The Little Wooden Doll

[dronzeka]

THE LITTLE WOODEN DOLL
"My little Vasilissa, my dear daughter, listen to what I say, remember well my last words and fail not to carry out my wishes. I am dying, and with my blessing, I leave to thee this little doll. It is very precious for there is no other like it in the whole world. Carry it always about with thee in thy pocket and never show it to anyone. When evil threatens thee or sorrow befalls thee, go into a corner, take it from thy pocket and give it something to eat and drink. It will eat and drink a little, and then thou mayest tell it thy trouble and ask its advice, and it will tell thee how to act in thy time of need." So saying, she kissed her little daughter on the forehead, blessed her, and shortly after died.

Little Vasilissa grieved greatly for her mother, and her sorrow was so deep that when the dark night came, she lay in her bed and wept and did not sleep. At length she be thought herself of the tiny doll, so she rose and took it from the pocket of her gown and finding a piece of wheat bread and a cup of kvass, she set them before it, and said: "There, my little doll, take it. Eat a little, and drink a little, and listen to my grief. My dear mother is dead and I am lonely for her."

Then the doll's eyes began to shine like fireflies, and suddenly it became alive. It ate a morsel of the bread and took a sip of the kvass, and when it had eaten and drunk, it said:

"Don't weep, little Vasilissa. Grief is worst at night. Lie down, shut thine eyes, comfort thyself and go to sleep. The morning is wiser than the evening." So Vasilissa the Beautiful lay down, comforted herself and went to sleep, and the next day her grieving was not so deep and her tears were less bitter.

Gently carved wood warm with a maternal love that reaches beyond death: rose-infused amber and soft golden sandalwood.

Wow, I sort of hate to be first on this one, but here goes...

This is not at ALL what I expected. I'm guessing golden sandalwood is a scent that I can NOT wear, because wet, this is acrid and harsh like varnish. It smells kind of like wood, but just varnished, as in still wet and stinky, wood. Really not pleasant.

Drying down: Is that rose? I catch a glimpse - but mostly it's drowned out by the shouty wood. Maybe the amber is too fresh and therefore harsh?

But wait... further into the drydown, it's suddenly HI I'M ROSE! There's maybe a little hint of the amber, tempering the sweetness of rose. And a little smoothness of sandalwood, maybe, finally.

I don't think this works for me at ALL - I like rose, but it's a relatively generic one, and I can't do the varnish smell that dominates for a good half-hour before you get to the rose. I really don't know what's causing that, though - others who have more luck with woods may do better with this one!

[LBJ]

I'm having a better time with this one than Anna D. did, but I too am getting a heavy varnish smell. It's varnish over really great woody sawdust, almost like cedar. There is a sweetness underneath, but unfortunately the varnish smell overpowers it. Wonder what that is? And I wonder if it will burn off with aging?

 

I want to like Little Wooden Doll, and I'm still glad I bought the imp... but hopefully time will soften and sweeten it up.

[greenranger]

I get sawdust at first...but it's wonderful sawdust. It's that fantastic scent found in a busy inspired workshop using good woods, rather than scrap and plywood.

 

For me, sandalwood seems to be the magic wood that makes rose behave. Rose is iffy on me. It can amp. However so many LE scents that I wanted lately have had only rose as the note of doom...and also had sandalwood, and they worked, somehow. Therefore I had to try this one too.

 

It works. It's a sweet purehearted rose married to the smell of an industrious creative woodshop. I don't know yet how often I will reach for it to wear it, but, I like it.

[saralaughs]

This was really dry on me. Dry and brittle almost. The rose really came out on me where I had hoped that it would be rose-infused amber, it became ambery rose. After a bit it calmed down so it wasn't screaming ROSE at me but also turned powder. Rose and powder together just don't do it for me.

 

Beautiful if you like rose and amber but definitely not for me.

[midnight_aeval]

In the vial and on my skin at first it was WOOD WOOD WOOD. As the scent dried down the rose started to come through and was actually very pleasant. I was sitting in the lobby on my computer and kept wondering what that beautiful scent I kept smelling was - oh yeah, me

 

I was shocked that I didn't get the powder from the amber, but maybe the soapiness I usually get from rose cancelled out the powder I sometimes get from amber? There is a sense of dryness from this blend, but not as dry as Vasillisa.

 

I'll need to use up the imp of it before I decide on a bottle, but I'm definitely leaning towards a bottle purchase.

[Cereus]

In the bottle: wood grain and the green, almost harsh and earthy scent of the raw amber

 

Wet: the amber softens and I can definitely smell the rose now. The sandalwood is also present, and I expect this will be beautiful once my skin warms it a bit.

 

As it dries I get a smokey blend of rose, sandalwood, and amber, with none of the varnish or burning others noted. The rose in this smells like those you would find in a tin of delicate tea scented with dried petals. The amber and sandalwood blend beautifully with it, and this is a very feminine, maternal scent.

 

Dry this is a soft, sweet rose tempered with sandalwood. I don't get much of the amber, just a few slightly green resiny hints, unless I sniff directly where I applied it, but I know it is there keeping the scent together as a whole.

