Scherezade

[daybreaksdisdain]

A master storyteller who possessed unfailing courage and compassion, a sharp, quick wit, and a true understanding of human nature. Saffron and Middle Eastern spices swirled through sensual red musk.

Oh yummy! Both of us tried it and got very different results. More warm spice on me and more green on my hubby. Lasts long on me than on him too.

This is going to be one we are going to fight over

[Summerpixy]

Warm spicy and lovely. I really like this one.

 

I can't add much more to everyone else's reviews... In the spice there are some little tiny similarities to F'54, but its definetly far enough that I'm not going to push the issue. It could just be my skin, which has a habit of making sweet things sweeter.

[eleventhousand]

Sweet musk, spices, saffron, and I swear I smell neroli. Golden and sexy.

 

This is the good things about Snake Oil, minus the vanilla note that turns to pipe tobacco on me.

 

Also, my skin just RUNS with it. A tiny bit and my body seems to start manufacturing it. Which is absolutely fine with me!

 

A+

[QueenFae]

Soft, comforting, lovely. I get a bit of the powder effect from this one as the top note, but the base is a beautiful red smell. It's musky and delicate and yummy; the two make a really good combination. It's a very sexy smell, I love the light, musky red ones, they seem to work really well for me. A+

[Caltha]

Scherezade

 

At first, Scherezade is quite bitter and sharp on me, like incensey, musky oriental soap. Then it turns sweeter and reminds me of a quite ordinary musky, sweet and spicy ladies perfume, still with a hint of oriental soap.

 

Edited to add that Scherezade has really grown on me. I guess it's still kind of generic incensey and it has a bittnerness that might be offputting, especially in the beginning, but I wore it today and really enjoyed having the scent constantly in my nose. And I was also impressed that I did feel it without having to sniff my wrist as I'm used to zero throw. There might be similar oriental/spicy scents I'd enjoy just as much, but since I haven't found them yet I'm considering a bottle of Scherezade... I didn't think I liked musk but since both Dorian (white) and Scherezade (red) are irresistible secound skin-scents to me I might have to change my mind about that...

Edited September 6, 2005 by Caltha

[olympia301]

Lots of red musk in this one. It is a member of the Snake Oil family to my nose and that is one of their characteristics. Again I smell a grape like thing dancing through this one, and a sort of fruity/cherry twirl in it as well. This is a beautiful blend, ultra heady and perfectly oriental. I highly recommend it for all of the red musk lovers out there, and for hopeless romantics. Very very long lasting.

[Freyja Lux]

Hello everyone! I'm a new BPAL fan and had to share my $.02 here about my new favorite perfume.

 

Scherezade seems to be the perfume I've always been hoping to find. It's the perfect combination of musky and sweet. Incredibly sexy and earthy. However, my skin seems to absorb perfumes and so I have to reapply every 3-4 hours or so, but maybe others have had more luck. Reminds me a bit of the Snake Oil and Morocco, which are lovely as well.

 

This is an especially warm and smooth fragrance so it would be a terrific winter/fall scent. But I adore it so much I'll probably wear it all year 'round...

 

[donsixgun]

This is amazing. I smell as though ive been playing in a box of Nag Champa. Not burnt, mind you, but the boxes and bags it comes in. I think Im going to need a 5 of this very soon.

 

ADDED Jan. 15:

 

Nag Champa incense. Its a bit soft, but not like the way Al Azif was on me...in other words, I can wear this one and not smell like a girl. Hehe

[fathom]

In the imp, it smells very spicy and delicious. The dark, dark color of the liquid makes the scent seem even more mysterious and inviting. Wet on the skin, it still smells spicy, but the musk overpowers the spice. It dries down into a sharp musk on me, though. Some red musks are piercing, almost irritating to my nose, and this is one of them. Unfortunately, it just isn’t working with my skin…

[urraca]

This was a kind lab frimp that enabled me to perform a red musk experiment. I don't like dark/black or white musk so I have been avoiding all musks, but now I have had a chance to try red musk.

 

It goes on exotic spicey which, as usual makes me smell like baked goods. Not crazy about this. But the spice fades and I'm left with --- well, I guess that must be red musk because it sure isn't saffron. And you know, it's not half bad. None of the usual musk sharpness I dislike so much.

