Tombstone

[biggnerd]

I have a fresh imp from the Lab that's been settling about a week. I've tried Tombstone before and it smelled like root beer. Usually my skin is going to take any vanilla and run with it, however, that didn't happen with Tombstone. The main note is the balsam, which, when untempered by other notes, is quite manky on me. It eventually settles down and a sweet cedar emerges, but never surpasses the balsam. 

[Rayleigh]

The lab's cedar is so nice on me. It's green, pliant, living cedar. The vanilla and sassafras balance the cedar nicely.

 

With wear, this sweetens up. It lasts a good long while on me, and eventually it's a root beer float that you're drinking on a cedar porch. I prefer the sharper early stage, but this is beautiful nonetheless, and the sassafras makes it stand out from other vanilla/cedar scents I have tried. It's sweeter than its cousin, How Doth the Little Crocodile, and less dry than its other cousin, The Small Brown Cat.

 

I don't get the ruggedness that others get, but I do enjoy pretending that the root beer float is being enjoyed by a world-weary gunslinger who gave up alcohol and now carries around a flask full of root beer to keep up appearances.

[IoPan]

Tombstone:

 

In the bottle: Leather and a hint of vanilla. Something warm and smoky that might be tobacco. Interesting, because vanilla is the only note that’s actually in the blend.

 

Wet: The sassafras comes through for sure wet, alongside the vanilla. Smells like a delicious root beer float minus the sweetness. Just the botanical/herby/spicy notes of the plants you use to make root beer and vanilla ice cream. As it continues toward dry-down, the cedar and balsam peek through, which grounds the scent more and gives it a more decidedly botanical/less foody character.

 

Dry: Mostly just a vanilla on me when fully dried. Not bad, but lost most of its complexity. I’ll see if it continues to develop over time.

 

After 30 minutes: I amped the vanilla so hard that it’s taking over the world. Can’t wear this one!

 

[dancingchair]

This is a cream soda smell on me. After I've worn it for a while, the sarsaparilla element fades and I'm just left with a nice vanilla cedar. It's pleasant but I don't feel the need to full size.

[Beary Strange]

 

Wet on skin: sassafras and vanilla, which means...I smell like root beer! ❤️

 

Drydown: Still root beer, but less fizzy carbonated soda, more sweet vanilla-y perfume bordering on cologne. I definitely get the cedar and balsam as well, but the sassafras and vanilla dominates the blend.

 

I absolutely adore this, this is going on my GC bottle list. Also, I wore this to work and could still clearly smell it later that afternoon, which is impressive for sure. 

[MamaMoth]

oh man, that cedar comes out SWINGING. bone-dry and aggressively woodsy.    thankfully it softens up pretty quickly as it dries, and gives all the other notes a chance to sing. 

 

what i end up with, surprisingly, is a dry-ish vanilla, softly woodsy and balsamic, with just a teensy kiss of sweet sassafras. warm and rugged, check.  absolutely wonderful.  if i'm nitpicking, i wish for just a DAB more sassafras.  but that's just a me thing, and layering with a little bit of sassafras strengthener absolutely does the trick. so good!

 

i feel like an absolute fool for never trying this, when it's just been hanging out there in the gc lo these many years. 

Edited April 24, 2022 by MamaMoth

[bellumed]

Gorgeous! Just the right amount of sweet, just the right amount of woodsy. A cream soda you're drinking out at a picnic table after a long walk through the woods.

[asoursweetsixteen]

got this in a frimp and it is very interesting. not the type of scent I'd go for, but it is a nice smell. very wood-sy, of course, and also slightly sweet. the vanilla is very prominent on me which I like a lot. on me, it's exactly what it says on the tin and I really can't complain. if you're into sweet woody smells, you may like this one.

[trinitysite]

I was going through a box of imps and wanted to try this. I thought it smelled like leather or tobacco in the bottle, and I got a little bit of leather initially on application. Then it just turned strange. Maybe root beer? I do not want to smell like root beer. Fortunately that faded quickly and now it's just a woodsy vanilla. It's a much darker and deeper vanilla than the other vanilla blends I like, and despite the smell right on application I'll keep the imp around. No way I'd get a bottle, though. There have to be better masculine vanillas out there.

[brownbear]

Somehow I never tried this one before now.  In the imp- lots of vanilla, but not too sweet.  It's a dry vanilla.  The other notes make it interesting and not as sweet as well. 

On my skin unfortunately, it changes like just about all the vanilla scents and turns to a plasticy, overpowering scent.  My husband says it smells powdery on me, but he thinks all perfume smells powdery.

[omnistraight]

You can't fool me BPAL, this is just a small bottle of sarsaparilla soda!

 

All jokes aside, this one did hit the sarsaparilla/root beer notes hard on me. I'd definitely say more sars than root, since it's not as cloyingly sweet as I would expect root beer to be, but the other notes are all very much a glass bottle of the high quality sarsparilla you get at a renassiance fair or specialty soda shop. 

 

Unfortunately for me, the vanilla quickly overpowered the herbs and woody notes, as often vanilla does on my skin.

 

That being said, if you're hoping to expirience the lifecycle of a rootbeer float through scent, this is the best possible choice.