Abolish ICE

[VioletChaos]

You can cut all the flowers but you cannot keep Spring from coming.
― Pablo Neruda

 

Selections from our general catalog of perfumes may have succumbed to frostbite, but never fear! We haven’t lost our molten core of passion for seeing justice served. Consider this our holiday prayer for a reckoning long overdue: May human decency prevail over the corruption and wickedness that endangers so many of our neighbors, and may our government’s assorted agencies be held accountable for their ongoing assault against the civil liberties of those seeking refuge in our land of bountiful freedoms.

 

Proceeds from sales of this perfume will benefit the Refugee and Immigrant Center for Education and Legal Services (RAICES). For more information about their services, please visit https://www.raicestexas.org

 

Melt the hoarfrost of this administration’s cruelty with this scent of warmth, safety, and succor: smoked toffee and patchouli with coffee bean, caramelized oudh, clove, and bourbon vanilla.

 

Disclosure: I purchased 2 bottles of this scent blind because even if this smelled like bottled poo, the meaning behind it is so important in this political climate that I wouldn't even care. That said, it happens to contain a number of notes I tend to love, and I'm hoping it's going to be a knockout  

In The Bottle: Toffee, chewy caramel and bourbon vanilla. It's warm, sweet and very cozy. I'm falling in love already!

Wet On Skin: Oh, my. The above are cut through by the emergence of the clove and oudh, colluding to pull the scent out of merely being a sweet-n-sticky food treat and moving it into a higher plain- more depth, more spice, a rounding out.

Dry Down: While I get no patch or coffee, all the other notes are at the party, clove taking a slight lead at this stage, making this a warm and inviting cold-weather scent. It doers exactly as it has set out to do: the fires of love, warmth and inclusion ring true and deep with this scent, reminding us that it is community that keeps the cold hard world at bay. Thank you Beth, for bringing such a visceral reminder into the universe, your love is so strong in the fa ce of oppression that it brings tears to my eyes presently. ❤️❤️❤️ 

[zankoku_zen]

Chew caramel toffee, with patchouli, coffee, and whiff of clove. This one smells like a nice latte. A sort of comforting drink that you would need after a long day of work in the rain or the cold. And sometimes its less about the taste but the warmth that you feel originating in your hands, and by the time you bring the drink up to your face, you can smell the caramel and the coffee, and you drink it and the warmth slowly slides down your throat, warming your insides. 

 

Yeah, this is what this feels like.

 

It smells like warmth, and kindness, and the recognition that while there is some horrible things going on, the human capacity for empathy and kindness is real and it still exists. And that it is worth to take our tired selves back out there, and fucking scream our hearts out until our throats are raw, our eyes sting, and our hands feel numb from carrying the same sign for hours on end.

[roseus]

I get syrupy rum in the initial application with some spices making me momentarily think of Spiced Rum Buttercream Coffee scent. Then it is sweet caramel and spices and vetiver? Smoky vetiver and I get a bit of the gnarly patchouli that has been leaning stale cardboard on me. This isn't looking good folks. Eventually the smokiness and patch back and the spiced toffee coffee becomes more apparent. This is an edgy spiced coffee on me. I will see how it works on my guy. 

[DianesTulpa]

I was really hoping I would like this because it's for a cause I truly believe in. But alas, this is a big nope on me.

I don't get any coffee, mostly clove, vanilla, and something akin to stale cardboard like @roseus experienced... it's very much just clove on me at first, which i am not surprised about because i amp clove.

 

20 minutes in, the toffee has appeared and now i have a sugary-sweet toffee'd up clove dancing around that odd cardboard-y note. I *do* feel an interesting "heat" from this, but instead of being cozy and warming, it's more of a clove-y-plasticky-toffee that has been microwave'd. In fact, my partner said I smelled like "Indian food" . And while personally i'm not sure how he gets THAT connotation, it's certainly not what i'm going for!

[Casablanca]

Freshly applied, Abolish ICE offers gobs of caramel toffee darkened with coffee and clove (in that order of strength). Then I notice lots of bourbon vanilla. 