 

This fades very quickly though so I'll probably swap the imp, but I'm delighted to have red musk as a possible note on my list. Maybe I can order Spellbound now...

Edited August 21, 2005 by urraca

[kakiphony]

In the imp: Wow. My first impression is that this is a powerful scent, and very complex. I can't begin to pick out individual notes, but it's a warm, spicy scent with a hint of incense. There's not much underlying sweetness there; it smells like the base is all musk.

 

Wet: This isn't quite as strong on my wrist as in the bottle, but it's still very spicy and musky. I'm picking up just a hint of the saffron as a sweet floral note. (Note: It smells nothing like the saffron rice I've bought from the grocery store, but I'm just like the saffron ice that a friend in Boston once tested on me before serving it at an SCA event. That was made with saffron ribbons, which are apparently super-duper expensive and hard to find.) It's more classically perfume smelling than what I would normally wear, but it hasn't made me sneeze yet. It reminds me just a bit of Samsara, but without whatever it is that makes me head fill up with snot and sneeze uncontrollably.

 

Dry down: As this first settled on my skin the musk rose to the surface and practically overpowered the more subtle spice notes. After about an hour it started smelling like a very expensive men's soap; like something a dashing South American polo player would use. I kept catching whiffs of it and looking around to see which of my male clients had walked into the office! After that first hour, a sweet undertone began making its way to the surface. It's more a sweet floral than a food sweet like vanilla or honey, and I suspect it's the saffron peeking through the musk again.

 

Interestingly, the oil seems to have developed quite differently on my right wrist than on my left. (I apply the oil directly to the left and then blot my right against it as I'm right handed.) On the right, it's much sweeter, with that sweet floral undertone, a very light powdery note and a hint of sweet almond. On the left, it's much muskier and spicier. I suspect that as the day goes on the left will fade to match the right, which will make me very happy indeed.

 

Over all impression: I think this is a very beautiful scent: Complex, bold, spicy, exotic, and just sweet enough on the dry down to be feminine. However, the boyfriend's comment was to wrinkle up his nose and say, "Too powdery." So now, I'm doubting my own power of sniff. I'm going to keep this one though I think. I'll just wear it on the rare occasions the boy isn't around.

[Little Bird]

I didn't like this at all when I first tried it (spicy, salty weirdness), but I got an imp in a recent lab order, tried it again, and fell in love. I don't know if my nose is different, if my skin chemistry is different, or if this was reformulated, but it's awesome. It's a little like Snake Oil's warm, sweet, red musk plus Hod's sweet, spicy carnation on my skin, with a little bit of the powdery warmth of The Girl.

 

My only complaint is that this is rather light on me, which is odd, because red musk, SO, and Hod are all super-strong on me. Carnation, spicy, sweet, powdery, warm, sensual... I'm getting a bottle of this in my next order

Edited January 28, 2011 by Little Bird

[faifai]

Yeah, red musk and I don't get along either. The spices and saffron and all that do smell lovely for the short amount of time that they're present--lovely in a I-smell-like-an-Indian-grocery kinda way. Exotic indeed. Then the red musk comes back and slaps me (and everyone else in a 10 feet radius) in the face. A shame, but Morocco is in the same family and that one does smell good on me.

[McPagangrrl]

I never like these incenseish blends wet, so I will skip over that.

 

Dry, this is very dark, spicy, and so much like incense that I can almost feel smoke in the back of my throat when I sniff it. I don't know how Beth does that

 

It is a heavier blend--nothing light, sweet, or frothy here one me. I would wear it out to a darkened club.

[Cielamara]

Ohhhh, Scherezade.

 

I've been longing to try this one since the first time I ever visited the site--that was months and months ago. And I just waited patiently till I saw that someone had it up for swap/sell, and pounced!

 

In the bottle: This smells like...potpourri, like incense. Yes, that's it. It smells like a bag of potpourri that hasn't been heated yet. While I love to visit them, I don't really want to smell like one of the hippie stores here in Asheville.

 

Wet on: It still smells like potpourri, but it's warmer and lusher than I realized. This is blooming rapidly. I can smell a lot of spiciness, and it's sweetening.

