Flor De Muerto

[AliBabble]

FLOR DE MUERTO
The orange marigold, or zempasúchitl, has been one of Death's symbols since the pre-Columbian era. The yellow and orange petals are believed to represent the rays of the sun, bringing joy and light to the souls dwelling in the realm of the dead. These flowers surround Day of the Dead altars to guide the spirits to their offerings.

out of the bottle this smells quite incredible - a very singular floral note, sweet and nectar-ish, golden in tone - it has a pure, light feeling to it. on my skin, i'm feeling this even more - it has a bit of spice, in the way that carnations have their own spiciness, but it's not like carnation - it really does have a sunny, uplifting quality to it, and very natural. wow. i can really smell the petals....and it's slightly dusky, but light somehow, while still having depth....this one really pulls you into it's flowery zone, it smells so realistic. LOVE THIS! it could work on a little girl or a mature woman.

[Tracelina]

Strangely enough, when I put this on--fully expecting marigold overload--what I got was honeysuckle! Maybe my nose is broken, or I don't know the Lab's marigold note, but this floral starts out much sweeter and more watery than the marigold note I remember from Harp. Once it dries down a bit, the powdery marigold peeks out. After a couple of hours, it's settled to a dusty floral that could be comforting and lovely on the right person. Unfortunately, I could tell that if I applied this in larger quantities on myself, it could be headache-inducing.

 

If you're into sweet, pure florals, give this a try; it has none of the bitterness that marigold sometimes manifests.

[GoldenRubee]

I was very anxious to try a marigold scent-just the thought of what Beth might come up with pretty exciting. I love marigolds and always plant them around my flower gardens-they seem to keep the pesky bugs away from eating the flowers.

 

To me Flor De Muerto is a bright and golden scent with a touch of spice and sweetness. It is very fragrant without being cloying or overpowering. I normally don't wear floral notes but the spices in it blend well and even it out to the point that you don't notice just the spice or just the floral. It is very well balanced and the longer I have it on the more surprised I am that that it works so well with my skin chemistry. Very good throw, lasts for hours.

[Dark Alice]

Screeching single note marigold. It smells like I put my face in a bouquet of them . It also induces a headache and sneezing so I will have to let this pass. But it was lovely to try!

[edenssixthday]

Flor de Muerto - I thought I would hate this because I hate the smell of real marigolds. I put them in my garden to keep the bunnies away from my pretty flowers. It works, but they also keep me away because they stink so bad! I was really surprised when I put this on and smelled a really pretty, golden floral. I never smelled any of the spice that some other reviewers have noted. It's just a very pretty scent, almost a single note floral, but without the high-pitched, headache inducing cloyingness that so many florals have. It's just really feminine and very beautiful. It also has above-average staying power on my skin, although the sillage seems to decrease significantly after drydown.

[Ethaisa]

I love marigolds, and plant them with my tomatoes all the time. This is a sweet and warm marigold, all flower no bitter leaves. Very bright and fragrant.

[femmefatale]

What a pretty scent. Very bright and golden and cheerful smelling. I love it and would love to smell like it if it didn't remind me of an airfreshener or candle my mom uses in her house.

 

 

[animalcule]

Very fresh, bright floral - but every straight floral I have ever tried smells like soap to me. No bottle for me.

[angelicruin]

Marigold is pretty much the only note I am getting out of this one.

[Little Bird]

I love the smell of marigolds, so I was hoping that this would be a true marigold smell. It's a unique, interesting and pleasant floral, but it doesn't really remind me of marigolds at all. Flor De Muerto smells oddly aquatic and cold (reminds me a bit of Sea of Glass or Wylde Ivy's Bamboo Leaves), but thankfully doesn't go too soapy on me. It's like cold aquatic and tons of yellow flower petals (a little like jasmine or honeysuckle on me, but not quite). Clean and cold, yellow, and a bit sweet smelling. It doesn't quite remind me of any of bpal's other floral blends at the moment, but unfortunately doesn't really smell like marigolds either...

[puck_nc]

Origin: Straight from the Lab

 

Initial Thoughts: This was a MUST! BUY! NOW! for me. I teach Spanish. Every October and November I am explaining how no, it's not a Mexican Halloween, getting my kids to make little altars, bringing in pan de muerto, the whole bit. I have tried all the other Día de los Muertos scents that do not have a deal-breaker note for me and none of them have worked on me.

