Baobhan Sith

[teza]

The ghostly White Women of the Scottish highlands. They seduce unwary travelers by night with their unearthly beauty and mesmerizing dancing. They engage their victims in a wild, hypnotic dance, and once they reach exhaustion, the demonesses exsanguinate their partners with their vampiric kiss. Talk about a quick courtship. Grapefruit, white tea, apple blossom and ginger.

Grapefruit! Ginger! Love!

Unfortunately the grapefruit doesn't come out as strongly grapefruit as the note in Cheshire Cat. This is sharper than Embalming Fluid, which I LOVE pairing it with, and not as sweet. (which is good. e.f. needs something to cut back the sweet it hits you with, at first.) I wish the ginger was a little stronger, too. :/

There are a lot of similarities between this and Embalming Fluid, only I think of this as the cousin with a slightly dryer, sharper sense of humor.

[allelujiah]

Strong Grapefruit upon opening the bottle, followed by a bitter orange smell. I really liked this one right away. The strong citrus was very fresh smelling, not too sweet.

 

This dried down to something very sophisticated. The citrus faded a bit and stopped overpowering the scent. Sometime in the middle of the day I think it was a bit old lady, in that it was a touch musky, though still very sophisticated. I felt too young to wear it.

 

Now (7.5 hours later) a touch of sweetness has come out to eliminate the old-lady feeling. I really like this scent and would certainly keep the imp. Further testing will be needed to see just how much I like it. With how much it changed throughout the day, I imagine this one to be skittish. It reminds me of So Pink from the Gap.

[Witch's Dagger]

Baobhan Sith

 

(Note: I read neither the lab description nor other reviews before writing this)

 

I got this as a freebie from the lab

 

Preconceived notions: None.

 

In the vial: Wow - it’s really a strong fruity sweet floral. Doesn’t seem to be my thing. But I’ll give it a shot.

 

On me: Grapefruit! Oh my the grapefruit! It’s making me cough it’s so strong. I hope it softens a little.

 

In a few minutes: Yes, it’s softer now, but still mighty grapefruit... Holding on...

 

Later: Aha! Lily of the valley has taken over. I didn’t even smell it sneaking up, but there it is. Alas, I’m not sure I like the lily of the valley much more than the grapefruit.

 

Overall: It’s not really me. I like dark, complex, and warm scents; this is bright, clear, and cool.

[leapylees]

This convinced me my nose is completely wonky.

 

In the vial - sweet, slightly green, slightly fruity but quite a clean scent.

 

On, wet - Hyacinths!!!

 

Dry - squashed stems. A slightly wet green small with a hint of fruitiness. Since grapefruit never smells like grapefruit on my skin, I imagine that's what the fruitiness is. I guess it's like a fruity green tea. There's also the sweetishness I always get from musky scents.

 

Overall - it's not offensive in anyway, but to me this is quite close to several commercial perfumes of the 'spring/summer uplifting' variety.

[inkstone]

In the imp: Ginger-laced tea.

 

Wet: Sharp ginger and citrusy grapefruit.

 

Drydown: Bitter citrus peel. Er, what happened?

 

Final thoughts: I think my skin chemistry messed this up. I can tell it's a nice tea scent, but after a few hours it becomes bitter on my skin. I'm pretty sure that wasn't meant to happen.

[Gin]

Grapefruit jumps out of the vial, with just a hint of the spicy ginger in the background. The tea and apple blossom fade in, making this even more lovely. It's fresh and makes me think of drinking tea in an garden, surrounded by flowering trees. The apple blossom really shines in this blend! Gorgeous!

[Scylla]

In the vial: I can definitely smell the comparisons to Embalming Fluid.

 

Wet, on my skin: Once on, it doesn't smell anything like Embalming Fluid on my skin. Very sharp, tangy grapefruit with ginger right behind and a light floral (I assume it's the apple blossom) in the background.

 

On drydown: Ah, apple blossom time! When I wore this yesterday for the first time, I kept thinking it smelled like White Linen. And then when I went to post this review just now I looked at the other reviews and, sure enough, others smelled it too!

 

I it! At first it's very citrusy, which I love, and then it morphs into a livelier, more youthful version of White Linen (which used to be a big favorite in my pre-BPAL days).

 

Gonna be buying a big bottle of Baobhan Sith at the next full moon update, I know that for sure! I was going to get some Phantasm, but now Baobhan Sith has replaced Phantasm as my spring fragrance du jour.

[Penance]

Origin:

 

Lagniappe from the Lab.

 

Preconceived notions:

 

Baobhan Sith is one of those scents that I never paid much attention to because I'm normally looking for the earthy, woodsy or resin scents, but it actually sounds beautiful although I'm not sure how well apple blossom is going to work on me. I really like grapefruit and ginger and tea of all kinds, though, so this may very well work for me.