 

The gourmand qualities of the opening are tempered in drydown when a little oudh and patchouli start to emerge. If one doesn't often go for the foody, as I don't, it's a bit of a rescue. But the early notes still dominate the blend at this point.

 

Later, when I get more oudh and patch, it seems like I've lost most of the earlier notes, except for the coffee.

 

I don't think the balance of notes in this one works for me, but it's a pleasure to try and a great cause.

[patina]

I just tried on a lot of Yule scents but this one is easily my favorite. But then I do like oude and  sweet scents especially if they have non gourmand base notes. (The "stale cardboard" note some reviewers got was certainly oude.)

 

Mostly caramelized toffee with a spicy roasted note. The oude quickly becomes the strongest note though it's always spiced and sweetened by the other notes. That means that this is not a primarily foody scent. I do get coffee, the normal fruity coffee bean note which never smells exactly like the drink, but it stays in the background. This is ideal for a cold, chilly day.

Edited January 14, 2019 by patina

[doomsday_disco]

This starts off strong on the toffee, with touches of patchouli and coffee bean, and a clove note that is much stronger on me than it was in the decant. The caramelized oudh note comes out more over time, and so does the patchouli, making this a warm, spiced patchouli and oudh-infused toffee scent with a bit of coffee bean. The bourbon vanilla is more noticeable after a few hours and helps soften the oudh. The toffee and patchouli end up being the main players on me.

 

Abolish ICE is a sweet, warm scent that captures the sentiment behind this blend. I do not really want to smell like toffee, but I was curious about it because it was an activism scent. You definitely have to enjoy toffee to appreciate this one, but if toffee and patchouli are up your alley, you will probably enjoy this.

 

 

[Juushika]

In vial: Sweet, smokey coffee.

 

On me: Toffee + patchouli, which reads as burned patchouli; I'd almost say there's vetiver in here to provide that smokey feel. Coffee and clove come out to play during drydown. Sometimes this feels like an older cousin to Miskatonic University (the scent of Irish coffee, dusty tomes and polished oakwood halls), a warm, spiced coffee, smooth and sweet and a little more complex. But the primary impression I get from this is the overwhelming caramelized note I got from a few 2018 Halloweenies and Yules (Zoe and the Goat; Twelfth Lash). Here's it's probably the toffee: cloying, not quite foodie, almost burnt, very brown, overpowering, homogeneous, borderline nauseating.

 

Verdict: This absolutely fits its "warm" inspirations; I like the creamed coffee and touch of clove. But I've learned my lesson to steer clear of toffee/caramel, especially in conjunction with patchouli. I don't know if I amp it, but I do know it's strong and unpleasant.

[sarahmarie]

This was an unexpected beauty on my skin, and I forgot to review it and say so! I get smoke way more than sweet overall, with a spike of patchouli that settles down after a little bit into some dryness in the background. The sweetness does show up after a bit, and I get hits of toffee. But primarily this stays a warm, dry, sweetened-for-comfort kind of scent. It's really nice. 

[torikitty]

Chewy tobacco with a hint of patchouli. It's a bit sweet, but the tobacco takes over on my skin. It's wonderful if you enjoy the toffee/tobacco/patchouli blends. It's pretty loud and sticks around for a while.

Edited April 19, 2019 by torikitty

[donkehpoo]

Wet: Patchouli, oudh, and maybe a hint of vanilla. Very, very deep; also, that smoked toffee note is no joke. I'm not getting toffee, but I'm getting a LOT of smoke.

 

Dry: Definitely agree with torikitty; I'm getting a tobacco vibe here, even though it's not a note listed. (I think it may be from the carmelized oudh.) It smells like a very smokey patchouli and tobacco scent. No coffee bean, no toffee, and no more vanilla.

 

It's a bit deep and heavy for my personal taste.