 

Plus I love marigolds...how they look and how the flowers smell. I am hoping against hope that this will be the closest I might ever come to a single-note cempazúchil.

 

In the Bottle: It's sharper and thinner than I remember from the last time I buried my nose in them, but it's definitely a strong mum-ish floral.

 

Wet: Ooh, spicy! It warms up quite a bit on contact, bringing in a cinnamony sweet undertone to the very herby floral.

 

Drydown: There it is! That lovely balance between aquatic and spicy and floral! It may not be quite a pure marigold, but it's warm and bright and I'm already planning to wear it for the festivities planned for our languages department at our school.

 

Verdict: I think I'll be keeping this one. Might have to snag a backup bottle before they go away... Darn it, spoke too soon. It morphed further and went more herby, adding a smoky undertone. The sunny sweetness I was tripping on has vanished

Edited September 24, 2010 by puck_nc

[crimescenecleanup]

OK, I should preface this with a big thank-you to the lab for a Flor de Muerto scent.

 

I love the scent of marigolds, and have many happy memories of Day of the Dead, so I had to try this.

 

I don't get a true marigold single note from this, rather a blend of related golden autumn flowers.

 

There is definitely a strong and true chrysanthemum note, along with a cool and watery floral note I can't seem to place, and maybe sunflower.

 

Overall, it is a cold, melancholy scent, and that I was not expecting.

 

It is totally unique and I have found another floral blend that is anything like it. I have a hard time wearing straight up florals, but I think I will hold onto it for a while just because it is so unusual.

[moon_lemming]

Flor de Muerto does smell orange and gold, both in the imp and on my skin. It's pretty but I don't do florals, and this is pure floral on me, although not headache-y or soapy.

 

For some reason it seems a little watery (maybe citrus?) after it dries, and the scent as a whole gets lighter. Once that happens, I . . . could actually wear this. I probably wouldn't, but I COULD; it's not as slap-happy floral anymore, and I like it!

 

It actually reminds me of the Clinique Happy family of scents -- not in the "scent twins!" way, of course, but the overall feel after it dries down.

[obsidienne]

A simple, but lovely scent that elicits thoughts of warm sun and langourous summer days in the backyard. It smells like a flower that was made out of oranges. Not like orange blossom, not like oranges... like a floral orange. Marigolds usually smell very "stinky" and almost medicinal; this is so far from that! It has a slightly herbal undertone to it. It dries down to a soft floral orangey scent. Not a lot of morphing overall. I'm on the fence about this; it's lovely, but I wonder if its simplicity will keep me from reaching for it often. It is also very light and soft and will require slathering for me. Beautiful, though!

[reynardine]

Almost single-note marigold. Rather nice but not something I’d wear.

[marared]

I was all set to declare this my surprise hit of the weenies. It's beautiful on application - wet and green and gold, something I'd expect to smell upon waltzing into a field of marigolds after a rainstorm. Kept huffing my wrist, amazed at how much I liked it. Thought about getting a bottle. So pretty. After about ten minutes, though, all those marigolds are dead and rotting vegetation on my wrist.

[Schmoozy]

Simple, spicy, bright marigold. I adore the scent of marigolds, and this blend truly captures the essence of them. Golden in colour, hearty and always that familiar spicy scent. Absolutely stunning.

[Wolfie79]

I'm editing this after wearing it for a couple more days.

 

This is very floral, but I do not find it soapy. It smells yellow and orange. There's a note in it that reminds me of Gold Phoenix, the note that smelled most 'golden' to me. I really enjoy it!

Edited October 2, 2010 by Wolfie79

[TheIceMaiden]

I love the scent of real marigolds, but BPAL's marigold is very hit or miss on me - either beautiful floral or very sour. Flor de Muero is, thankfully, the beautiful golden marigold note, but there's something else with it I can't figure out, soft and citrus-y like orange blossom. I sniff this and think of golden sunshine on orange autumn flowers, very beautiful.

[milo]

I really do like the smell of marigolds, but this turns out to be an extremely heady floral on me, AKA jasmine, lily, gardenia. So, this is a no go, though glad to have tried this! On a positive note, this doesn't go powdery like a lot of heady florals do on me..