 

I am a little disappointed, as I would have liked more amber, but I don't have many rose scents that work on me, and I will definitely use this again. I think this has the potential to layer very well.

Edited November 11, 2009 by Cereus

[LBJ]

I layered it with Haunted and was greatly pleased.

[Schmoozy]

 

The Little Wooden Doll is amazing. I love amber and sandalwood and couldn't ask for a better blend. It is very reminescent of The Millers Daughter with the rose-infused amber. But whereas the TMD is salty and aquatic rose amber, the Little Wooden Doll is dry dusty rose amber. The sandalwood is very woodsy at the beginning and kinda sharp almost astringent which I attribute to the rose. It is bright and warm, but extremely comforting and golden. After drydown the rose kinda slinks to the bacground and the amber and sandalwood feel very warm and cosy.

[obsidienne]

In the beginning, the rose-infused amber is a little bit upstaged by very strong sandalwood, which is almost thorny and catches a little at my nose. However, the throw, which is pretty decent, is a rather bright, tart rose, with the golden warmth that amber brings to the table and the sandalwood making me feel like I am walking through a giant rosebush garden.

 

I love this blend, and almost ordered a bottle with my Anniversaries, but I'd like to see how this imp ages for a few more months before I decide if it's a "NEED IT NAOW" issue; if the sandalwood can smooth out and deepen and let the rose-amber shine out a bit more, I will be rushing to grab myself a bottle.

 

Again, throw decent, but the lasting power is not particularly great and requires reapplication for me (my skin eats oil, though, so YMMV).

 

Edit:

 

A two year old bottle of this scent has sat in my perfume box for a long time without really being used -- you know how it is, always so many new scents, always new obsessions. Well, it has aged into a beautiful thing. The sandalwood is now utterly smooth and calm. In fact, when I wore this yesterday, I imagined that I had climbed into a sunlit attic. The attic is not particularly full of stuff, just a few trunks holding old keepsakes. The warm smell of sunshine and wood fill the air, and a vase of roses has for some reason been brought into this space. The smell is so evocative, smooth gold and a beautiful rose.

Edited September 8, 2012 by obsidienne

[windbourne]

I had a similar experience as Schmoozy -- very like The Miller's Daughter, but dry rather than damp. At first it was very heavily sandalwood, but it faded after a short while to a lovely rose and sandalwood, with just a hint of ambery dustiness underneath. It had a pretty mighty throw, and while it didn't last a long time, it was quite strong until it vanished.

 

I like it quite a bit, but the overlap with TM'sD means I probably won't buy a bottle anytime soon. ^-^

[jizatt]

mine started out rose/sandalwood and dried to rose amber -- I love seeing how the oils are different for everyone =) The good news is the rose plays nice -- it doesnt go sour, weird, or screaming for me -- its a very sweet smell too, almost has a sugared note to my nose

[medvssa]

Ancient, golden, gleaming wood, polished by ages of loving hands, doesn't smell like this. But it should.

[azndragoncrimson]

Gah, I should have known! My skin amps sandalwood like nothing else, so all I get is sandalwood.... so very woody. Was hoping for more rose-amber with a little sandalwood in the background. Silly me.

[zankoku_zen]

I get rose and cedar from this. After like twenty minutes, the cedar definitely smells like pencil shavings. Two hours later, the wood is back to being wood and the rose has a hint of powder from it.

[Little Bird]

In the bottle and on my skin, this is a sour, red rose and powdery white sandalwood.

I wanted to love this, because I love the idea and sentiment behind this fragrance, but this is probably my least favorite rose scent from bpal. Sour, sharp, slightly soapy rose and equal parts powdery, dry wood. I smell it and think "bad, cheap, chemical-y perfume."

The Little Wooden Doll gives me a vicious headache. I had to scrub this one off after an hour, because it was making me sick...

Edited March 16, 2010 by Little Bird

[misscoldheart]

In the vial, this is definitely WOOD! not something I would normally try but it came with a recent bpal order. On me, it's very woody and musky. I agree that it does smell somewhat of varnish on me, too. Once It dries, it's ok, but not for me.

[Iceblink]

Like many have said so far this is crazily woody when wet...not bad but there's only so much of that I can take...but as it dries the rosy amber comes forward and it's lovely. I get a Miller's Daughter vibe from this too. The sandalwood is coming out more and more the longer I wear it. This has a nice dry, aged quality to it and is a bit sweet from the amber.

I tend to amp wood horribly so I like that the wood really calmed down in this after a few minutes. Will try it again, definitely!

[rayvn1]

WOOD! when wet <img src="http://www.bpal.org/public/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/icon_smile.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid="" border="0" alt="icon_smile.gif" /> The perfect scent memory of my mom's workshop when she designed furniture and had piles of pine and cedar around. Slightly dirty smelling and perfect. Then it dries and I get slightly powdery amber and light rose. Pretty and nice, but I wish so much that it would stay as it is when wet <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/mecry.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid="" border="0" alt="mecry.gif" />

 

Edit: Recently retested over a year later and now the rose is even more prominent and dominates from the get-go Alas.

