Suffragium

[ShleepySnorlax]

When Lilith was three months old, she came with me to the voting booth for the first time. She wore a Little Democrat onesie and a Babies For Obama button, and it was one of the most emotional nights of my life. I know Ive told this story before, but as the election results rolled in, I wept with relief because Lilith was going to grow up safe. Decency won the day, and my heart was alight with the belief that we were on an upwards trajectory as a nation, and that compassion and hope were leading us to a renewal.

November 8, 2016 was another emotional night for very, very different reasons.

Since that day, the world has gotten darker, but the darkness creates strength and fosters empathy. Lilith is now learning what social justice truly means. She has participated in protests, demonstrations, volunteer campaigns, and walk-outs. She has made protest signs with her own two hands, and has marched against the cruelty, oppression, and tyranny of this current administration. Shes beginning to grasp both civic responsibility and civil disobedience, and shes learning how much power her voice really has. 

This is a scent of renewing hope, determination, fortitude, and compassion: palo santo, white sandalwood, sweet labdanum, and cedar.

On me, Suffragium is this lovely spicy (the palo santo?), slightly sweetly resinous, woody incense. There isn't a lot of change between wet and dry down on me. Very airy if that makes sense. It has quite good throw, and lasts well on me. Later, as it fades, the scent lightens but maintains the same scent, becoming more skin like.

[Casablanca]

Suffragium is the lovely palo santo and sandalwood-dominant blend I hoped for. All the hearts.

 

I was introduced to palo santo as a room diffuser at a retreat this summer and ordered the essential oil when I got home. The EO smells lightly citrusy, herbal, and woody, serene and cleanly spiritual.

 

A prominent sandalwood in the blend adds lots of incense, and I get some well-blended spice, also. There's a sweetness and a little cedar warmth (but nothing strong on me). Sometimes I get hints of sage-like dry grass, though sometimes palo santo puts that in my mind.

 

This smells like a serenely spiced sandalwood fan. This would be a beautiful meditation scent.

 

 

ETA: After a while settling, this turned to mostly labdanum cola. Good if you like that. Less good for me because I liked how it smelled earlier.

Edited November 15, 2018 by Casablanca

[zankoku_zen]

Palo santo, grass, and a whiff of sandalwood. There's an almost effervescent quality to the grassy-woodsy sandalwood. Medium throw and wear length.

[SophieCedar]

Before I read the description or remembered anything about Suffragium, I smelled it and murmured to myself "solemn". Yup. It is. Solemn meditative incense yet to be burned. Blue is the color that comes to mind.

[Lucchesa]

I'm unfamiliar with palo santo -- a quick search of my database shows I've never tried it in any scent -- but I know that labdanum can have an almost cola-like sweetness. That being said, this was so different from what I expected that I wondered if I'd received a mislabeled decant of Absurd Origin Story. So take this review with a big grain of salt. On me, this smells very reminiscent of cola Willy Wonka Bottlecaps candy from my childhood. Low throw and average wear length.

[supreme_c0rt]

This was my first blind-bottle. The notes sounded right -- I am a fan of wood scents -- except I wasn't sure what labdanum was. Google said it's resin, so I figured this would probably still work for me.

 

This went on super sweet, just like cola candy. Dry, the cola receded a bit, and got a bit creamier and drier, like desert-dry. A cola cotton candy tumbleweed.

 

Later, the incense peeked in, but I was still throwing a lot of Vanilla Coke. Cedar was a no-show. It ended as powder, which is common for me. Swapped this one. It's pretty but too sweet for my liking.

[sprout]

I love the scent of Palo Santo and this is the only BPAL that I recall smelling that note. It's actually fairly Palo Santo forward with cedar in support. I am also smelling the effervescent quality which I think is the cola quality others have noted and probably the labdanum. The sandalwood is definitely present also but almost seamless with the cedar, which I amp to be honest. Palo Santo smells sacred and healing to me and I am aware of that as I focus on the intent of the oil.

 

I thought I have enough resin scents but this one is unique enough I am talking myself into a bottle. I am trying to resist the temptation to order 2 because I love this comforting scent and I imagine aging will make it even more snuggly and deeper. This smells airy yet grounded as an incense and very earthy yet uplifting. The incense quality is not burning or fiery, it is almost a watery quality if that's possible.

Edited October 4, 2018 by sprout

[doomsday_disco]

I wasn’t interested in this one initially, but reviews made me intrigued, and I haven’t tried anything with palo santo listed in the description before.

 

In the decant: Cola and resins!

 

Wet: This smells like a flat cola on me. I am not sure if that is the palo santo or the sweet labdanum (I think I’m only familiar with sour labdanum). Behind it, I get a light sandalwood note. The cedar is not a main player here. I think it just adds some warmth in the background. I agree that there is an airy, uplifting quality to this scent.

 

Dry: I still get a predominant cola-like scent from this, although it’s softer than it was during the wet phase of the scent. The white sandalwood is stronger now, so now I am getting cola! Now with some extra sandalwood and a bit of spice! And the airy aspect of this scent has only become stronger over time.

 

Verdict: Suffragium is nice, but ultimately, not a scent that I need more of. I think I’d rather smell like Absurd Origin Story, since that is actually intended to be a cola scent and has the fizz to go along with it. I think I’ll try it on the boy and see what he thinks before deciding, but at the moment, I feel like I’ll be okay with just the decant.

[MamaMoth]

starts off with a lot off sweet, almost effervescent labdanum.  soft and yes, cola-like.   but the woods rise up and then overtake the labdanum in short order.  gentle dry sandalwood and palo santo, but no cedar to speak of.  the woods have a smooth, light, almost papery character. the blend is sweetened by the labdanum, but it has a very light presence. 

 

this is whispy, gentle, and meditative. 

[Elspethdixon]

Wearing Suffragium for Election Day and just realized I’d never reviewed it.

 

Wet/in the imp: Sweet and slightly paper-y, with a hint of wood. There’s an almost coconut like quality to it.

 

Freshly applied: Once on the skin, the palo santo and cedar come forward, still with that coconut-like sweetness underneath. There’s an oddly musty element to it for a few minutes before it settles into a gentle, serene palo santo-dominant incense with hints of cedar underneath (the scent description doesn’t specify what type of cedar it is, but it smells more like atlas cedar than Virginia cedar to me - it’s spa-like rather than cedar-closet/chest-like). I don’t get the cola-like fizzy quality I usually get from labdanum - this is almost entirely palo santo/sweet white sandalwood/cedar. It’s light, cool, and airy. 
 

Suffragium fades off my skin pretty quickly unless I reapply it, so I don’t have an accurate read on the later drydown (other than “faint palo santo and cedar”) because I keep layering new applications on top of it.