 

Drying down. Oh my GOD. This is...perfect. I'm so glad to see my beloved Scherezade done justice--a character like that deserves it. This has turned into a lush honey-creamy sweetness, laden with rich spices. I feel very womanly and mature wearing this, very sexy and warm. I feel creative and clever, even while I feel very sensuous and a bit drowsy. It's a gorgeous blend. Stunning. Sweet musk and rather hedonistic spices...mmmmmm.

[Loligo]

I'm not sure why I like this one. The red musk has an overly earthy funk: it smells like the head of someone who hasn't washed their hair in a *long* time, and they're sitting in the hot sun and that oily human scent is just *radiating*.... And the spices are spicy, but with a bitter edge, like tasting them raw....

 

Yet there's something so compelling about this blend. When I put it on I just keep sniffing it. Definitely not every-day wear, but it fascinates me.

[lookingglass]

In the bottle, it reminds me a lot of Snake Oil. Spicy, but deep and exotic. Applied it is like smelling fine, fresh insence before burning it. On the drydown, the musk gives this scent a noteble depth. I love it. It will definately be my bellydancing perfume!

[aessedai]

On me, this was rosy, incensey and spicy. I swapped it away but can't wait to get ahold of another imp:)

[Miss Lynx]

I've been wanting this one for a while, but was also a bit wary as red musk and I are not always friends. When I finally got it, it smelled nice in the imp, but so did Dragon's Heart and various other red musk scents that turned evil as soon as they touched my skin.

 

But thankfully, whatever it is that turns red musk into drugstore-perfume-hell on me is absent in this one. It did go a tad perfumey at the very beginning, but didn't stay that way for long. Pretty much as soon as it dried down, it turned into a spicy version of Fenris Wolf, the one red musk scent I'd found thus far that did work on me. It's yummy spicy incensey goodness, and with a very sensual/sexual edge to it -- I would be all over someone wearing this. Scherezade definitely goes onto my list of good date-night scents, along with Sin, Vixen and Desire.

 

It doesn't last as long as I might like, but then, relatively few of the scents I like do. But it's lovely enough to be worth reapplying.

 

Grade: A (was: B+)

 

ETA: On further experimentation, I find myself falling in love with this one. I've upped it to an A.

Edited October 1, 2005 by Miss Lynx

[Medici]

I bought a 5ml of Scherezade unsniffed - at the time I was mentally on an incense and smoke kick, and let me tell you, wearing this has reinvigorated my lust for incense.

 

It is a smoky, heavy-lidded and sultry blend that is almost pure incense on me. It's not changing much as it goes into dry down, though something almost citrusy - like the rind of an orange - is beginning to come out.

 

Perfect for Fall, I'm very glad I bought a bottle.

[Silverstrike]

I wish I were like some other forumites whose reviews I've read, where nearly every oil seems to work. Unfortunately, my skin chemistry is wacky, and my nose is sensitive. I loved the description of Scherezade, but ultimately, this one just smelled like an incense store to my nose. It's not an offensive smell, just a "meh, incense" smell--nothing special on my skin.

[Brianne]

In the bottle:

A light version of dragon's blood

 

On me:

This is dragon's blood with extra spice and nice helping of sensual, warm musk. This changed a lot on me for the first 20 minutes, it was always what I would call a "red brown" scent, in that all of it's stages were warm and spicey and smooth. It settles into a beautifully spicey and smooth scent though with a nice dragon's blood backing.

 

Final note:

Beautiful scent, I love how womanly and mature this is, and it's sexy without being in your face SEX. It's understated and yet bold at the same time.

[Avery]

Well, at least I'm not the only one on who this is straight-up incense store. I was really hoping for something more complex and sexy, but... plain incense. Not really "me". *sigh*

[quimerula]

Wet I can smell red musk and spices. I love red musk because it's very, very sexy on my skin.

As it dries down I get a soft saffron touch as the one I get from Silk Road, but lighter.

This is a sexy and evocative Oriental perfume, quite true to the image I have of Sherezade.

It smells like the high end posh perfumes that your mother never allowed you to touch!

[herdivineshadow]

This is a very soft warm scent on me, mainly saffron with a faint muskiness. It's not quite what I was expecting, but it's very nice indeed.