[gobbldygook]

Abolish Ice is a sweet warm smell but not – not sticky sweet. It's warm and dry, like an old library that's warmed by a fireplace with the window cracked and cool dry air blowing in the scent of baked goods. I only smell the coffee in the bottle - it disappears almost instantly on my skin. This is an incredibly well blended scent, as I can imagine every note listed but they all morph together into a delicious warm scent.  I'm not a huge fan of sticky foodie scents but this one lands perfectly on the "not sickly" side of the line - the patchouli grounds it with grit and darkness.

After a few hours, the patchouli edge drops off a bit and at first sniff I just get delicious warmth. This is better and better as it ages on my arm.

 

Compared to other BPAL oils I've tried, this one has a wonderful and long-lasting throw. I still smelled it on my work-phone a day after I'd worn it on my neck!

 

 

[tinyvulture]

Gorgeous foody blend. Notes of golden toffee and butterscotch. The clove is not really noticeable but I get hints of it in the background. I'm not picking up coffee, nor cardboard as some have mentioned. I don't really get patchouli either -- it seems purely foody on me. And when it's this sweet and warm, that's fine! I wouldn't wear this in summer, it's a wintry, holiday, cozied-up-by-the-fireplace scent.

[lakeplacidskater]

On 1/7/2019 at 11:58 AM, DianesTulpa said:

I was really hoping I would like this because it's for a cause I truly believe in. But alas, this is a big nope on me.

I don't get any coffee, mostly clove, vanilla, and something akin to stale cardboard like @roseus experienced... it's very much just clove on me at first, which i am not surprised about because i amp clove.

 

20 minutes in, the toffee has appeared and now i have a sugary-sweet toffee'd up clove dancing around that odd cardboard-y note. I *do* feel an interesting "heat" from this, but instead of being cozy and warming, it's more of a clove-y-plasticky-toffee that has been microwave'd. In fact, my partner said I smelled like "Indian food" . And while personally i'm not sure how he gets THAT connotation, it's certainly not what i'm going for!

 

I had the same experience, sadly. I love anything toffee or sweet or foodie/gourmand so I thought this would work. On me, the clove came out the strongest, followed by what I guess is the patchouli and Oudh? It's spicy and almost medicinal smelling at first (my mom was like "what is that scent?!?" when I wore it for the first time) so I guess this proves that I amp clove as well. Then it wears down to be slightly more toffee, and a little vanilla peeking out, but it still smells mostly like clove. I didn't smell coffee at all, which is what I was looking forward to (I hardly drink coffee but like the idea of smelling like coffee for some reason). The warm quality does come out hours later but I'm not sure it's worth waiting so long for that to happen....

 

Either way, I'm glad I tried it - at least now I know that my skin amps clove. 

[fairybites]

This is pretty good! I would say this resembles butterscotch on me more than caramel. Clove doesn't appear much on me, but the bourbon vanilla and coffee are also fairly strong with a subtle patchouli and the oudh in the background. It's like a frappe from your local coffee shop with a slight smokiness to it from the toffee. 

 

Love finding a good oudh that ain't stanky!

[skyturtles]

Purchased this bottle from the lab for a friend's birthday, and of course I have to test it.

Out of the bottle, oh sweet booziness! Toffee and Bailey's or Kahlua.

Wet on my skin, that alcohol note thankfully dies down a bit. The spices come out to play a little more.

As it dries, the syrupiness resides as well, and the sweetness is a dusty, warm sort.

This is not my cup of tea (I don't care much for either caramel or coffee things) but I hope it's right up my friend's alley!

P.S. A little bit goes a long way!

Edited October 14, 2021 by skyturtles

[MamaMoth]

this went in a completely unexpected direction for me, but i'm here for it!

 

expectation: thick, sweet, rich gourmand layered on a patchouli/oud base.

 

reality: SMOKY (bordering on burnt) oud and woodsy patchouli, primarily. there's definitely a base of rich dark sweetness, but it's not overwhelming in the slightest. there's almost a dryness to it, not the sticky sweetness one might expect. i get a good dose of bourbon vanilla smoothing everything over, and hints of clovey warmth without the actual spike of clove. i never tracked any discernible coffee. 

 

this is right in my wheelhouse, and i really like it. a little does go a long way! i actually noticed that a lighter application brings out the sweetness more.