Baby’s First Chainsaw

[zankoku_zen]

Chainsaw grease and chocolate chip cookies. (The scent is way nicer than you might expect!)

[boomtownrat]

I added Baby's First Chainsaw to my cart the instant I saw the chainsaw grease note. My dad's workshop in my childhood home always smelled pleasant to me, so I was hoping for something that might give me a similar feeling. It also reminded me of the motor oil note in Streets of Detroit, which turned out to be a unique wonder that I can only wear sparingly but cherish every time. I'm glad I made that decision. Even though it only arrived today, I couldn't wait to test Baby's First Chainsaw because the notes sound so interesting and after the year we've all had, a comfort scent sounds particularly welcome.

 

Don't let the chainsaw grease scare you away. Harmonizing with the chocolate, it keeps the cookies from being too sweet and gives the oil an undertone that's almost like a dark musk. It really does smell like chocolate chip cookies, homemade ones that are a little crispy around the edges (my favourite). This is like eating cookies in my dad's workshop.

 

It's not at all overpowering at the moment. If it ages like Streets did, that means it'll probably grow more potent with time. For now, it's a subtle fragrance that kind of fills a similar niche to Two Sheep and Two Goats Resting Together In a Field, even though they don't smell the same. It's comforting but not cloying. Maybe I should get a second bottle!

[ellocentipede]

Hrmmm this is a lot nicer than you’d expect. To me this smells like chocolate syrup with a hint of grease (like WD 40 maybe? It’s been a long time since I’ve smelled any) keeping it from skewing too sweet. Very cool scent—I’m glad I got to try it!

[Threemoons]

 Believe the hype, this is a good one for bringing up memories. In the bottle: Massive chocolate chip cookie dough blast, with a hint of something a tad metallic/greasy, like a hot baking sheet greased with Crisco. On, wet: Motor grease note flares up to the top over the sweetness. Oddly enough, it reminded me of one of my earliest memories at my maternal grandparents'....one of Grandpa's jobs was driving for Entenmanns bakery, and VERY early one AM--it must have been one of the days that we had to go to my neurologist in the Bronx--we stopped by at the factory store for employees only when Grandpa was loading his truck. I remember the smell of the loading area mingling with the incredibly sweet smell of all of those incredibly fresh baked goods. This reminds me of that. More recently, I happen to live off the corner from a very active Italian sweets bakery whose baking operations are pretty much 24/7 (retail is regular hours) and the smell when you walk past the industrial baking area is somewhat similar, especially if you catch them cleaning the mixers. Drydown: Chocolate chip cookies cooling on very hot aluminum racks, with that tiny hint of industrial oil in the background. Don't even try to layer this one; it is its own thing. I actually really like it; it's like a combo of kids' chocolate chip cookie lip balm and some kind of badass industrial thing.

[Casablanca]

This is a curiosity and an oddity, the way black grease oozes out, and then blends right into chocolate.

 

Brain: Urg, motor-oily black grease... brown grease... chocolate, is that you?

 

The cookie note is there with the chocolate, but Brain is a little too hung up on the weird grease-to-chocolate progression to notice it much.

 

With drydown, the notes become less sequential and more blended.

 

This may not be for me, but it's definitely a Glad I Tried It. 

[doomsday_disco]

Whoa. This is a scent experience.

 

I tried this twice (once yesterday, and once today), to see if I would have the same result each time.

 

Baby's First Chainsaw starts off strongly on the metallic grease component on me, and it really does smell like you're in someone's workshop, and there's a plate of chocolate chip cookies on a table nearby, but there's only a whiff of cookie, because my skin seems to be running away with the chainsaw grease. When I tried this yesterday, I realized after a while that part of that component is actually a currant note, and it's one of the currants found in Eat Me. When I tried this today, I recognized that note as soon as I applied it, so it didn't really morph into currant later on, it was just me having that "aha!" moment later in the wear the first time I tried it. It's somewhat jarring while wet and even when dry, but as the scent sits on the skin, it really blooms and ends up smelling like this exquisite metallic sugared vanilla with a tinge of currant and a smear of chocolate on a cookie sheet several hours later.  And I am here for it, but I'm not sure how I feel about the journey that led me to this point. Oddly enough, it's not very chocolate-y on me. That smear of chocolate is far in the background, but I'm okay with that.

