Salomé

[sookster]

A scent that is both coquettish and sinister. Exotic and lush, brimming with grace and viciousness: almond with star jasmine, oakmoss, red sandalwood and Egyptian musk.

whoa!! the jasmine in this s-t-r-o-n-g on me....not terrible if you dig jasmine but i am not quite sure

i also tend to get a bit of ylang-ylang or is that jus the intense jasmine in this blend....

i *wish* i could get the almond that some of the bpal folk have mentioned in their reveiws but i got nada, zippo, zilch for almond in this one.....

most definitely not a scent for sookster.....

[Little Bird]

I *hate* Egyptian musk and jasmine tends to not work on me... so I didn't try this on with high hopes or expectations. Still, I slathered some onto my wrist. Surprisingly, this actually smells like light jasmine and almonds. Then it turns into an even softer floral... jasmine and cherry blossoms maybe.

 

Half hour in. This isn't nearly as overpowering or horrible as I thought that it would be. The jasmine is staying soft and grounded in the background, making this a very light and pretty floral. Unfortunately, florals just aren't my thing so I can't see myself ever wearing this.

 

And then an hour later the jasmine goes insane . It turned suddenly into that sharp smoky note that I hate and it just keeps getting stronger. I'm going to have to wash it off before I get a headache.

[dreadeddragon]

In the bottle: Almond, sandalwood, jasmine, maybe a hint of musk. No oakmoss.

 

First on: Holy crapping musk batman! This is almost as much musk as in Haunted, which I couldn't wear. The sandalwood calms it down for me so it's not so potent, and the moss dampens the jasmine. I can't tell if I'll like it.

 

Drydown: It's a bit more musky that above actually. It's not making me nauseated, but I think it's just a bit too musk for me.

[aidenraine]

I got FOOM a big burst of floral at first and then before I could yell out EW JASMINE! it suddenly changed to a tart cherry scent layered with musk, not unlike Voodoo.

 

Mmmm musky musky cherry love now. Fruity and red with dark spices. I do feel like doing a little shimmy dance.

 

It also, like Voodoo, turns me on.

 

Definitely getting more spicy, almost "woody" as time goes on.

[grrrlennyl]

at first: the lab included this as a freebie in my last order. this smells like maraschino cherries (which i'm assuming is how my nose detects almond) with some wood underneath. weird.

on: much more almond-like. i'm mostly getting sweetness, nothing else.

1 hour later: i think all i'm smelling is oakmoss now. it's ok, but...not really me.

4 hours later: just very soft.

overall: my skin just brought out the oakmoss too much.

[empi girl]

A freebie in my last order, which I wouldn't have tried otherwise thanks to the presence of jasmine. But to be honest, I was curious about it because of the almond.

 

Anyway, in the imp it smells like perfumy almonds

 

Wet on the almond is strong with a floral underpinning. The almond is rich, smooth and I like it a lot.

 

The almond fades rapidly though, and the jasmine comes to the fore (I knew it would!). Unfortunately for me, from this point on it becomes jasmine dominated "perfumy" scent, and reminds me quite a bit of Bastet (which I also can't wear). It smells sophisticated, rich, beautiful in it's own way, but not one for me.

Off to the swapping block it goes!

[tweakano]

Yeppir, I also got almonds with Salome - that and powdery carnation while wearing it. The almondy or amaretto note immediately faded while the powderly note remained for awhile - reminds me of older bath salts from the 50's - heady, yet soft. Salome is not for me, but it does remind me of antique bath & beauty containers.

[tinyvulture]

for once, a jasmine scent I can wear! amazing! this certainly is exotic. it reminds me of walking down the bath products aisle at the asian supermarket. the jasmine complements the milky, creamy almond nicely. the only bad thing is, it’s not very strong.

[Eros]

Almond is what I get most from this one strong almond, with a touch of creaminess to it. Amazingly enough, the jasmine didn't annihilate the other notes. Well, at least the ones that decided to make an appearance, heh.

There's a hint of powder, sandalwood, which likes to do that to me now and again.

After about 30 minutes it lightens up and sweetens considerably. A dry, powdery sweetness. Threatens to give me a headache, blah. Another one that's quite nice but just won't cooperate with my chemistry.

[coulrophobe]

Another blend I'm trying in my quest to get over my fear of almonds.

