Djed

[itchypixie]

The desolation of the desert: white as bone, forbidding. Dry white sandalwood & sweetgrass, California white sage, and sand.

My bottles arrived yesterday! Usually, I let them settle for two days before trying anything beyond sniffing the bottle, but was too excited to wait.

In the bottle: The sandalwood and sweetgrass were the strongest notes for me, with just a hint of something dry and grainy.

Wet/Drydown: The sage is coming to the forefront, much stronger than any hint of it that was there in the bottle. There's also something that just a hint spicy in there, though I'm having a hard time identifying exactly what it is. It's not warm, but hot and a tinge smokey. It reminds almost of stepping into the spice aisle at my local Indian grocer, but without smelling "foodie" at all.

*Barely five minutes later note - CUMIN! That was the spice I thought I was picking up and couldn't identify. Huzzah for ripping apart my spice cabinet and sniffing jars like a madwoman. It's not in the notes, but that certainly explains why it reminded vaguely of making turkey chili in my old apartment.

 

Dry: Whatever it was that I was picking up as cumin is still there, albeit in a much softer way -- which I consider a good thing, because after an hour or so of wear, I was honestly starting to find it unpleasant. The sage note is by far the strongest now, and sandalwood has not really come out to play except in the very faintest of whiffs, which I find a bit disappointing given that the sandalwood note was really what I was hoping would predominate.

 

Wear: Nine hours, with significant drop off after the first hour or two.

 

Recommended if you love sage. Not recommended if you're looking for a strong sandalwood note.

 

All in all, it wasn't an unpleasant scent, but given my personal tastes, this is nowhere near one of my favorites in my collection. I'll probably try it again later before deciding if I want to try and age it to see if the sandalwood note strengthens at all or if this will be my very first BPAL resale.

Edited December 18, 2016 by itchypixie

[Balame]

I love desert scents so much that I made a thread about them here, but have yet to find one that evokes the full heat and "desolation" of the landscape. So I was hyped when Djed was announced, thinking it was going to be so hot I could cook an egg on it. Yet the journey continues, as I don’t find it very barren.

For me this is yet another "desert before/after the storm" blend. I say "another" because I swear I've tried like 5+ scents that all aim for that ozonic, sparsely herby, damp sand feel. They do well at it! But I’m not looking for wet desert. Djed isn’t as ozonic as those other blends, but it smells like the herbs have been drenched in a heavy rain. (In comparison, the boniest, driest scent I’ve ever smelled is Dance of Death and this is not even close.)

The sweetgrass and sage themselves are beautiful. They provide a gentle sweetness that’s both soothing and meditative. There’s a bit of soft dustiness to them, like if you crumbled the leaves… but again, this is offset by the watery feel. I honestly don’t know what’s contributing to that, maybe just the roundness of the notes? I can’t find the sandalwood (maybe a hint of woodsiness in the background?) or “sand” so this is primarily an herbal scent. It reminds me of a deeper Lear.

So to me… Djed’s dead, baby. Djed’s dead.

 

(Sorry I had to fit that terrible pun in somewhere.) It’s good but not what I wanted. I have enough perfumes that do “fragrant desert herbs” that I can safely pass this one on.

Edited December 20, 2016 by Balame

[zankoku_zen]

I get sandalwood, sage and a touch of sweetgrass. This smells like the Old West and dust. The sandalwood is dry, and gives me the impression of Dead Man's Hand, but no leather. Just the Old West. Good throw and wear length.

[archaesophilia]

I sprang for this because of the sweetgrass note, even though I suspected it would be maybe too similar to Coyote to work on me. In the bottle, the sandalwood, sweetgrass, and sage come through easily. Alas, they don't last very long on my skin, but the dry down for this smells exactly like dirt; not garden soil, but deeply buried dirt, which I find pleasant because I'm an archaeologist. I would recommend this for anyone wanting to evoke the scent of archaeology in the American west!

[LizziesLuck]

I love sandalwood, but the rest of the notes in this could be seriously iffy on me. Still, love trying everything I can, so here we go!

 

 

Wet: A blast of sour sandalwood, which quickly warms and loses all sourness. The sandalwood almost glows, it's so warm. This is almost straight wood on me. Like wood being baked by the sun, bleached white. Quite masculine, on me. Very pleasant though. Smells like nature and sunshine and happiness.

