Bewitched

[Meg]

Deep, luscious green and berry scents that evoke images of woodland witchcraft and the raw power of nature: blackberry, sage, green tea, wild berries and dark musk.

In the bottle: A powerful green scent, bitter and grassy, clearly the sage. There's also a hint of berry in there already, unripe berries. It smells dark and mysterious, very much like a forest in springtime.

Wet: Very similar to the scent in the bottle, with an extra citrusy bite. This bite dies down rather quickly and sweetens as the berries come to the front. It's as if tart green blackberries are slowly ripening as the perfume dries.

Drydown: The blackberry and sage fight for dominance in a bittersweet battle, making for a really interesting combination - neither too sweet or too sour. This is truly blackberry with herbs, not sickly (which I hate), just right. It's a sensual, wild scent, with a slightly musky scent in the background.

Overall: This is everything I was expecting "Bewitched" to be. It smells beautiful but not foodsy, there's always a herby tartness to keep the sweet berry in check. It's rather complex and a complete metamorph, and really represents the woods perfectly. It actually reminds me a lot of a Kookai perfume of the 90ies that I used to wear.

Edited to add description Edited December 2, 2005 by Meg

[Wench457]

Bewitched: Like bubble solution, oddly enough.

 

On: Now I get berries, but berries covered in soapsuds.

 

Dry: A nice light berry scent. But I think I prefer Kitsune-Tsuki for my "fruity" days, as it doesn't go through that awkward soapy stage. I'm not quite ready to give this up quite yet though.

[LadyWilde]

I was sure I already reviewed this, but apparently I didn't.

 

Bewitched is full of stuff that my skin loves to amp. I sniffed it in the imp and said to my friend (whose imp it happened to be, and it happens to smell lovely on her), "This is going to smell like moldy dirt on me," because of the heavy musk. . .which it did, for about ten minutes. Once it dried, the berry note emerged, and smelled quite soft and lovely (I suppose it was the sage tempering the sweetness) for about half an hour. After that, my evil chemistry won, and it amped the sweetness up to cloying, air-freshener-y levels.

 

Booooo. . .

[brownbear]

Definitely fruity. I get a bit of the musk too, but mostly a general fruit note. The tea didn't come out til later on and the general fruit does get to be more berry as it dries. At first I wasn't sure, but after a while it was really nice. Fruit and green.

[glittergal]

Oh, how I love this scent. This was the first BPAL that I tried that made me understand why everyone loves BPAL so much! I love the sweet berry and green tea notes. I love the way it makes me feel like I am walking through an enchanted forest when I wear it. I love the way it smells sweet but NOT innocent. Yum! This is in my top one or two of everything I have tried.

[lemurcatta85]

yum, musky green, and berryful, what's not to like?

aside from the lightness, I mean!

[LiberAmoris]

Bewitched was one of the first BPAL blends I tried, and at the time I wasn't too impressed with it, as it didn't have as much 'personality' as the other oils I had in my first order.

 

I was lucky enough to get another imp of this from the Lab as a freebie recently, and in trying it again, I find I definitely have a new appreciation for it. For me, it's a very light Bordello with green tea and musk. Light sugared berries, a wisp of green tea, and that yummy dark musk that I've come to love. I still don't know if this is something I'll ever need a bottle of, but I've been using my imp and really enjoying it.

[tinyvulture]

the green, herbal sage is the strongest note. i was expecting a bold, fruity blackberry scent, but instead i smell tart, unripened berries, at least at first. as it dries, it gets sweeter but remains quite understated. a sweet, innocent foresty scent.

[jazlyn]

Bewitched is a unique blend of dark green/herbal and red-violet-black/sweet berries. It's more of a balanced blend initially, but as it dries it goes more reddish purple berry-like. At times I get this sharp kind of medicinal smell though...

[hangingfire]

In the imp: Sage, berries, and musk.

 

On, wet: Sage and green tea -- green notes, anyway. The berries are fairly subdued. Just as well, since while I like berry scents, they don't really seem to be something I want to smell like.

 

Drydown: Drat. It seems that my skin really likes to amp the berries. Berries berries berries, with a little dry greenness. Unfortunately, as a result, the whole affair takes on a distinctly potpourri-like character. Darn. I liked the sage.

 

I'd use this to scent my room. But not me.

[silver_springs]

I swear this smells like a cross between Eris and Jailbait. Two scents I love. Bewitched has the pink candy smell of Jailbait and the fruit smell of Eris. Very, very berry. In fact I hardly smell any green tea.

 

And this one smells drastically different on my skin versus in the vial. It's very sharp in vial but sweet as can be on wet and drydown.

 

This is a nice one. I'm definitely keeping the imp and I think I want a big bottle when the imp runs out.

 

7/10

Edited January 20, 2006 by silver_springs

[Lizzie]

In The Bottle Very green and floral, I can really smell the sage and a bit of tea and a bit of musk.

 

Wet on My Skin still floral, but much sweeter. Very light and not too cloying or sickly sweet.

 

Dry Mmm, all I can really smell now is berry!! It's very sweet, like candy, with just a hint of floral. I think I mostly smell blackberry or blueberry. Yumm!

 

Altogether I really like it!! I don't think I'll wear it much in winter, seems more like a nice light summery scent. And while I don't really find it "Bewitching" in that sense, I think it's lovely all the same!

[targeter]

In the imp, Bewitched smells a lot like musk, and not much else. On my wrists, I got a -lot- of musk, but with hints of green tea and a brief, fresher scent. I didn't get any of the berries, maybe a little bit of the sage, and the green tea died down very quickly after the initial note. Smells rich and dark, a little bit smoky with a hint of sweetness. Almost reminds me of the bourbon vanilla soap that I used to use, or of walking into a store with all of the different scented soaps, and getting hit by a combined blast of their scents. Not a bad scent, but not a great one for me, either. Too soapy/perfumey for my taste, and smells like it belongs on a guy. Very faint hints of berries are starting to come out, but the musk is definitely the main scent on this one for me.

