Manila

[paperdoll]

A tropical, humid, lush scent, with a faint echo of Pacific breezes, jungle blossoms, and deep wet woods. Sampaguita blossoms, banana leaf, palm, and narra.

Initial Sniff: Woah. Banana.

Wearing: I was hoping that the banana smell would fade into the lovely tropical green-ness, incense, and wood combo most others have described. Alas, Penance's review says it all: banana puree, tropical blossoms and some vague green stuff.

Fianl Impressions: If I liked bananas I would love this scent. I do not like bananas. They are mushy and gross. So unfortunately, this one is off to another home where it can receive the banana love it deserves.

[wildeblack]

The thing I always try to do with the imps I've bought so far is look at the notes and then guess if it might be for me.

 

Manila was one of those. From the outset, I wasn't so sure about the banana leaf which I suspected would smell very banana. I like banana but I'm very much in the non-foody camp when it comes to perfumes.

 

So with that in mind, here's my review.

 

Initial sniff: Yep, there's that banana. It's very strong to my nose and in fact, I put this one aside for a while and went back to it a few days later. There's also something that I'm interpreting as "green" and something else that smells like pineapple to me.

 

Wet: Still very banana and tropical. Would be great as a tanning lotion or something like that. It's not at all a bad kind of smell, in a cake or something it'd be delish, just not the kind of scent I like to wear. Huh, can't seem to think of much else to say about it which is unusual for me.

 

Drying: A metamorphosis is taking place. The sweet banana and pineapple is burning off and I'm getting more spice, a little more herbal. The spice is what attracted me to the scent so I'm happy about that. I keep taking little whiffs of the scent and I do get the visualization in my mind of just hanging around in a hammock under the banana trees with maybe a pineapple frozen drink in one hand - but without any coconut - and this spicy warm breeze blowing. Very relaxing.

 

Later: The banana remains but is now an undernote to the spicy green scent. Then the whole thing fades on me. Le sigh.

 

Overall, I liked the scent if only it didn't fade and if the banana- pineapple didn't last quite so long. Swap pile!

[Andromedii]

Immediately in the bottle: WHOOSH, ripe bananas!!

 

On me: Herbs and bananas. ::blink blink::

 

Verdict: This is a powerful, semi-strong blend that reminds me I'm in a tropical arid jungle surrounded by tons of tall banana trees and fragrant magnolia blossoms. The herbal is quite heady, but is ultimately balanced out by mildly sweet, lush florals.

 

Woo-hoo!! Tremendously gorgeous, especially since I lived in Manila for 3 years in the early 80's and it does bring back some fond memories.

[Lycanthrope]

In the Bottle or Imp:

Extremely sharp and cloyingly sweet banana, coconut and pineapple mix with a powerful plumeria topnote.

Wet, on Skin:

Mostly smells like a pina colada! Pineapple and coconut is here, the creaminess of the coconut is growing as it's just applied, lightly floral, but less so. Maybe a touch of waxy green leaf.

Drying Down:

Pineapple's retreating into the background, and the coconut emerges creamier, with mashed bananas. Like a sweet exotic dessert laced with tropical blossoms.

Over Time/Longterm:

Creamy coconut, vanilla, a hint of banana. A tasty dessert.

Final Verdict?

Interesting experience. A bit too fruity for me, but a great light summer scent. Perhaps I'll keep the imp.

[OdetteOdile]

Manila

I love this! Definitely banana, but not a plastic - y, artificial banana - it's banana in a vanilla custard, with some sort of citrusy juce drizzled in.

I didn't exactly get the wood note other people mentioned, but there is something giving this a bit of richness and complexity and depth that keeps it from being a one-note banana perfume.

I would have to wear bright, tropical prints with this. And espadrilles. This is completely a summer fragrance (which means I'll probably wear it in January when icy rain & gloom have me dragging.)

I'm a total foody-perfume lover, so this is a nice new addition to my edible-smelling fragrances stable.

Edited July 12, 2005 by OdetteOdile

[Orodemniades]

Wet: smells like chewed Bazooka Joe! And I mean that in a good way! It's a bit nutty, too, but what nut I have no idea. Sweet, but not foodily so...

 

Me likee. Don't know if I'll buy a bottle, but I certainly like the imp!

 

Oro

[OriginalWacky]

Bottle (Imp): Bananas!

 

Just On: Banana tree bigtime. I love it.

 

An hour or two later: This smells a little boozy now, and the bananas have faded to the background.

 

Around 6 hours: Fruity with a touch of booze.

 

12 hours: Yep, berry type fruit with a hint of booze.

 

Overall: I really like this one. I have no clue why it was so far down on my wishlist, but it's moved a lot higher now.

 

After reading other reviews: I don't know where the boozy part comes in, but this was gorgeous all the way through. Even if you don't like bananas, you truly need to put some of this on your skin and plug your nose for a few minutes, because it goes away, and leaves wonderful fruity scents behind. Big bottle.

[LunaSea]

Manila is one of those scents that I thought, "Yeah, I'd like to try that some day." But it wasn't high on the list. The lab gifted me with an imp in a recent order, and for some reason the imp was really calling my name, so I tried it out tonight. Oh my god - what a gift this is!