 

Dry: Still almost all warm wood, just with hints of green from either the grass or sage. I don't get any of the Lab's sand note, which tends to turn into "generic cologne" on me. This is a really lovely, warm, wood scent. Unisex, maybe tending towards masculine, at least for me. Very very nice though.

[Little Bird]

Very dusty, bone dry, splintered, oddly bitter smelling sandalwood, mixed with a dry, herbal, savory sage note. I was curious about the 'sand,' but this is more dusty and baby powdery than sandy/earthy to me. Very faint throw and fades quickly.

[strick9]

Totally my first review, and definitely on a scent I wasn't sure about purchasing but was excited to try nonetheless. So excited, I couldn't wait and put this on right out of the mailbox.

 

Firstly, I love sage. I smudge my house almost daily, which was the main attraction to this scent. Secondly, I used to live in Arizona, and reading the description of this scent on the website took me right back to late fall/early winter in the desert.

 

In the bottle: Very much sandalwood and sweetgrass with a hint of something akin to wet slate. The "wet slate-ness" reminds me of some German/Alsacian white wines, surprisingly At this point I'm hoping the sandalwood wont go wonky on me like it has a tendency to do.

 

Wet/dry down: Like others have said, whoa man cumin! I absolutely love cumin though so at this point in the game it's not bothersome. Also FWIW, the cumin is most prominent when i stick my nose right in it. When I'm further away, the sage starts to peek out. There's dustiness from the sandalwood and the tiniest bit of sweet from the sweetgrass. Like if you were IN a desert, it would be the kind of sweetness that comes along with finding shade or water.

 

about 10-15 minutes in, the cumin is definitely still there, but not nearly as prominent. I've applied this to both my wrist and inner arm, and the application on my inner arm is far more sage-like and dusty earth-like than the application on my wrist. I LOVE the way this smells when I'm not all up on my wrist with my nose.

At this point in the game, its a super lovely, savory scent. It's definitely evocative of desert landscape, and IMO, very unisex. I'm hoping for the sweetgrass and sage notes to develop a bit more as I wear it, so I'll update once i've worn it further.

Edit: 2 hours later and the sage and sweetgrass are really pulling through for me. The cumin is still present, but not nearly as sharp as before. There's a nice roundness to this scent whereas before the cumin was leaning on astringent. If I pull further back from sniffing, there's almost a dried/toasted coconut element here.

I'm really digging Djed, and I'll definitely be playing with it.

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Another edit: I layered this over Snake Oil for a night out, and it was a win. For me, Djed needed something to help ground the height of the cumin note, and Snake Oil did this. I think this would also be super lovely over O. Djed is definitely a "cowboy on the open range-stagecoach driver getting dusty" scent. I prefer the cowboy coming into the bar and sitting down for a drink, which is what the Snake Oil made it into.

Edited September 16, 2017 by strick9

[Deceitfuldescender]

Unf, so glad I took a chance on this. Whatever reads as cumin to others reads more like cinnamon to me. It is the same one as in one of my favorite oils, Pais de la Canela. So this is basically the desert version (normal version is like tropical jungle).

I get a dry heat (sandalwood?) on which sweetgrasses touched with sage dance upon...and then just a sprinkle of this non foody cinnamon. I really enjoy this and it is unlike anything else I have. Exactly like a desert Pais de la Canela.

[ghoulnextdoor]

Fiercely peppery upon first sniff, this is a bone-dry, nose-tickling experience that after time, morphs into a pleasantly herbaceous, aromatic sage that straddles the line between sweet and savory. Depending on time of day, temperature, body chemistry, and who knows what else, at this stage in its metamorphosis, it fluctuates between the honeyed haze of a ritualistic smudge and the astringent warmth of that essential herb in your granny’s Thanksgiving stuffing–and sometimes it is both at once.

[Diesis]

The dry sandalwood & the sand note morph into an odd ash scent. Smokey but pleasant. It reminds me of desert camping trips & the campfires. The sweet grass & sage seem barely there but might be what’s a sort of mysterious under-note I can’t place. 
 

Either way, this is a fantastic scent that I don’t really find in other BPAL I own. It might still morph out, but for now I’m really enjoying it!

 

(As an aside, there was a spot I overlayed it on Lorraine Cross yesterday & it was a weirdly delightful smokey rose.)