Whip

[amybee]

Agony and ecstasy: black leather and damp red rose.

in the bottle - all i smell is ROSE. but a fresh red rose, and maybe a hint of greenery. very sharp.

after a 30 or 45 minute drydown, i smell a fantastic leather, fresh leather, like the inside of a new...something leather. (sorry.) with a hint of rose.

a couple of hours later it seems the rose has turned a bit soapy. but the leather is still there and going strong. i will probably layer this with de sade.

[bubblefish]

In the imp it has this astringent quality to it that is almost unpleasant. But on my skin it opens up into a very pleasant scent. However, I can only pick up the rose in this one. But it is a very, very nice rose!

[Gaidig]

In the bottle: Rose and more rose.

 

On me: The leather comes out as a base note and makes it more sophisticated. Still, the leather harmonizes and melds with the rose, making it very hard to distinguish the two notes as separate entities. This is an apple-sized red rose, fully open and heady on the vine.

 

1 hour+ later: At first I thought it was fading, fast, but then suddenly it wasn't. It has very good throw on me. I wouldn't have thought it possible, but this is a sultry floral.

[laslibres]

I really didn't think I would like this, since a lot of rose blends tend to go crazy on me. But I do like this one in particular. It's a very deep, rich rose, like a Lincoln rose, which we used to grow when I was little and I really like that particular kind. It's definitely dark, dark red.

 

In the bottle, the leather is only a faint undertone, but on me the leather comes out more strongly. Whip goes through a phase on me of being more leather than rose, or rather, of the leather amping out further and the rose sticking closer to my skin, but then they kinda switch places. The rose is also very dewy and fresh, which is lovely, and that ends up being the dominant note in the end, with very little leather.

 

I really liked the leather note while it was there, and I wish it had stuck around, but I still really like Whip because I really hadn't encountered a rose I liked before, or that smelled true at all! (Maiden a little bit, but Whip is even truer.) It's fabulous. Definitely keeping this imp, and any more that may happen to wander my way.

[comearoundruby]

in the bottle: a very light rose, a tiny rose, an almost invisible smell that could be anything at all but is only probably rose.

 

wet: oh there's the rose! and a lovely rose it is too, perfect and red. but it's not the scent of your nose right up to the petals, it's the scent of the rose being next to you, somewhere in the room. no leather at all to my nose.

 

dry: there is still no leather to my nose, but there is something just behind the rose that might be it.

 

 

all in all, a very very lovely rose blend. i agree with whomever mentioned this as a back-up for rose red. it's not the same utterly pure Rose of rose red, but it has the same strange similar "redness"

[angelicruin]

Inside the imp, it smells of tea rose to me.

 

Wet on the skin, mostly a light delicate rose scent. A minute or two after application and I can smell the leather note mixed in with the rose. Rose is definitely dominating this blend, but the leather gives it just enough to temper the rose from going too strong.

 

Rose is one of those notes that sometimes goes very bad on me and other times just works. This is one of those times it's cooperating with my skin. I will keep my imp, but I don't really see a bottle in my future.

[Myotis]

I tried this on without knowing the scent description of it.

 

I could have sworn it was screaming green tea on me.

I can't stand rose scents and I didn't even pick up on it until AFTER I looked it up.

Now it smells all rose (and screaming rose at that!) on me and I had to wash it off.

It was strong enough to cause a headache within minutes of it touching my skin. Yikes!

 

The leather didn't really show up on my skin. Just pure, screaming, headache-inducing rose.

hahahaha

[Xylis]

in the imp:

 

the impression that i'm getting is not one of a bouquet of roses, but rather one dark, intense, solitary rose standing on its own beneath a midnight sky. soft, insistent and sultry, whip smells so sexy that i can't wait to slather it all over myself.

 

wet on my skin:

 

now, my skin chemistry has a penchant for being naughty and it totally broke my heart when "eat me" got all messed up. so just picture my delight at the fact that the beautiful rose scent is not only unaltered, but rather, it's even deeper and more intense. beautiful. upon sniffing my wrist, i'm starting to get a tinge of that black leather scent which adds an edge to the rose. this is no fragile blossom; she's a beautiful rose of the night.

 

drydown:

 

whip has a pretty good throw. i'm getting whiffs of the scent just typing on the keyboard. my untrained nose is unable to pick out the black leather note though, this is all rose to me, but what a sexy rose this is. upon a deeper sniff at my wrist, i'm picking up a slight sharpness, almost as if the rose is reminding me of the thorns hidden beneath her petals. this is a wonderful, deep, seductive, slightly melancholic scent. definitely all woman, there's no girliness to this. just pure deep sensuality, this reminds me of corsets, boudoirs and romantic rendezvous.

