Pissed Off Skeeters v2

[edenssixthday]

Pissed Off Skeeters v2 - Lavender. Lavender, lavender, lavender. Oh, and did I mention there's a ton of LAVENDER in this? This is actually a very herbal scent beneath the massively huge blast of lavender. It's not the pretty, light lavender from Yvaine and TKO -- it's the heavier lavender generally used in the GC blends like Dove's Heart and Paris. My friend who picked this up described it as "bright, glowy." There actually is something bright and glowy beneath the lavender, but the lavender is amped so loudly on me that I can't for the life of me figure out what it is I'm smelling, except that it's very herbal, like something you'd smell in the natural remedies section of Whole Foods. My guesses as to what else is in here: rose geranium, pennyroyal, lemongrass...and hey, wait, do I smell a little dash of peppermint...or is that just the pennyroyal playing games with my nose? I feel like I can almost identify each of those notes in this blend, but I could be wrong. Anyway, if it weren't for my nemesis lavender, I think I'd probably like this blend, since I love this type of natural, herbal-remedy-smelling blend, and in fact, the longer I wear it, the more the lavender settles down and the more I really do like it... a lot!

 

 

Edited because I haz teh dumb!

Edited June 13, 2010 by Edens Sixth Day

[benthic]

After figuring out the conceit of this blend after asking some LJers about their impressions, I was expecting citronella/lemongrass, and that's what I get from it! I actually do not get heavy lavender; it may be that I'm amping everything else too much to pick up on it (I amp lemongrass a LOT). It's a very herbal citrusy sharp blend. It's the kind of blend that doesn't really smell like perfume, per se; I'm reminded very much of a lighter, prettier version of the all-natural organic insect repellent a friend of mine introduced me to one summer. In the bottle it's so unbearably strong that I was sure I'd hate it. On my skin it lightens up a lot into lemongrass and citronella, still astringent but much more like an actual perfume than a bug spray--though the bug spray feel of it is there. I'm surprised that I don't really dislike it. I think, though, that my fondness for it stems less from it smelling good to me and more from it being super evocative and nostalgic for me. It feels like hot summer nights around a bonfire or on a porch, drinking lemonade with friends. It made me sort of happy to wear, even though it's not exactly the most . . . "this smells good" kind of blend. In that way, it reminds me of Planting Moon (not in scent at all, but in the feel of "this is not my type of perfume oil but it smells so much like my childhood summers that I absolutely need an imp to hang on to").

 

Overall, it's a citronella/lemongrass blend with a strong herbal component which my untrained nose is poor at picking out, but I've seen reviewers on LJ consistently mention pennyroyal, lavender, and rose geranium, all of which are known as natural mosquito repellents. So that makes sense! As it dries it turns into more straight-up lemongrass. The big surprise of this blend was that it faded quickly on me. Considering how overwhelmingly strong it is in the bottle and how strong it starts off on the skin (and its resemblance to bug spray), I expected this to linger forever, but it's gone in an hour or two.

 

I'd be curious to see how well it actually works at keeping the skeeters away.

[sunshinedaisybliss]

 

 

This is a weird one! My first impression was that it smells like citronella.. but then I paid a bit more attention and found there's more going on.

 

First up, this goes on very strong and pungent - not in a bad way, but the teensy little dab I applied sure does emit a big waft of fragrance! As it starts to dry down, the citronella is still very prominent but I start to pick up other notes.. lavender, and perhaps geranium. I'm not sure about the pennyroyal that the previous reviews mentioned - there is *something* pennyroyal-ish about it, but I'm not 100% sure whether that's what it actually is.

 

Ten minutes in, and now lemongrass is coming through and that initial citronella flavour has dissipated - the lavender is still going strong though! There's nothing in here to sweeten up the lavender (as there is in, say, TKO) - so it's just a nice raw and natural kind of lavender.. pretty much exactly like you'd get if you picked some fresh from the garden - even down to the slight woody green-ness that fresh lavender has. It stays quite strong for a good 30 minutes or so, then starts to soften up nicely.. eventually fading down to a lovely soft lavender/citrus smell after an hour or so.

 

Overall.. a very interesting blend. I'm not sure it's something I want to wear as perfume though, but I'm tempted to keep it until summer comes back to this part of the world.. just to see if it really does piss off the skeeters

 

 

[zankoku_zen]

Whooohoo. This is the strong herbal lavender type, it smells almost 'salty' to me. It blooms like a maniac on wet, but as it dries, it calms down considerably and now I can pick out some rose geranium (about even, in rose vs geranium). In the end, I get wafts of lavender and rose geranium and it smells floral, clean, and like a garden.

 

My skin totally eats this up. Damn.

[Little Bird]

I like the name of this, but the scent doesn't work for me. I get that it probably isn't supposed to smell like a perfume and is more insect repellent-y, lol. First on, this smells like lots of herby, sour lemon, probably lemongrass or lemon verbena, and a drydown that's like sour lemon + a hint of green, slightly powdery mint. It might be nice, but I'm not really a fan of lemon or mint unless they're mixed with something sweeter...

[JazzieCazzie]

I loooooooooooooooooove this!!!

 

This is sort of "review light" until I fill in the blanks but here goes ...

 

Had this on my wishlist for awhile because I love all things lavender as long as other death notes are not included. And while I'm not a huge fan of lemongrass, the descriptions and reviews of this sounded appealing and as if the other notes would work nicely.

 

Found a bottle on the recent Etsy update and jumped on it ...

 

IN THE BOTTLE: Lavender, yes, but whatever the herbal side notes were, I wasn't sure ... and wasn't 100% sure how it would work when applied.

 

Dabbed on wrist and in crook of arm.

 

WET: OMG. It's ... it's .. lavender and 7UP!!! At first I thought "lavender and ginger ale" but the slight lemony sweetness was more 7UP. But that's a small quibble ... I LOVE THIS ... it's BPAL's awesome lavender but with a bright fizziness that reminds me of the "old Gnome".

 

DRYDOWN: It's very subtle and lovely. It doesn't go wonky sweet like some fruity notes do on me. It's not strong or in-your-face at all. It's just subtle and lavender and herbs and soda.

 

OVERALL: I abso-fucking-lutely love this. I am even tempted to try to buy a backup bottle of it which I rarely do and probably don't need, but I can see this being a scent I want to have in my regular rotation forever.

 

On a scale of 1-5, a 5.