 

In the vial, I can smell the banana, but not sweet, sticky, over-ripe banana but more like standing near banana trees. (Ok, so I've only done that a few times in my life. Still...) Wet on the skin, there is the lovely fruity scent of the banana with something fresh - green? I really liked it, so I put on more. Hubby really liked it too. Unfortunately, I had to leave for my pottery class.

 

But I digress. Anyway, the fruity note faded after 15 minutes or so, and the incense note others have mentioned came out, along with a scent that was very familiar, but I couldn't place it. All I knew was that it smelled like another oil I loved, but couldn't remember which one. Then, it hit me. Hunter Moon.

 

I may have to order a bottle of this in the near future. Definitely a new favorite!

[QueenFae]

This one's really light and sweet. I smell a whole lotta banana leaf, with a subtle, green/blossomy undertone. I like the scent and all, it just fades so fast on me. I just dabbed some on my wrist 20 minutes ago, and I can already barely smell it. It makes me think of tropical banana trees. Nice, but short lived unfortunately.

[empi girl]

Unfortunately, I do not seem to have had the experience that lots of reviewers had...

In the imp: banana and wet leaves. Nice.

On: strong initial hit of banana that overwhelms everything else for a few moments, and then softens. It is still there, still recognizeable, but not dominating. My reaction to this on is: yuk. This does not play well on me, and after much thought and sniffing, the closest approximation I can make is that it smells like banana-anise dental anaesthetic. Sad but true. I'm glad others like this and have better experiences, but I'll be swapping it.

[grrrlennyl]

at first: this was a freebie from the lab. a sweet banana scent.

on: this is so much sweeter than i thought it would be. lots of banana, with something deeper underneath.

1 hour later: warm and lush. the banana has moved to the background and some other, more wood-like notes have come forward. interesting.

2 hours later: not as nice. just generally sharp and a bit floral with some woods underneath.

overall: if this stayed the same as it was when i first applied it, it would be a keeper. i guess it just wasn't to be.

[Brianne]

In the bottle:

A strange fruity note - like fruit but....not.

 

On me:

I have to admit that I'm pretty unfamiliar with any of those notes. I can guess what banana leaf smells like of course, but as for the rest, I'm in the dark! This starts off with a definite tropical fruit smell - it's bright and sort of punchy. After only a few minutes, there is a woodsy, incensy note creeping in - and from what other people have said, I'm guessing this is the narra. It definitely evokes images of a tropical scenery. Oddly enough, if I sniff it closely, I don't like it - it comes off as too bitter and green and the fruit note comes off odd too. However, when I'm just walking around the house and I catch whiffs of it, it's really very nice! It makes me think of the beach, or of drifting down the water rafting rides at the water park, surrounded by sun, water, fruit drinks, and suntan lotion.

 

Final note:

I will definitely use my imp, but I'm not sure I'd need a whole bottle of this. I have to say, this is a great smell for capturing Manila!

[pekeana]

Holy bananas, Batman!

 

I popped my imp of Manila open and promptly gagged and made many, many faces which my mother snickered at from across the room. I HATE BANANAS -- the smell, the feel, the taste... ugh. So to be overwhelmed by banana was very sad for me.

 

But I'm a trouper and I dabbed a little bit on. Fortunately, after it sat a couple of minutes, banana go bye-bye. It was mostly wood and a reedy incense smell. Kind of like bamboo, but not as clearly reedy as that. It was pleasant enough, but the HOLY CRAPSICLE, BANANAS! initial phase turns me off so badly that this imp will be going far, far away as quickly as I can manage it.

[quikslvr]

The "wet woods" note isn't promising to my tastes. The topnotes of jungle blossoms are lovely, but the underscoring woodsiness is too true-to-life foresty/earthy for my tastes. Very accurate, very appropriate, but just not me. (I got no banana at all.)

[Little Bird]

I love bananas when they are fresh. They smell good and they taste good too (/end service announcement). I cannot stand the smell of banana candies or dried bananas or any of that sort though. Manila smells like insanely powdery banana tart candies when I first put it on. I had to hold my wrist away from my nose for 15 minutes until it dried down and that awful synthetic smell faded.

 

The drydown is really very nice. The banana smell is in the background and it actually smells like real fresh bananas. BPAL is the first to capture that smell that I've found. There is a fresh breezy smell here and some nonoffensive floral smells. I can't pick out any notes in particular. In the drydown I do get a sense of warm tropics, light breezes, and greenery. It has a definite fruity sweetness too. It's not me and I'll probably end up swapping my imp, but it's quite lovely nonetheless.

[requieminblack]

First sniff from the bottle- Oh my goodness! This is divine! It smells just like sweet banana laffy taffy candy!

 

After 20 minutes- OMGWTFBBQ!!?! What took me so long to try this out? This is absolutely freakin' fantastic! It smells like banana candy and some other tropical fruit like star fruit or mango. It reminds me of what tropical trail mix smells like right out of the bag. There is a distinct 'green' smell in the background as well as a faint coconut scent.

