The Geisha and the Samurai Hair Gloss

[Myrrha]

Blood orange, wood amber, and white tea.

I put three squirts of this in my hair and it still smells strongly several hours later. next time I will use a little less.

I LOVE this scent! The wood amber is lovely, no woody smell or pencil shavings. It somehow smells clear and not at all fuzzy or powdery if that makes sense. Blood orange blends with the amber, if you hate the creamsickle effect that orange plus vanilla can have you probably will not like this one, at least not in your hair. To me, the amber smells deeper and more complicated than vanilla and it adds up to something absolutely amazing. I can't really smell the tea but there is a brightness to the scent that could be from white tea. This is glorious and I could wear it anywhere.

It smells very familiar, like a scent I've smelled before but I can't remember what. It is a bit similar to Tocca Stella (but richer, more complex and longer lasting) and in the same family as Chantecaille Frangipane although it has been a long time since I smelled that and I could be mis-remembering.

On my wrist the amber comes out more. It smells less casual, sexier.

I need at least another bottle of this, possibly two. I will not be spraying all the things because that would mean less to spray on me!

Edited to add: I could still smell it on my hair the next morning. I love this but am thinking I might try some Ithe hair glosses before I decide which one to get backups of.
Edited March 5, 2016 by Myrrha

[Jeni Mullen]

The orange scent in this is light and airy and everything you would think should be in a perfume for spring. It's very different from the sorts of smells I usually like (heavy in sugar or extremely woodsy). In fact, I found that the "wood amber" doesn't have a wood quality to it at all. It is a nice base for the orange, warming it up, but otherwise, not what I expected and still marvelous.

 

I don't get a creamsicle effect at all. I don't actually find this even remotely foody.

 

The tea takes awhile to come out and when it does, it's herbal and again, not foody. I'm surprised that I like this as much as I do but I really do like it!

[LiberAmoris]

The Geisha and the Samurai hair gloss is tough for me to describe. The blood orange smells naturalistic and bright and juicy, and yet, it smells gently dimmed and blurred by the wood amber. Almost caramelized a bit by the amber around the edges. And the white tea is very clean. The blood orange is the strongest note when first applied, but as everything settles and mellows, I get more amber and tea. It's very simple and beautiful, and the blood orange note is uplifting and happy. This is the kind of hair gloss that could really go anywhere—at the end of the day yesterday, most of the orange scent had dissipated, but my hair smelled clean and warm with the lingering amber and tea. Lovely.

[annemathematics]

this is a beautiful scent. very soft and subtle.

the orange is juicy and pretty but much more subdued here than in bpals like eastern comma or the TAL attraction oil.

the amber offers a hint of vanillic woods (sandal?) but nothing really stands out. my nose doesn't really pick up on anything that registers as tea.

there's a gentle quality to the whole thing. so far it has layered well with a soft floral bpal, a honey bo and it was sublime with the evergreen resin incense I was heating last night.

 

this reminds me of some of the softer, resin-focused peach pit post offerings, subbing in a shimmery shadow of orange for the peach element.

the throw is low and either the scent fades within two hours or my nose just gets used to it and can't detect it. still gonna get a bottle.

[alterosen]

I love the blood orange aspect of this but am not too sure about the rest. Rather than the usual warm fuzz I'm expecting from the amber, I'm getting something kind of aquatic. Not the dryer sheets clean type of aquatic but more like the wood in the amber was actually driftwood & a little salty. Perhaps it's the tea/amber together - they've just gone to the seaside.

 

It's actually rather nice & the combination does smell like a deluxe pricey salon product. I'm just not sure it's me.

[zankoku_zen]

Citrus, tea, and a touch of aquatic. I was actually going to say that this smelled like citrus green tea/sake. It's a very clean scent. Summery.

 

Definitely smells like high end hair products.

[Little Bird]

Overview: Hair gloss is a heavy, oily spray that quickly overwhelms my long, fine hair and makes it look and feel very greasy. I can't use this product anywhere but very sparingly on the ends of my hair, or else it makes my head look like an oil slick. I'm really careful with my hair and the products that I use on it. For a while, I was using this to fragrance the ends of my hair, but I find that it makes my hair fall out a lot, either from the high fragrance oil content, the heaviness of the oil itself, or something else. I wanted to love these and wanted them to work, because of the fragrances, but now I only use the hair gloss as a body mist on my arms and legs, not actually on my hair.

Fragrance review:

Very tart, clean, sharp orange and white tea. I find white tea itself to be citrusy and kind of lemony. Mixed with the tart orange, this is a bright and refreshing fragrance, but not a keeper for me (I like my citrus scents to be sweeter and more gourmand, and this isn't sweet to me at all).

[mizliz2176]

Amazing. Bright, fresh orange. Like the smell left in a room after someone peels an orange, but grounded by the amber and tea so nicely that it doesn't become boring orange juice or from being to tart. I didn't expect to like this one so much honestly. Yet another to add to the list of must find a full size. That list is wayyy too long right now.

Edited August 2, 2017 by mizliz2176

[doomsday_disco]

How did I never review this?   It's one of my most reached for hair glosses during the warmer months.

 

The Geisha and the Samurai is mostly about that lovely blood orange, but there's an unexpected slight creaminess to the scent that I think must be due to the wood amber. It's not a type of amber that I have come across much in the BPALverse, although I think this year's Adventuresome Encounters may feature the same amber note. The white tea is not a main player in my hair, which is odd, because it's typically a loud note on me.

 

This is my second favorite citrusy hair gloss from the Lab. I love pairing it with scents like Gobo, La Joconde, and Kubla Khan (Kubla Khan is mostly mandarin, amber, and vanilla on me). If you're looking for an orange-y hair gloss, this is the one to try. I love it and hope I never run out.  

Edited June 11, 2021 by doomsday_disco