 

In the imp: Uh... I've learned not to smell almond scents in the imp. It'll smell like almond and make me run screaming. But if I try it on, it'll be gone in roughly one minute.

 

Wet on skin: Not smelling it yet... patience, grasshopper...

 

Drydown: After the last whiffs of almond have dissapated, I get a big ol' wallop alongside the head with the sandalwood - definitely the strongest note with my chemistry. The musk warms it up a bit, and the jasmine provides a little bit of sweetness... but this is largely red sandalwood. Which isn't a bad thing at all, but a leeeeetle more musk would have made it better with my chemistry.

 

Still - since it doesn't smell like its wet stage, I can consider this a success! Take that, stinking almonds!

[Muppetk]

What I learned from testing this scent: If jasmine doesn't work on you, star jasmine won't either. Jasmine always goes bad on me -- drugstore perfuminess. I thought maybe star jasmine would be different. But no, the star jasmine in this did the same thing, only very slightly different from other blends with a jasmine note.

 

The jasmine in this overwhelms everything else on me. (When wet I could smell the other notes a little, when dry, pure jasmine.) I can't sniff anything else. Oh well. It's so sad. I love jasmine tea. But jasmine BPALs disagree with my skin chemistry and smell truly godawful on me.

 

Okay, I've learned my lesson. I've been surprised by alot of scents that I didn't expect to like so I thought I had to try everything -- but anythign with jasmine has been bad. I give up. I won't try new scents with jasmine.

[Nachtwulf]

Bottle: It's like it can't decide whether to be sweet or peppery. I get a really strong 'pepper' note from it that I really don't care for, in the imp. But it's trying so hard to be sweet and fruity underneath!

 

Wet: ...Ooh. Huge metamorphosis on skin. Pepper bite goes away, leaving something sweet, yet resinous. It's still got some sort of musky edge to it that makes it much less 'friendly' than say Bordello, and I'm getting some kind of woody... hm. Sandalwood? Yes. Pure sandalwood, like the powdered wood I use for incense, sometimes. It's a very raw scent, sweetened yet not overwhelmed by the sweeter background notes.

 

Dry: Sandalwood subdues back almost into the typical 'incensy' scent a fair bit of BPAL dries down to. But it's sweeter, definitely, and has some truly interesting (and hard to identify) notes floating around in it. Definitely resiny.

 

Final: Hn. I think the imp's a keeper, but it's not an OMGBOTTLE scent, surely. I do sort of wish I knew /what/ it dried down to, since the scent is weirdly familiar to me, but for all that, I do like it. Just not one of my everyday scents.

[Celogrl]

My first impression of the in the imp sniff was cherry almond, kind of like Jergens original lotion. This was a gift from the lab, and I probably would not have ordered it, but bless their hearts for including it~!

 

I love this imp! It's definitely big bottle worthy! The cherry almond disappeared almost right away upon application and it continues to dry down into a sultry, almost spicy mix of faint almond, jasmine (also faint) and sandalwood. It's a lovely mixture that is very seductive. Not only is this a keeper, but I may up this to a 5 ml. Good job, Beth and lab!

[Savannah]

I got this as a frimp from a lovely LJ seller. I would never have ordered it on my own because it's got one of my Notes O'Doom (jasmine) and two of my Notes O'Iffiness (almond and musk) plus a Note O'Unfamiliarity (oakmoss). But lo and behold, the same thing happens here that happened with Psyche-- the beloved note (frankincense in Psyche, sandalwood in Salome) takes all the others and somehow makes them work for me. This is a rich, lovely blend, not sweet-- incensey and mysterious, with the feminine floral of jasmine and the innocence of almond (almond always makes me think of cookies), and the musk makes it very physical and sexy. The Salome I would associate this with is the dancer in Tom Robbins' Skinny Legs and All-- a young girl, fairly ordinary, a little awkward when she walks and talks, but when she begins to dance, there's not a person in the room who can keep his (or her) eyes off her. The youth, girlishness, exoticism, and the sweat and musk of the dance are all in this perfume. I'm not sure if it's me, but it's completely beautiful.

[Freyja Lux]

This smell is nice, but I am now a huge fan of jasmine (which I often confuse with ylang ylang). And Salome is jasmine, at least on me. I could detect the almond a bit, but when on all I can smell is jasmine.

[hangingfire]

In the imp: Almond and jasmine. I like the almond smell a lot; it's interesting in combination with the jasmine.