 

I'm going to have to sit with this one some more to figure out whether I need more than my decant (the final phase of this scent is amazing, though!), but I highly recommend that people try this, because it's really unique, and just like Beth said, much nicer than you'd expect!

Edited October 24, 2020 by doomsday_disco

[melandie]

Gosh I love this one. The description was weird enough, I knew i had to have it (and BPAL weird descriptions have rarely steered me wrong!)

 

Greasy chocolate chip cookies, like the description says. And that's a good thing. The grease keeps it from being too foody, and adds a super interesting, kind of dark extra element. Excellent wear length too - I was wearing it yesterday, and this morning my husband said I still smelled really good.

 

I do notice, two weeks after receiving it, that the bottle is showing "sediment" sticking to the sides of the bottle. Not a bit deal, but curious if anyone else has seen this.

[zankoku_zen]

Chocolate chip cookies, and a whiff of grease. The grease prevents this from being super foodie. It ends up as chocolate cookie scent though. Good throw and wear length.

[donkehpoo]

Wet: Chocolate chip cookies, and a little bit of grease.

 

Dry: Such an interesting scent. I'm still getting chocolate chip cookies, but they're being grounded by the grease; they're not too sweet, kind of like a mild chocolate chip cookie.. if that makes sense.

 

If you're looking for a cookie scent that isn't too sweet, give this a try. It's surprisingly nice!

[feyofthefellwood]

I kind of love this? This opens with a sharp grease note, which quickly blends into a slightly-burnt chocolate chip cookie smell. It smells like when I put cookies in the oven and later the scent of them wafts through the house and I think, "oh, that smells good . . . I forgot about my cookies! They're going to be crispy!" It softens as it wears until it's kind of like a chocolate chip cookie skin scent. Cookie musk. I'm actually tempted to get a bottle, sigh.

Edited November 10, 2020 by feyofthefellwood
grammar fail

[DigitalCoyote]

I hate you guys for this one.

I say that with love and respect.

 

It smells like when my dad used to pick me up in his work truck on Fridays and we'd go get a treat before he dropped me back off at school or the baby sitter.

 

It made me cry.

 

Edited November 10, 2020 by DigitalCoyote

[fairybites]

First initial impression is that the throw on this is great. Instantly get that chocolate chip cookie note as it is first applied. It takes a while for the grease to kick in and it becomes a bit more prominent once dried down. It's a little off putting at first, but it mellows down and blend in with the chocolate within 10 minutes on me.

 

This isn't completely foodie, so I think this could work well for those who want to try unique scents with a little bit of sweetness. I really doubt I'm going to get a bottle, but this was pretty interesting to try! Who knows, with aging the grease note could lessen considerably and make this more wearable to me.

[Argentwolf]

I was interested in this at first purely because of the name, but once I had heard the full, charming story behind it, and how it reminded the Labbies of meet and greets in the Before Times, that clinched it for me.

 

In the bottle: It's a bit strident! There is definitely a chemical, solvent-like scent with a greasy feel to it. It can be a little daunting. But!

Upon application: A brief shock of that chemical smell. It is sharp, still oily, but it quickly coalesces, congeals into the smell of chocolate chip cookies, where they are fresh out of the oven, the pan is still hot, and the chips which had managed to touch the metal have been burned, while the rest of the cookie circles them in crispy circumference. It's really nice! And unlike some foodie sort of scents, it never gets cloying. It's just a good, warm sort of smell, of a tasty reward waiting for you after a long day at work.

At the end of the day: As it fades, a note of vanilla becomes more dominant in the cookie-smell. 

 

It really is worth a try if -anything- about it appeals to you. Come for the novelty of the title, stay for the strange, delicious magic which has made these notes combine into such an enjoyable scent.

