Europa

[VioletChaos]

O Jove much-honor'd, Jove supremely great, to thee our holy rites we consecrate,
Our pray'rs and expiations, king divine, for all things round thy head exalted shine.

A smooth vanilla myrrh, streaked with cracks of java vetiver, styrax, and coffee absolute.

In The Bottle: A lovely soft coffee candy scent. A mix of the coffee and vanilla-myrrh, obviously. It's a goof start- the myrrh isn't doing the baby-powder thing thus far that it usually does in my presence. *fingers crossed*

Wet On Skin: Same, but with the java vetiver creeping in and a range non-food sweetness? Is this the styrax or the myrrh doing something unexpected?

Dry Down: Coffee and baby powder

In All: Well, I gave it a shot, but this is what myrrh does with my skin. I keep hoping and the rest of the notes in this gave me good reason to hope but my chemistry just won't allow it.

To the rest of you, the hints that I got before all hope was lost would indicate that this scent is otherwise a lovely, yummy coffee scent. My loss is your gain- off to the swaps I go!

[annemathematics]

my experience with europa (which landed yesterday) is similar to the above, although I still love the scent in the end. it doesn't carry a baby powder element to me/on me.

 

initially, lightly sweet vanilla with a shadow of creamy coffee (in the family of destructive vagina or cafe 1001) warmed by myrrh.

the vetiver in this is very light! I like vetiver so I wouldn't object to the heavy grit from grievous swarm, but this vetiver is quite different. very pretty!

 

everything merges together as it dries down. feels unisex, although not reminding me of cologne.

 

the end result is warm, soft and dry. like her namesake, europa is very smooooooth in feel. beautiful!

[patina]

Odd. A sweet fruity coffee bean similar to Destructive Vagina of the Fox Woman. There's the same undertone of incense, only here it is more of an undertone. The myrrh blooms after application, but that's just on my skin. Your results may vary depending on how you do myrrh. The vetiver is there, but there's no whoa!bacon vetiver.

 

It's warm, dry and cuddly, something like a relative of Palmyria. Or of Death Adder without the Snake Oil and coconut.

Edited May 28, 2016 by patina

[marared]

This starts out fruity - it reminds me of Pomona for the first ten or fifteen minutes. Once it dries down, though, it turns into a lovely warm and fuzzy resin that's only slightly sweet; I don't think I could even tell you this had an element of vanilla. There is not a whole lot of throw, but it sticks around; I could smell it on my wrists for several hours even on a sweaty day at work. I don't smell a whole lot of coffee, especially not after drydown. The vetiver is not burnt or smoky or even particularly noticeable, it just helps nail the scent down and keeps it from being too sweet or icky. The myrrh pokes its head out occasionally, and this was the note I was worried about, but it doesn't go to powder on me.

 

I think I would call this a cousin to Mad Meg, without the mandarin or the cinnamon.

 

Edit to say that with a little time and full drydown, it smells like a soft dark woodsy vanilla.

Edited June 10, 2016 by marared

[Akurarei]

This one is a soft, velvety vanilla resin with touches of warm coffee notes

[puellacaerulea]

In the bottle: Coffee with something syrupy sweet. Yikes.

 

After applying: Vanilla's nowhere in sight; otherwise, coffee and baby powder. Yikes.

 

After drydown: The vanilla comes out to play and the coffee notes move into the background. The vetiver and resin notes get less powdery and blend really nicely with the vanilla. The overall effect is a warm, dry vanilla with the vetiver/resin notes keeping the whole thing from being overly sweet. Much better.

[LizziesLuck]

Wet: Mmmmm. There is something about this (the coffee and vetiver that almost reads as coffee and tobacco?) that immediately reminds me of Pinched with Four Aces. Don't quote me on that, I will have to test side-by-side to see if I am crazy, but suffice it to say, thus far, I LOVE THIS. Dominantly coffee, hints of smooth smokiness. Sweet and rich. Stunning. Zero baby powder, but I have never had that issue with Myrrh.

 

 

Dry: This dries down to a soft coffee scent with hints of vetiver. I can't say that I can pick out that it's java vetiver, but it's incredibly smooth and subtle. Not getting a lot of the Myrrh, but I think it's grounding the scent. This is truly lovely, and I am glad I snagged a bottle! I think it will age beautifully. I will say though, unlike the initial wet scent, the dry down doesn't have a heck of a lot in common with Pinched, but it's great in it's own right.

[zankoku_zen]

Coffee chewy caramel. Honestly this smells like coffee candy chews and a touch of myrrh. I think its the combination of vanilla and coffee. It's not as strongly "coffee" as I would have liked, and it has both a low throw and wear length.

[Little Bird]

I think that Europa is my least favorite bpal ever. I bought two bottles, because the description sounded so amazing, and I've already re-sold both of them, after trying for weeks to let the scent settle and to keep an openmind about it. But it just smells awful to me.
Europa smells nothing like vanilla, myrrh, resins, vetiver or coffee to me. Nothing at all. This is very baby powdery, dry, sour, and unpleasant. In no way sweet or gourmand. It's baby powder, sour and rusty metal (so much like rust), and green grass that smells half dead and like a dog peed all over it. That's the only way that I can describe it. It's foul.
I'm going back on a firm no-buy for lunacies. No matter how good they sound or what notes they're supposed to have, they seem to show up as a completely different beast.

[Minh Scent]

Europa starts out as an extremely strong coffee blast on me and then quickly settles down to a light vanilla cafe with hints of myrrh and vetiver. The coffee stays throughout dry down. The resins are light background players. The vanilla increases with time and happily for me is the non-foody variety. I have been huffing for the styrax which is supposed to smell "vanilla-like". I cannot cannot pick it out, but perhaps it supports the vanilla base. I love this and am having that wrist-to-nose issue we all know too well!

 

Enjoyed reading the reviews above which are on the full spectrum between hate and love!

[saint_gawain]

I'm still new to all these newfangled perfume notes and whatnot, so I thought I'd give vetiver a careful shot via Europa. I went into this hoping that even if the vetiver wound up stinking my skin would amp the vanilla enough so that it wouldn't really matter. Little did I know...

 

In the bottle: coffee, mostly, with that vague alcohol smell one gets with vanilla extract.

 

After application: the coffee vanishes on the spot. Suddenly there's myrrh and the vanilla alcohol, and a very soft but strong vetiver underneath.

 

Once dry: I think my skin amps vetiver. Really amps vetiver. All I'm getting is myrrh and vetiver, with a vague ghost of proper vanilla and coffee. The longer I wear it, the more the vanilla and coffee peek through. There's my trusty skin chemistry boosting the sweet things. I have a feeling I'll really like this once it reaches the last few hours of its wear.

 

Europa stays super close to the skin. I have to put my nose right against it to smell it. I can see myself putting in on my wrist and taking secret whiffs of it throughout the day. It definitely isn't a "wear for other people to smell" sort of perfume.