 

 

verdict:

 

this is so gorgeous, i just wish my fiance was home, whip's putting me in the mood for a long, romantic interlude. seriously though, as someone very new to BPAL, this is the first scent i've tried amongst a few that i truly adore and very probably, this will be my first 5ml. i'll be poking around with the other rose scents before i make my decision, but this scent has definitely stolen my heart.

Edited August 21, 2009 by Xylis

[topazphoenix]

I wanted this one to be rose and leather love, but sadly it's all rose on me. Maybe age will strengthen the leather note..

[quigza]

imp/wet: rose, with a very faint whiff of new leather (sniff the grainy/raw side of a new belt for what I mean)

 

dry: rose, a little green, and the leather develops into the smell of a leather store- it's fleeting though

 

later: The rose beats the leather down & it becomes all rose. Then I start getting an itchy nose. I love this scent, but it's not something I can wear normally. *pouts*

[theandorran]

In the bottle: Very strong tea rose, the same kind of rose that I smelled in London. It's nice, but I'm not sure that it's that exciting.

 

Wet: It turns a little soapy on my skin wet, which had me worried. The rose is still there, but it's melding with something else (resulting in the soapiness? I'm not sure). It's hard to describe what it is, exactly. I'm sure that that's the leather, but it's not really recognisable as such.

 

Dry: Okay, the soapiness is gone, which is good. I was concerned all I'd get was soap on. Now I get a muted rose, darker and more dramatic than a standard rose scent. It's almost musty-smelling. Nice, but I'm not sure it's a favorite.

[Venneh]

In the imp, I get a soapy rose scent, like with Moscow and Epitaph. No leather. Hopefully the leather comes out to play on my skin...

 

Wet, I'm not really sure what I'm getting. There's rose there, but it's being blocked out by something - maybe it's the scent of leather, wet? I'll have to let it dry and see how it turns out.

 

Yeah, the rose is absolutely dominating here. Going to age this, I think, and see if the other notes will come out to play more.

Edited October 9, 2009 by Venneh

[fisharescary]

I got this as a frimp, so I had no clue what to expect. I was thinking leather and blood, so imagine my surprise when the bottle, and wet on my skin, gave me soft, soapy florals! Like a kids' bubble bath at Grandma's house-I was just like 'what?' Also borderline too dry and sharp for me. But then after a few minutes a juicy thread came through, making it more 'palatable.' I was like 'jasmine and lemon??'

I think I honestly got the Jasmine because it was one of the scents I used to use more often a few years ago (at the same time as rose) and it was just a scent memory from that time trying to jog itself. It kept morphing pretty quickly into something wetter, juicier, and much more age-appropriate smelling, so I got curious and looked up the description.

I don't think I'm getting much leather (now 15 mins in). It is very rosey, almost a single note for me. Fortunately although there is a tad of the soapy/powderiness left, it's sufficiently wet enough that I think I can wear this. Will update later if it does anything crazy. Throw is not great, but not weaksauce either.

[MoonFaerie]

I wanted this one to be rose and leather love, but sadly it's all rose on me. Maybe age will strengthen the leather note..

 

This. I wanted to like it so much. It's just a strong rose scent on me. Way too flowery for my tastes.

[HamletsKeeper]

So rose is not a note that amps on me, if anything my skin eats it. And leather has to date been far too astringent and boot polishy. But nonetheless I had to try one of the staples of BPAL.

 

Far from being something reminiscent of a dominatrix this is a very soft scent. I was all set for some grown-up kinky goodness but got cuticle care. When first applied it had all the charm of a generic handcreme. That vaguely greeny floraly smell cosmetics company's are fond of. On drydown I wish it was different. Sadly all I get is handcreme.

 

Revisited - I've worn this scent for a week now in a body lotion to really try and understand it. The first thing to note is that the rose in this is extremely watery to me. Like rose water. I get occassional whiffs of rose but not the thick, full bodied in my face rose scent I expected. I think this must be what everyone is calling a "realistic rose", meaning it's more tart than sweet, very dewy and has a lot of greenery about it. I'm disappointed because in this scent I really expected a powerful rose perfume note sitting on an dark undercurrent of astringent leather. Likewise the leather is just the tiniest touch and not really noticable to any great degree. If you love leather you be will disappointed with this scent.

 

I personally find this scent to be too light and more like a cosmetic cream scent than a perfume. My coworker ( a straight man) however said he thought it smelled divine and he could smell it all day when I offered him some of my whip scented hand cream. If you prefer your scents very light, enjoy BPALs realitstic rose note and rose really blooms on you, then you might like it. But it's not a favourite of mine mainly because it doesn't have enough presence. I am a fresh floral person but this is not one for me.