 

On, wet: Where'd the almond go? Now it's mostly jasmine. I think I can detect a little sandalwood making itself known.

 

Drydown: After going through an intensely jasmine period, it's now about 60% sandalwood, 40% jasmine. As I like both scents, this is a Good Thing.

 

As an experiment, I dabbed Nyx on my other wrist for a comparison. Both start out very jasmine, but Nyx stays that way -- maybe 70% jasmine, 25% myrrh, and 5% rose. Salome is totally different in the end -- less sweet, more feral on account of the sandalwood, and I guess the oak moss as well, although I'm still not quite clear on what that smells like.

 

Sexy stuff. Chalk another one up on the "I didn't think I liked jasmine until now!" list. The imp is definitely a keeper, and I'll probably spring for a bottle eventually as well.

[Colère]

Bottle: Delicious. A viscous sweetness, bridled by smoky musk. A nefarious touch of sharpness that causes the sweetness to melt into an aftertaste. Sugary sandalwood, blanketed by something earthy, something warm.

 

Skin: Dry (powdery/ashy?). A mesmerizing heat that quickly becomes sweltering lust once trapped in a bottle. There's heavy middle eastern spices I can't put my finger on, lightened by an acidic, almost biting, sweetness. Ancient, heady aroma of liquid resin and burning gold.

 

Skin, Later: Sweet Jesus, this is sex in a bottle. Salome is absolute intoxication, a scent that smothers like black magic. It's evil, it's deliberate, and it's very conscious of what it does. This blend is seduction of the cold, malicious kind. A tantalizing fragrance that starts off as temptation but ends up as a non-negotiable command.

 

Verdict: Salome brought out the calculating femme fatale in me. The second it hit my skin I wanted to seduce, dominate, and destroy - a reaction so strong that the only thing that saved my husband from being mauled in a restaurant bathroom was the lack of a condom. All he could say was 'how large is their largest bottle?' (and 'I'll never leave home without one again'). Sex magic 101, baby.

[herdivineshadow]

Initially there was a strong marzipan kind of scent which made me dread wearing this a bit but then the sickliness dies away very quickly and I'm left with a very jasmine smell with bits of sandalwood here and there.

[Laurel the Woodfairy]

MuppetK has confirmed my suspicion that "star jasmine" is not likely to like me any more than jasmine does, but the Lab was kind enough to send this frimp, so I'll give it the ol' college try.

 

In the imp: almond and musk. Very pretty! But then I do love almonds.

On me: The oakmoss is a sharp, interesting touch. Initially I don't really get jamine--the other notes are prominent and I really like the sandalwood and ...before I could even finish typing, the jasmine emerged. The End. Off to swap!

[SeaMonkey]

Almonds and egyptian musk. I used to wear Egyptian musk before BPAL, so I was really looking forwards to trying this. I definately wasn't let down. In the vial its all almond, but the Egyptian musk comes out when it dries.

 

I wore it to dance class for inspiration. It definately worked.

[Fefferbella]

Salome was a frimp with a recent order. I'm so flad I got to try this scent.

 

Usually nutty scent go too foody on my skin and I can't stand them, but this is BEAUTIFUL!

 

I feel so feminine and lovely when I wear this... Going to order a 5ml of this scent!

[gangstaknitta]

In bottle: a slightly clean floral with a touch of honey

 

Wet: a sweeeeeeeeet floral now, but the almond tones it down. a woodsy scent is coming out now and oh, could that be the almond turning into PLAY-DOH?? Again?

 

Dry: okay, this one smells like baby wipes on me. Oh well.

[carolinachiquita]

Meh - I didn't like this one - unfortunately it was too almondy on me, I don't think I like almonds it was too sickly and overpowering. It really reminded me of being back in egypt too for some reason - which is a nice smell but I just can't take it on my skin. Oh well.

[malanna]

Salomé starts out being strongly musky, with oodles of red sandalwood and jasmine. Lots of jasmine (bah!). However, over time, it smells a bit incense-y. It smells like the skin of Salomé whirling so fast, beads of sweat are flying in every direction. After several hours, the incense-y note is not as present and it smells clean, yet plastic-y at the same time.

[Leda]

On me, Salome began as a rich exotic oriental perfume. I could detect almonds and floral incense. After a while, however, the musk came into the foregrounds and took over in the form of a giant dryer sheet. Then I got a headache and could never wear Salome again.