[Juushika]

In the vial: Slightly earthy, slightly fruity, slightly tropical/fleshy, orange floral.

 

On me: That tropical fleshiness fades during drydown, thank goodness; the scent also grows a bit earthier, a little more like that dense spicy floral I expect from marigold. But once it's settled the scent is a little bit powdery, not too earthy, and quite faint; it's a sweetish golden floral, more of a suggestion of a marigold's color and shape than a precise recreation of its scent. Sometimes it feels a bit too powdery, and it's subtle and short-lived. Scent-color is pale golden orange; wearlength and throw are both very low.

 

Verdict: I want so much to like this, but it isn't all that I had hoped for. Perhaps it's just me and my experience with marigolds, but I had expected a spicier, earthier, different sort of floral—something more like a golden carnation than an autumnal orangeblossom. What I got instead is pleasant, but not quite satisfying, and so faint and brief as to hardly matter. I'll hold on to my bottle to see how it ages, but honestly I'm a bit disappointed.

[tajana]

I totally love Enchanted Wood Florist, but as summer grew old and fall started to creep in, the springy flowers felt less and less appropriate. I desperately needed my light floral BPAL fix, and then Flor de Muerto came to the rescue!

 

In the Bottle: No stinky bug-repellent marigold here to my nose. It smells like delicate flowers and the color ORANGE! It smells a little bit like orange blossom, but without any trace of the bitterness or metallic aspect it can sometimes have. Flor de Muerto smells almost fruity in the vial, and quite bright, but with a slight backing hint of something slightly herbal.

 

Wet: It reminds me more of honeysuckles now, but it's not as heady as that note can be. A happy floral with something about it that reminds me of hard candy. It has that translucent sweet sugar-fruitiness to it, but it's not overly sweet because there's a slightly watery-herbal tint lurking around. I can almost feel the soft, delicate texture of flower petals. But it's shot through with a current of warmth... a delightful tickle of spiciness!

 

Dry: I'm hard pressed to accurately review this because it just smells so golden and orange to me that I keep thinking of all things golden and orange: it reminds me of honeysuckle, orange blossom, even a touch of something almost apricot-orangey harmonizing with freshly watered, deliriously cheerful flowers and their intoxicating nectar. I couldn't help but apply it the day it came in the mail, but already its lasting power and throw is very satisfactory for a scent in this family. I think it's the dash of spicy fresh earthiness that's anchoring this flowery, nectary smell to the skin so well. It never poofs into a bland powdery smell. After hours have passed and it settles close to the skin, Flor de Muerto is just a duskier shade of orange with a balance of warmth and earthy faint floral.

 

Overall: The simple soliflore billing just didn't prepare me for how delightfully mutli-dimensional Flor de Muerto would be. Fabulous. An unobtrusive but quietly enticing and uplifting fragrance. Fresh and floral, with a warming sunset glow. A perfect way to bring a bit of floweriness into the fall, but this will be wearable all year long.

Edited October 16, 2010 by findaghost

[zankoku_zen]

Marigolds, splash of orange and then it degrades to a floral soap, with a slight bitter edge.

 

SAAD.

[sunshinedaisybliss]

I'm not really a fan of florals in general, but this one is different to pretty much every other floral I've come across. The marigold is bright and heady, warm and golden. This perfume seems to have a texture - velvety - it's very smooth. There's a slight sweetness, and thankfully it didn't turn to soap on me.

 

I'm glad I got to try this, but I don't think it's a perfume I would reach for if I had a bottle. It really does contain a little bit of sunshine though, it's very pretty and would probably make a perfect pick-me-up type of scent. And I like how findaghost described it - there's definitely a nectar-like sweetness to it.

 

EDIT: just to update.. it's now 7 hours since I first applied this, and I can still smell it on my skin - not many BPALs last that long on me. Plus.. it's now developed a really nice sweet top layer that almost has a candy-like quality to it, but that lovely golden velvety feel is still there. I'm re-considering what I said before - this might actually be something I would reach for

Edited October 21, 2010 by sunshinedaisybliss

[Loligo]

Oh, boo. I've grown cempoalxochitl in my garden before, and they are glorious. Even though florals usually don't work on me, I had to try a decant of this to see if it captured that incredible scent. There's definitely a fresh/spicy marigold-like tang to this scent in the beginning, but it quickly turns to dryer sheets and soap on me.