Edited November 15, 2009 by HamletsKeeper

[sarielswish]

 

In the vial, all I get is rose. Rose rose rose. I might as well have a bottle of attar of rose in my hand.

 

Wet on my skin, again all I get is rose. I'm not even getting the slightest hint of leather.

 

10-15 minute dry-down - *sigh*. Still just rose, but now it's got a chemically sort of undertone to it. Not very pleasant.

 

1 hour dry-down - It just smells like old lady rose soap. That makes me sad, because I had such high hopes for it.

[Violaine]

A frimp from the lab, and a wonderfully lucky one for me!

 

This, to my nose, is very close to Aveda's Rose Absolute perfume oil. It's almost a single note to me, light, true, and unchanging. It doesn't give me a headache, as many roses and florals do, and I don't feel over-scented at all. I slathered, too.

 

Gorgeous. Bottle-worthy.

[Sawasdee]

I like this heady fresh red rose. Lots of throw and lasting power, I have to be careful to not over apply this one or else it can be too much. The leather in this is hard for me to make out, it's very much in the background just giving this a bit of a darker, smooth feel to it. Rose definitely amps on me, and it's not easy for me to find a rose I like, but this one is nice.

[SugarCookie]

Morphing BPAL at it's most amazing froma string burst of freshly cut rose to creeping leather that eventually makes it's way centerstage. This is a fun blend.

[milo]

This is a somewhat sharp, rose with a touch of leather. I only get the leather intermittently, and it is lovely, but the ROSE loves to show her presence and drowns out any loveliness the leather offers. This rose is not soapy on me, FWIW, but I don't think Whip is for me.

[MinxyMinou]

This is almost all rose on me with a very slight touch of leather. Throw and staying power are average for me. I think I prefer the rose scent i get from London above this. I'll be keeping my imp but I doubt I'll need a bottle.

[donnatron]

Imp: Strong, rich red roses. So realistic! So rosy!

 

Wet: The rose acquires a brief, fifteen second descent into bathroom air freshener land but rebounds nicely. A touch of leather comes out. The two scents sort of tussle for a while. It's not unpleasant, just surprising.

 

Dry: Move over Blood Rose, I may have found my new GC rose holy grail. This is a perfect damp red rose with just the teensiest hint of kinky leather behind it. Extraordinarily simple but beautiful. Very rich and feminine. Makes me feel like a million dollars even though I'm sitting around the house in a bunny hug.

 

Throw: Good. Mostly the rose throws.

 

Overall: I love this. It is exquisite and beautiful and wonderfully simple and all the other adjectives I can think of to describe "awesome." Definitely on the big bottle list.

[DeathBlooms]

I've had this one aging in my wooden oil box for almost a year.

 

 

In the imp: It smells like a fresh cut tea rose.The green of the stem comes out.I don't smell the leather yet.

 

Wet: The rose scent lingers on my skin going back and forth between strong and subtle for a minute and then suddenly the leather comes out with a sharp bite.

After 5 minutes the rose and leather starts to blend nicely.They don't overpower each other.

 

Dry-down: After 1-4 hours of sniffing, it switches over to mostly rose with the leather barely lingering in the background.

 

Overall: This one reminds me of The Rose only with leather.It's like The Rose's naughty sister.I get a mental image of a woman in a long black leather coat wearing rose perfume.It lasted for hours on my skin and like the others that posted said, it has a nice throw.I'm particular when it comes to rose based scents and this one is really good.

 

[Aldercy]

I don't know if my skin chemistry is just fluctuating since I stopped a certain medication, but this rose blooms like no other on me.

 

Whip is all-rose-all-the-time, yet it has none of the thin, metallic, watery, perfumey, icky qualities that most heavy rose scents do for me. Usually I need lots of spice to make a rose note work. But the rose in Whip is absolutely fantastic. It's deep, velvety, almost foody in its warmth. It just has a beautiful texture. Maybe the otherwise undetectable leather is actually lending something to the underlying structure of this blend to give it these gorgeous, powerful qualities, but I just really don't smell leather. I smell the sexiest rose ever.

[impolight]

::::

 

Mmmmmmm... As it's name implies, this is tightly-braided, deliciously glowing hot, Leather...

This is raised, inflamed skin, singing the raw, hot praises of watery-eyed pain as it, trembling, reaches out for the feathery soft brush of a Rose petals teasing stroke...

Whip is the yummy shine on a stiletto-heeled, patent-leather boot biting the skin at your collar-bone...

Whip is the seductively wet sheen of hot, bubblegum pink lip gloss...

A fluorescent-pink, anime, kitten on fire...

Whip is a great scent for Her...

"Yes, Ma'am" has never fallen more thrillingly tingly from the lips.

4/5!

Consistently great stuff from the Lab!