Edited September 3, 2011 by rayvn1

[fairnymph]

Light golden oil. Super dry and woody - a little warm, but mostly DRY, so dry it makes me thirsty! - with a little bit of powdery-perfumey amber, and faint sour rose. It's that same 'rose-infused amber' from the Miller's Daughter, except the ratio here is different - more amber, less rose. But same notes. It's quite sharp, acrid, and then there's this hint of almost-foody sickly cloying sweetness below.

 

More rose, more sour. Also very sharp (even sharper than in the vial), in a way that could be the rose - it reminds me of the sharp plastic aspect of most of the versions of Rose Red. There's a little bit of fruitiness too, to the way that there is in RR. Rose is definitely dominating with this wet on my skin. I do not like this sandalwood at all - it's rough and dusty. And I'm positive there is cedar and rosewood in here too - still plenty of dry woods below the rose. The amber is quite present too, and still perfumey and a little more powdery in a way that makes me want to sneeze. The mysterious sweetness remains distant, probably smothered by the rose.

 

The sweetness is now emerging, while the rose continues to amp (though it's becoming less plastic and sour, possibly due to the sweet note amping). It's either tonka or vanilla, a really heavy, rich, almost creamy, foody sort. I think it's vanilla, because this is reminding me a lot of the sugared vanilla note in Hope & Faith - in fact now that the sour/sharp/plastic/acrid notes have receded - and the woods have faded too, thank god - it reminds me quite a bit of Hope. The scent has definitely coalesced; it's much less unpleasantly chaotic.

 

The roommate says this smells like 'buttery popcorn and wood' and I agree that there's a buttery note here, which is almost definitely tonka, or maybe chestnut. Yup. I think there's tonka/chestnut AND vanilla, though, that same super strong sugared vanilla note from Hope. So in the end this dries down to butter and sugary fake vanilla with slightly sour rose, powdery-perfumey amber, and a mix of dry, dusty woods. Pretty horrible once the buttery sweetness comes out, with unfortunately strong throw. And of course, it refuses to wash off.

[Laurel the Woodfairy]

For some reason I associate the Little Wooden Doll with the Slightly Haunted Dollhouse...I can picture her living there! Anyway, this scent started out worrisome: wet, it was all wood for a second, like Cathedral + wood pencil shavings. However, almost at once it settled into a really lovely, warm sandalwood/amber blend with rose peeking out. Nicely rounded, with decent throw although it didn't last as long as I expected considering that I really slathered. This goes perfectly with the Rose-Sandalwood shower gel from B&BW I'm using right now. A woody, warm variant on rose suitable for fall/winter weather, as opposed to spring and the more truly floral scents.

[crebbsgirl]

Well this amped to almost completely ROSE on me. Further into the drydown I get the warm sandalwood, but still, mostly ROSE. It goes a little powdery too, as it wear. It's a warm soft blend, but a little too rosey for my liking.

[Caerphilly]

In the imp: Dry pencil shavings. Not golden and there's no rose. Just the smell of sawdust.

 

Wet: Smells like wood. Dry wood. I was really hoping for more rose and amber, and less of the sandalwood.

 

Dry: The rose very delicately comes out. There's a soft amber coming in, powdery as it always does on my skin. I like that part. But, it still smells heavily of wood.

 

Overall: I knew this would smell like some sort of wood, it is a wooden doll after all! But it was a bit too much for me. I got the imp for the rose, and the rose is too faint for my tastes. I'l let it age and see if the rose gets stronger over time.

[edenssixthday]

The Little Wooden Doll - When I sniff this in the imp, all I smell is cedar/pencil-shavings. My first thought is "where's the doll?" this is just a hunk of uncarved wood! Then it touches my skin... and the scent absolutely blossoms. From the moment it touches my skin it becomes so beautiful -- the rose and amber rise above the pencil-shavings scent, and while I still smell that dry wood beneath the rose and amber, it adds to the overall scent. The rose is a soft rose, not a red rose, and the amber slightly powdery. Overall, it's a really lovely scent. I was delightfully surprised by this one.

[angelicruin]

This is a lovely rose and amber on my skin with occasional bursts of wood. A little powdery, as amber tends to be. The rose is soft and is not overpowering on my skin.

[Wwindy]

This starts out smelling EXACTLY like sawdust on me. <img src="http://www.bpal.org/public/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/blink.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid="" border="0" alt="blink.gif" />

 

As it dries down, it starts turning into elegant, feminine, rose-infused sawdust... but it's still distinctively sawdust! While it's not something I'm looking to wear as my perfume, it is a surprisingly intriguing scent to sniff -- like walking into a woodshop after an attractive woman had been there not long before, watching an artisan at work.

 

ETA: OK, now that my imp has had a few months to mellow out, the overwhelming sawdust aspect has died way back. The oil still starts out *very* lumber-aisle-at-Home-Depot while it's wet, but the other aspects have acquired much more presence. The amber is one of the more powdery BPAL ambers (I think similar to the Haunted amber, maybe); between that and the dry, clean sandalwood the overall impression is a little soapy.

Edited October 15, 2010 by Wwindy