 

[Penance]

I'm a sucker for a perfume with weird notes.  Chainsaw grease and chocolate chip cookies?  Sign me up!  I don't even normally like the smell of chocolate chip cookies and I'm excited about this.

 

In the bottle, it's shockingly gourmand.  I guess I was expecting a noticeable amount of thick, black grease, not just freshly opened cookie jar, but it is what it is.  And when I put it on, it remains shockingly gourmand.  There's basically nothing there but chocolate chip cookies (I can even smell that they're crisp, not chewy...how is that possible?). 

 

Slowly, though, an unidentifiable note comes out.  It's impossible for me to describe at first, other than it adds a strange, but appealing darkness to the chocolate chip cookies.  Not spooky darkness, just darkness of scent.  As it dries, it turns from an almost complete gourmand scent into a sort of "break room at the auto repair shop", with grease-covered hands eating cookies.

 

It's shockingly wearable and even more shockingly appealing.  It really does smell better than it sounds and I'm considering getting a backup.

[DiesMali]

In the bottle: Gooey cookies and thick, black grease. 

 

Wet on my skin: This starts off with strong, black, slightly metallic grease glooped all over a plate of fresh chocolate chip cookies, still warm from the oven. It's almost a bit concerning at first! 

 

Dry: The grease, thankfully, mellows as this dries down, and now it is very unusual but also very yummy. It smells like eating freshly baked chocolate chip cookies inside the workroom of an independent auto shop! Not the huge, slick, unusually clean sort of auto shop, but rather the sort that you'd find in a small town or a backroad in a larger city, run by a couple of guys who just really love tinkering with cars. I take my car to one of those shops, and this smells like I brought a plate of cookies to them...which honestly isn't a bad idea, actually. The grease remains prominent but not overpowering for a while, but as it wears, it smooths out and sort of melts into the cookies, and gives the impression that maybe one of your batches of cookies got a little more dark and crispy than you were going for...but they're still delicious, even if a few of them have burnt edges. Dark, foodie, strange, and strangely delicious. I'm not even gonna test anything else tonight; I wanna just slather this on and wear it to bed.

[ralenth]

ITB: Eating gooey cookies in my step-dad's garage.

 

Wet: Hot metallic grease, but strangely pleasant.

 

Drydown: The grease  calms down. BFC gives off a good dose of baking vanilla and chocolate, but layered with a bit of masculinity. Dad is totally baking cookies for the fundraiser. It's not quite foodie, but it doesn't really smell like anything else I've ever tried. 

[starbrow]

The plastic sleeve that's left when all the chocolate chip cookies are done and only crumbs are left. Ick. I don't get grease/motor oil from this - and I love motor oil in perfumes! - just something unpleasantly chemical and pungent. Upon drydown, I get a little more sweetness, but it's still not a natural kind of chocolate chip cookie, it's very scratch n sniff or lip smackers kind of waxy artificial interpretation of cookie.

 

I do not recommend this to lovers of either motor oil or cookies! YIKES!

 

[Frills]

This is such a unique scent. In the bottle it's chocolate chip cookies, very similar to Chips Ahoy. Then I put it on and there's a little bit of engine grease, like I'm a kid again snacking on a crunchy chocolate chip cookie while my dad works on our car. It's my bedtime scent because it's so comforting.

[crisz]

Agreed with Frills - on drydown, this smells exactly like the moment you open a package of Chips Ahoy cookies!! Both the plastic package and the cookies together in one scent! 😹

[BoneBone24]

Wet: Oooh–chocolate! A nice, earthy-soft cocoa note.

 

Drydown: Chocolate grounded by a not-yet-peggable earthy note. Sweet, brown-sugar-laden cookie dough joins in, bringing out the meltier aspects of the chocolate. Only in the edge of the throw do I detect a grittier metallic note.

 

Dry: A yummy, warm, slightly dirty chocolate chip cookie! Like the hands of a mechanic that went home and spent their entire night baking cookies.

 

 

7.5 out of 10 bones