 

First sniff:

 

Mmm, grapefruit! This smells like white grapefruit to me. It's very tart and tangy and sharp, which is just the way I like it. I can barely smell a bit of ginger and a hint of apple blossoms (a scent I know well from a whole childhood spent climbing apple trees). So far, I love this. It's the kind of scent that really speaks to me even though it's not my normal kind of scent.

 

Wet on skin:

 

Grapefruit is still the dominant note, but the white tea is coming out now, too, and mixing with the grapefruit and ginger. There's also a faint note of soft apple blossoms in the background. This smells white to me, but white like blinding sunshine on fresh-fallen snow, not creamy white. Sharp white. It's not a wallflower scent, but it's not too bold, either.

 

Dry down:

 

Grapefruit remains the dominant note, but everything else is putting in an appearance, too. This is a cool scent, like those winter mornings where there's six inches of snow on the ground but it's still warm enough to go outside without a jacket. I actually really like this one a lot! It's not my usual earthy or resin kind of scent, but it's gorgeous all the same.

 

The bottom line:

 

I really like this! My imp has a defective lid, so I'm going to get at least another imp in the near future.

[Imbrium]

In the bottle: Grapefruit!

 

Wet: Still very grapefruit, very sharp. It's almost headache inducing at first, because the grapefruit is so very strong. It's not sweet. There's also something powdery in the background, but I can't identify it.

 

Dry: Wonderful! The grapefruit mellows out a lot, and I smell what is most definately tea and ginger, though I don't pick up any apple blossoms. As this dries, I find that this blends to the point where it's difficult to distinguish individual notes; it's beautiful.

 

This has tons of throw, and is one of my favorites, though it's more of a summer scent than I want to wear right now. Unfortunately, the cap on my imp cracked, and most of the oil leaked out. Woe!

[SoapyRN]

Grapefriut. I am always looking for more citrus scents so this one was on my wishlist...thanks swap faery.

Grapefruit peel, right away. Bright, almost picture that explosion of your fingernail as you open it.

The grapefruit now is playing with some florals, that would be the apple bloosoms I suppose. No real ginger notes that I detect. Tea? My second favorite smell. It has yet to come out too.

Perhaps in a slow dry down.

 

LOVE IT. To me, I see it as the opposite in citrus families to the lovely Whitechapel. That is a green citrus, lime and this is beautiful, juicy grapefruit.

 

Need more soon.

[Pixie-elf]

In the Vial: Grapefruit and a little bit of Tea it seems like...

 

Wet: it's very citrusy, almost sharp, but nice. I can really smell the grapefruit.

 

Dry: The ONLY thing I smell is grapefruit, nothing else. No apple blossum, just Grapefruit...

 

Conclusion: I won't be buying a big bottle of this because I'm not big on citrus scents.. But I'll keep this prolly in hopes it ages and the apple blossum peeks out!

[antimony]

I think I like this one better than Embalming fluid, which was my hot weather scent of choice up to now. But it's only hot for like 2 weeks a year here.

 

It's citrusy, light, and the grapefruit has a nice crispness to it.

[sarada]

I really love grapefruit.

 

In the imp, this is spectacular grapefruit, similar to the smell in Cheshire Cat that I was surprised to learn was grapefruit, as well. I really want to drink it.

 

Since citrus/tea combinations appeal to me for the spring/summer months I was eager to try this one -- I like Embalming Fluid and Phantasm, can kind of dig Shanghai and Apothecary -- so this seemed the logical next choice.

 

The grapefruit keeps sparkling for awhile on my skin but it very quickly turns to a powdery, bathroom-freshener kind of smell. That's something that I don't care for at all, and I'm not sure what causes it. I have great luck with other citrus smells...perhaps it's the apple blossom all going to powder on me. Maybe it's the white tea. Green tea and black tea like me...but white tea? Perhaps it's too weak or bitter to emerge on my scent-devouring wrists.

 

After awhile, the bathroom freshener small just continues and eventually fades but I never quite get the grapefruit back. I like all of the individual components listed here but my skin refuses to do anything with it. I think I will keep it for spring/summer though as I am stocking up on any kind of citrus/tea that I can for those months. I think the winner though in the sparkling fruity tea category is going to be Aizen-Myoo!

[lunalight7]

I ADORE this citrus scent!!! So sharp that it almost smells green....however, it's been on my wrist for less than a minute and it's already fading....fast...I will try to find a way to amp this one up. If I'm successful, it will be big-bottle-worthy!

[regyt]

I love grapefruit. Every other citrus scent I've tried here has been lime or lemon or orange, which seriously don't do it for me, but Baobhan Sith is strong delicious grapefruit pith right away.