 

Summery- I *must* get a 10ml pronto. This is now going on my top 10 all time favorite BPAL scents!

Edited September 5, 2005 by requieminblack

[herdivineshadow]

This is a very fruity on me, but a bit like tropical fruit flavoured cordial. Saying that though, I don't really get the smell of banana at all and I do love bananas. It is very wet though, but sadly a but too much like I've dumped tropical cordial over my wrists.

[imaginepageant]

In the vial: Cherry cough syrup. Definitely not tropical, humid, or lush, nor am I smelling any of the notes this is supposed to have. I'm very disappointed, but there is still the skin test to have hope for...

 

Wet: The cherry slowly fades into something different, still fruity, but I can't put my finger on exactly what. It reminds me of fruit smoothies. As it continues to dry, the scent itself wears away until it's nearly impossible to smell it.

 

Dry: It's become stronger and more noticeable, and the scent itself has also changed greatly. It's a very contradictory scent: both dry and wet, both sweet and tangy, both fruity and floral. All the contrasting notes seem to work well together, however. I don't know if banana leaf actually smells like banana, but I think I am smelling a bit of banana in this. I have no idea what sampaguita blossoms, palm, or narra smell like, but the unfamiliar woody and green notes I'm smelling must be them.

 

An hour later: I'm definitely noticing some sort of blossom now, and the scent has become much wetter. It's still quite fruity, and sweet yet tangy. It's still evoking an image of fruit smoothies in my head, with a white blossom floating within it.

 

Overall: Not bad, but not great. Try as I might, I can't connect the description with the actual scent. Another scent I had high hopes for but which I'll have to pass on to someone who can better appreciate it.

[tempete]

Manila smells like banana and incense at first, and dries down to what I term BPAL's tropical fruit scent: green, mostly tart with a tiny bit of sweetness, and very wet-smelling. Nice but ultimately not for me.

[UltraViolet]

3.5

 

Thanks to my great friend Holeysox, who is busy and yet took time out to gift me with this lovely imp amongst others.

 

In the bottle

Lovely banana-y perfume, not too strong, nor too off putting, just perfect.

 

On

Wow, this remind me of Lush's Ladyboy perfume but subsitutue the violets in Ladyboy for the Pacific breezes, jungle blossoms, and deep wet woods and you've got this lovely blend called Manila.

Not as overwhelmingly foody banana smelling as I though it would be. I do believe this is the best banan smelling product I've tried.

 

30 minutes

It gets better and better with the drying of it on ym skin. Really nice for Summer.

 

Throw:

a bit more than average

 

Scent category:

Fruity/Floral

 

Summary

It's lovely and fresh smelling. It dries to a lovely sort of foody banana soft fresh perfumey floral scent.

 

Purchase again?

Maybe

 

1-5 rating (5 being best)

3.5

Edited November 28, 2005 by UltraViolet

[helarctos]

Manila smells like candy! Pineapple and banana candy. Yum.

 

In the drydown, a scent like tobacco emerges -- is this the banana leaf? -- and complexifies the fruity aroma, but doesn't quash its sweetness.

 

I'm not a foody-scent person but I really love Manila and I think I'll try it in an oil burner. What I really wish is that I could get this scent in a soap or shower gel. Maybe it's time to experiment with BPAL and unscented stuff...

[DjarumCloves]

My most treasured imp ever.

 

In the imp: Froooty to say the least - I don't do fruit scents, but:

 

Wet: Warm and spicy, florals upon florals...kinda Gardenia-ish to me.

 

Drydown: It smells rather smoky on me...like burned paper/wood/fireplacy. I like it! It's got a faint Glade potpourri smell...kinda like sitting near a fireplace with a plug-in going...

 

Final thoughts: I didn't like it at first when I got a freebie from a nice LJ'r, but after letting it age about three months (plus her two), it died down a lot...making the smokier (cedar, maybe) come out a lot more when I put it on.

[Shollin]

First sniff: There’s a definite weirdness about this scent. It’s somehow leafy without being overly green. Thick, wet leaves.

 

Wearing: Holy snark, that’s banana! I’ve never smelled banana in a Lab scent before, and it caught me way off guard. After the initial banana-burst fades, Manila actually reminds me quite a bit of Alecto, that dark leafiness that I don’t quite get along with.

[malanna]

In the bottle, it smells like liquid banana, like sweet banana essence that you would be able to drink (but it'd be too concentrated). On, it smells like what I think banana leaves would smell like, banana turned into a leaf. I thought I would love this, or at least like this a great deal, because of how tropical the description made it sound. It is tropical, but it's too green for me and I just realized that banana is not my type of smell. Anyway, it smells like banana, banana leaves, and those big leaves you find in a tropical forest. The skin scent smells like dried banana chips with a tad bit of incense. It's still works great at encapsulating the concept.

[SeaMonkey]

I didn't get a lot of the banana that everyone else was getting.

 

 

Its very tropical, yet reminds me of how my grandmother's house smells. She's from Manila. I'm getting her a bottle for Christmas