 

It didn't mature much over time on my skin, either. Still the musk, taking on an acrid edge, but fully hiding any hint of berries or tea. This one definitely isn't one that I'll want to hang onto, which is a pity, because the description sounded so promising.

[angharad]

Mmm, berries! From the imp I smell more sage than blackberry (or any other berries), but as soon as I put it on the berries spring out. This becomes a very sweet scent, but the sage and musk keep it from being TOO sweet. My only fear with this one was the green tea, but I never smelled the tea at all. Strong throw, lasted for about 3-4 hours. I like it!

[Phaedra]

Wet this is something sweet- berries I think. When first on- mmm, sweet red berries! Raspberry or even red currant? The berry note fades a bit (but it's still in the background) and it's a blend of fluffy, powdery florals. After several minutes a fruity incense note develops- nice! This reminds me of Akuma but less sweet. This becomes a dark mixed berries incense on me. I really like this and will use the imp for sure. This could be a bottle contender at some point too.

[sestina]

I straight-up ordered this in the 5 ml size unsniffed.

 

I thought - blackberry: yes! Sage: ok! Green tea: yes! Wild berries: yes YES! White musk: bring it oooon! So it was one of the first I tested.

 

Initally, this was just all weedy and thickety and a tad perfumey for my taste. Unfortunately, that perfumey thing intensified sharply over the first hour.

 

I had to wash it off but I will try it again in a different mood and update my review accordingly.

 

I probably should have ordered an imp instead of a 5 ml, but I'm sure it will find a loving home

[Alchemy21599]

In the vial: green tea, herbs and a touch of sweetness. Pretty!

 

Wet: berries with a medicinal undertone. What happened to the tea?

 

Dry: the medicinal smell is becoming unpleasant. I have to wash this off. This is the second time I've tested this with the same results.

[lunareclipse]

I really wanted to like this one. Blackberries, sage, green tea, musk? Lots of my favorite things.

 

Unfortunately, all that comes through on me is sticky-sweet blackberry, which smells oddly synthetic. I left it on for a little, hoping that the sage or musk would show up and add some structure and contrast, but no dice. Washed it off with sobs and tears.

[MistressTera]

Fresh From The Imp: Reminds me of clovers.

 

Wet On My Flesh: I can detect the tea slightly, under the other green smells.

 

Drying Down: Definitely getting the tea now, with a touch of sage, but not much else. Hopefully the older stages show off the berries.

 

Hour To Integrate: There's the fruit! I smell like a blackberry herbal tea now.

 

End Of Day/Final Report: Not necessarily a bad smell, but not what I would want to wear. Swap.

[harmonyfb]

In the imp: smells like...grape juice. You know, the kind of purple grape juice that's all tangy inside your mouth?

 

Wet, there was a sour rush of green that made me go "Ew," but it dried to...yep, sugary sweet grape juice. Truth be told, it's a little much. Think I'll be washing it off.

[Syzygy]

In the imp: Berries.

 

On: Major berries. Uh-oh. Is that all there is? No! After a little while something wonderful happens--my uneducated nose suspects it might be the musk and sage working their magic--and the berries go through a perfectly gorgeous phase that I can only describe as velvety. This phase doesn't last, I'm sorry to say, because it's deep and rich and rounded and I can't unglue my nose from my wrist while it lasts. But Bewitched eventually settles into a creamy berry scent that's lovely in its own right. This is some really nice stuff. It does tend to get too strong and synthetic-smelling if you're not careful, but a lighter application is all it takes to get around that problem.

 

The jury's still out on whether or not to buy a whole bottle o' berries, but I will definitely use up the imp. If it keeps working this well, a 5ml may be in my future.

[fiddledragon]

Oh dear...the berries and herbs and musk will work well, but I didn't notice the tea. Maybe the green tea will play more nicely than the black tea in White Rabbit.

 

Scent in bottle: Weird, rotten-berry smell. Smelling this appears to give me a blinding but very short lived headache. I am highly dubious.

 

Scent on me:

Wet -- Huh. Now it's pure sage and green tea. The green tea is not evil, though while I adore green tea, I don't particularly want to smell like it.

Dry -- And now I smell like fresh-mown grass and a nice warm musk.

 

Conclusion: I kind of like the drydown, but I don't know that I like it enough to keep. This stuff is weird on my skin chemistry.

[storme]

In the imp: berry and herbs. There's also a light scent I assume is the tea.

 

On me, wet: musk! lots of musk and herb and some berriness and something that's making my nose feel as if I am about to sneeze.

 

On me, dry: berryish sagish musk. This feels old, and dry, and *dirty* in an unpleasant way. It's making me think of old boxes of fruit tea at the back of an unused cupboard, covered in dust and cobwebs and possibly full of spider babies. Yech.

 

Verdict: Not a keeper - it keeps making me think I'm going to sneeze, for one thing, and it's intensely evocative of neglect and disuse to me. Swap pile time.

[jakey]

I didn't think too much of this in the imp. Very light.

 

On my skin it almost immediately explodes into blackberries! Yum.

 

It morphs into a very pretty berry scent, with a touch of something herbal. (I'm still crap at picking out notes.)

 

I like this a lot better than Glasgow, I must say. Although Bewitched, too, fades away very quickly.

[locuraelegantia]

In the imp: sweet crushed raspberries/blackberries.

 

On skin: softening berries, with a dusty hint, probably the sage. I can smell the same green tea that's in Shanghai, but this is sexier, sweeter....

 

It fades kind of fast on me, but it is really pretty. Very summery.