 

As it dries down, the grapefruit fades and the white tea and apple blossoms start to lift out of my skin at last. I'm not really familiar with apple blossoms, but they're sort of reminding me of the way the air smells at the sakura matsuri (cherry blossom festival) at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden in the spring. It's evoking some really lovely memories for me.

 

For the rest of the day, it remains a blend of white tea and apple blossoms, very light and clean, with the grapefruit become more subtle but still sharpening it all wonderfully. I never got any ginger at all, in the bottle or on my skin.

 

This is not the sort of scent I usually go for (I abhor most citrus and floral scents), but to my surprise, I find that I'm really liking it quite a lot.

 

I'll have to see how often I reach for this imp before I decide whether to go for a bottle, but especially as summer approaches and I need crisper scents, I think I probably will.

 

Edit: Near the end of the day, the grapefruit faded completely and I actually did end up catching a whiff of a soft ginger holding up the white tea and apple blossoms in its stead. This was such an interesting scent as it evolved over the day.

Edited March 4, 2005 by regyt

[HappyLoveJoy]

Baobhan Sith- Initially it's like peeling a grapefruit and inhaling the mist of fine citrus oil from it's skin. It turns soapy and clean while retaining it's fresh citrus note. Sorry my review is so simple. I just don't get anything complex. It's very pretty.

[misfitroxy]

While wet in the imp, this is very lemon-y with just a bit of floral. Almost cleanser-like, which makes me rather hesitant to put it on. Still, I must proceed.

 

Once on my skin, the grapefruit is the most prominent element. This is quickly joined by a light, blossom-like scent which I guess is the apple blossom, naturally. ;} As it warms, the ginger stands out more turning everything just the slightest bit spicy.

 

I’m getting an almost dusty tone to this the more I smell it. Not so much the scent itself as my nose’s reaction, I guess. It’s literally like sniffing something covered in dust. Not that this is terrible by any means, just an odd reaction that I’m noticing.

 

The grapefruit is almost totally gone now. I think the blend's going soapy on me, and I can’t say I’m totally enthralled with what remains. Just not something my skin is meant to wear, I guess. Though I’ll definitely use the imp for burning as I think it would really brighten up a room, especially in the summer.

[Spastik_Kitty]

In the bottle: Lemon Drop candy

 

First on: Lemon drops and fresh cut grass

 

After a bit: The lemony scent is fading and now I'm smelling ginger, but a chemical ginger

 

After an hour: Ginger with a faint hint of grapefruit and tea.

 

After that: It's almost completely faded

 

I really wanted to love this one, and I did while it was wet, but the dry down just isn't for me.

[shelldoo]

wow wet was grapefruit and at first i thought pepper...it made my nose twitch like bewitched....but no it isn't pepper it is ginegr i believe and a white floral, but very light playing peekaboo...this one is so different then i expected.

[quimerula]

Fresh I smell the grapefruit and the ginger, with white tea and apple blossom behing.

I find it fresh and fruity, with a soft spicy tone... perfect for the summer.

After a while the roles are inverted, the tea and the flower go stronger over the other notes... to end with a soapy tone. I think my skin just hates grapefruit.

[Mayfair]

Ooh this is nice! The grapefruit is immediately there. Slightly bitter and I can really picture the white flesh of the fruit. It softens quickly though and becomes more soft and floral. This will be the apple blossom I presume, though it doesn't smell of apples at all. The white tea makes it all soft and powdery and I could have sworn there is white musk in this too.

 

Overall a very gentle scent and definitely white. This will be gorgeous in summer, when all you want is feeling cool and clean. It is a very pure and clean scent for sure.

[merveilleuse]

I like this one. it's light, but beautiful - I suppose maybe it's the apple blossom, but to me is just smells like flowers. a lovely spring garden with lots of white blooms. it smells REAL, too, unlike other flowery perfumes. it puts me in a nice, spring-y mood.

 

[empi girl]

In the bottle: grapefruit, with apple blossom underneath

 

Wet: grapefruit, apple blossom, tea in the background. (No ginger)

 

Dry: Apple blossom and soap. (no ginger)

 

The apple blossom is soooo pretty I am tempted to overlook the soap, but I just can't. My nose itches a little, even as I love the apple. So, it got swapped...

Edited April 6, 2005 by empi girl

[Digital_Hypoxia]

Holy mother of grapefruit!

 

Biting is too mild a word for the sharpness.

Somehow, however, it works. It mellows to a soft citrus (probably by virtue of the tea).

The ginger (which I was looking forward to) was a no-show.

 

I do like it though, ginger or not. Not sure about bottleness yet, but it’s a definite contender.

[anmorata]

Baobhan Sith:

Wet: sharp citrus, ginger and apple.

Drydown: .. pretty much the same as what I smell wet, but it's lessened a little, and not as strong.

Longterm wear: This scent doesn't really wow me over, so it's off to the swaps pile.