fougere"-like that it couldn't be gender neutral. After consideration, though, it's just not something I'll wear so both imps will go onto the swap list but with a higher grade than first time around.

 

On a scale of 1-5, a 3.

Edited April 15, 2013 by JazzieCazzie

[bodegaselkie]

In the bottle and wet on my skin, Tombstone was beautifully evocative of the old west -- wood, dusty roads, heat, and sasparilla. It reminds me a little of visiting California's Gold Country in the summertime. As it began to dry down, though, it started to take on a plasticky smell. I wasn't sure Tombstone would be a keeper anyway -- it's lovely, but not something I want to smell like often -- but that definitely clinched it.