BTMEN

[fairnymph]

Rich amber-orange coloured oil. VIOLETS! Soft, clean, and only faintly powdery. Slightly sweet. Delicate, girlish, Victorian. A faint of whisper of white (I think) rose in the distance. It reminds me of the Violet Ray's drydown (though not at all the earlier stages), minus the mint. I also get light touches of white sandalwood and a soft musk (maybe vanilla musk) from this. I am alas, not a fan of violets, but this seem to be one of the nicer ones I've come across.

 

RE-REVIEW, with skin test:

 

Softly sweet violets and a little orris with maybe some other florals and an herbal edge? A soft, slightly candied and powdery scent. Delicate, feminine.

 

Sharper, sour, and much stronger and different on my skin. Some narcissus or mimosa - a sharp, plasticky floral, violet leaf as well as petal and root (orris), a slightly rotten floral note that I suspect is iris, and something spicy - some type of carnation note, I think, maybe the 'red' carnation note from Ysabel?

 

Increasingly powdery, definitely the sort of orris I can't handle. But I think there is something else here giving powder - could be the evil wisteria. And I'm getting a weird sort of minty/mentholic note. Also, I think there is some cinnamon (possibly the source of sweetness) in here, and I'm pretty sure about the red carnation note. There's a bit of soapiness...hmm! I think there is dragon's blood in this! Yes, definitely, that's the weird sweetness and plastic, since DB is fake cherry & lilac cheap air freshener.

 

Eeek. This has gone to dragon's blood scented nappies (diapers) with loads of orris-heavy floral powder, iris or possibly a jasmine, a sharply clove-ish spicy-plasticky red carnation note, and possibly a dash of cinnamon - this becomes more and more revolting and jumbled over time; all the notes clash in the worst way. It smelled fine in the bottle, but egads, it hates my skin! The throw is pretty strong, too - and it WON'T WASH OFF.

 

:ack:

 

NOTE: I mistakenly typed out the name of this scent. It's btmeN not btmeM as I originally thought. Apologies for any confusion - there is no BTMEM in existence, so any imps I've sent out with BTMEM are in fact this scent, BTMEN.

Edited February 13, 2010 by fairnymph

[zankoku_zen]

Violets, soft and powdery. I think there's vanilla musk, perhaps a touch of sandalwood. and maybe a touch of amber which adds to the sweetness and powderiness.

[crebbsgirl]

Hrmmmm I'm not getting anything vanilla here. I do get violets and amber and a touch of sandalwood. I'm also not getting anything musky either. It's very very pretty. I like this one alot.

[myth]

Very perfumey powdery. Somewhat familiar, but I can't place it. I may just be thinking of baby powder, because that's mostly what I smell.. Sweet baby powder. Cloying and ugh.

[bheansidhe]

Some scents must resent being bottled up, like pinioned djinn, because BTMEN came boiling up out of the vial like an olfactory trainwreck. This smelled so horrible I was afraid to test it, but I couldn't stop waving it in front of my nose. Something like dirty public toilets plus violet plus ?orris plus ?dragon's blood, or maybe even civet, that being the only note I know that goes this offensive.

 

When I screwed up the courage to dab some on a finger, it settled into this meek little violet-scented powder. I am neither fooled nor lulled. Off it goes.

Edited July 13, 2010 by bheansidhe

[edenssixthday]

BTMEN - This smells like violets and day-old roadkill. It's really gross.

[Little Bird]

I love some of the other reviews for this, though they made me a bit scared to try this oil, lol. On me, this pretty much just smells like baby powder (which usually means bpal's amber or sandalwood notes). I can't even pick out violet exactly, though there's something sickly sweet and maybe floral underneath the dusty, powdery scent.

[Biocarbons]

I need to talk about how this smells in the bottle, because it's SO WEIRD: like the indoor elephant exhibit at the zoo (wet hay, a little bit of bleach, and elephant butt), and a dollop of sour cream. 

 

On me, it smells like powdery floral. Violet has a specific powdery smell I like, but I don't like the rest of the powdery florals. In this case, it smells like the (orris?) powder note is overwhelming the violet, which is too bad. Maybe a little sandalwood in the background.

 

Lol, blech?

[Weirdgirlpilled]

This was a frottle from the lab and when I came to the review page I was SHOCKED at how many people hate this!! On me, it's definitely powdery. A little floral, but something about it is almost astringent? It's no worse than say, seraphim or bayou to be completely honest. Not my most favourite treasured angel of a scent but definitely one I will still wear frequently. So surprised everyone else is a unanimous "NOPE". Maybe I just have wonk skin chemistry...

[amokslime]

This is a frottle from the lab. It's labeled as a prototype.

 

BTMEN smells exactly like nostalgic Choward's violet candy to me. Even down to the powdery texture. When I press my nose to my wrist, I get a spicy, nose tickling milky carnation. It's kind of like if you added violets to Alice.

 

Reading the reviews in this thread feels like encountering long-term nuclear waste warning signage. But I like it! I can see it reading gothic and stately on the right person. Unfortunately I think my vibe is too bright and grandma-y to pull it off, and my skin doesn't seem to love violet.