Dirty

[Blood onmy hands]

A wonderful antidote to an all-nighter oozing with drunken, addled perversion and debauchery. A fresh, crisp white linen scent: perfectly clean, perfectly breezy.

Based on the description of dirty as "crisp white linen" this is something that I would never have tried on my own (received an imp of Dirty as a swap freebie). I hate most scents that are described as white and the smell of laundry detergent tends to make me queasy. Still, I gave this scent a try because... well, I try everything.

This isn't at all what I expected. It does have a sort of laundry scent to it... but more like laundry that fell off the clothesline and into a flower bed while it was still drying in a warm summer sun.

Also, this blend smells rather fruity on me (plums?) mixed in with the laundry and florals. Very unique. I'm not sure if I'll buy a full bottle right away, but I'll definitely keep this one in the back of my mind for future orders. It is very soft and clean, perfect for days when you don't really want to feel like you're wearing perfume.

[byrdie]

Vial ~ The scent of detergent on freshly laundered sheets.

 

Wet ~ Maybe I smelled vodka from teh man who just pased the bus stop. Occasionally I get flashes of citrus, but this mainly smells like the detergent aisle at the grocery store.

 

Drying ~ Sort of a generic conditioner scent, like someone on the bus to work who has freshly shampooed hair might smell.

 

Drydown ~ Wow! This is fading fast. For a while, I was wondering if this was BPAL's answer to Clean, which I thought was quite acceptable for a commercial perfume. Wait! It's flaring up again. Pear and champagne, I think. I like this stage: it's a little sweet and fizzy on me.

 

Dry ~ Verrry light, a little sweet. It's starting to turn and merge the detergent back in, though not quite as sharply. It's turning powdery but giving strength to the fruit note. This oil smells like a faerie humped my arm.

 

Fade ~ It's moving from pear-scented laundry detergent to a slightly sweet powder. I think I put two swipes on each arm less than two hours ago as of this writing. (Later.) The last time I sniffed my wrist before the movie started, I smelled the beginnings of an aquatic. It made me wonder if there's citrus in this oil. The clean, clear smell of water was in here, without the detergent. Odd. Now, hours later, one wrist still smells a little powdery, while the other smells somewhat as if there'd been a sturdy aquatic on it that had kept its watery edge.

 

Final thoughts ~ This isn't me. Even at the pear and champagne stage, it wasn't me. It has moments, but this is another oil that I can't see becoming something I'd really like at other times of the month.

 

5ml ~ No.

[13bodies]

in the imp: fruity, with the scent of clean clothes in the background.

 

wet: now I smell it; it smells like the freshly laundered white t-shirts my brother wore when he was a toddler.

 

dry: didn't change much, it just faded (in a few hours, but I've found my skin eats most of the scents. Stupid skin)

 

Because of the association with my childhood this scent makes me very happy. It would be nice and comforting to wear.

[magikfanfic]

In the bottle: It smells like fresh laundry. Like summer breezes blowing through the yard. The wind in your car while driving down a highway with the windows down.

 

Wet: This is clean with a little bit of a sweet tea smell to it, which could just be me going crazy. But it's such a nice smell. This is like smelling tea with sugar dissolving in it, steaming hot the way it's suppsoed to be.

 

Dry down: This is clean and wonderful and just relaxing. I love it. It has a vaguely citrus smell to it as well. It does have this lovely fruity/citrus sweetness that is to die for. Seriously, I love this blend. It's just clean and fresh and it reminds me of the semester I spent in England drinking hot tea and sitting in the dining room for hours with friends. I swear that it smells like fresh brewed tea with lemon and sugar to me. I must be insane.

 

Dry: This doesn't change much at all on me. It retains that clean, sweet almost tea like scent that is relaxing and clean and refreshing. I love it. I don't understand why clean linen smells like tea with sugar and lemon, but it does. And I love it for that. I love it so much. This just went to the top of my 5ml list despite the fact that I have way, way, way too many bottles.

[UltraViolet]

In the bottle

clean, slightly sweet and fresh

 

On

Soft fresh white floral.

I smell a cucumber-y freshness that is just beautiful. It's along the lines of maybe Blue Moon, Danube, or Havisham, but greener smelling.

It's also sort of watery smelling blend but not in an ozone-y way.

Morphing now into a stronger floral.

 

30 minutes

Lasts longer than the average blend.

It's a softer fresher green floral now.

 

Throw:

more than average

 

Scent category:

Aqua/green/floral

 

Summary

It's wonderfully fresh and summery.

 

Purchase again?

Yes.

 

1-5 rating (5 being best).

4

[antimony]

On me it was plumeria and cucumber. Or maybe sugar and "fresh breeze" laundry detergent. No citrus to my nose. It's a sweet summertime scent that's neither citrusy nor "perfumey", and would be good for hot weather.

[violetblue]

This one brought me back to the lovely days of Blue Moon - it's fresh and clean like that one was. I was so excited to get this as a frimp, and it's a really sweet, crisp, clean scent. I'd love to wash my clothes in it, or make it into a mister to spray myself with on hot days!

Gorgeous!

[karlajean]

I got Dirty as a freebie from a LJer - I'd wanted her Absinthe and when she went to send it to me she found she'd accidentally given it to someone else. She refunded my money AND sent me this to make up for it... and it turned out to be my favorite out of all the ones she sent me.

 

In the bottle, it kinda... I don't know, reminds me of laundry detergent? I can definitely smell cucumber in there somewhere. I actually don't really like the way it smells wet. Thankfully that phase doesn't last more than 5-10 minutes.

 

But dry, this is heavenly. It really does smell like fresh laundry - in particular, fresh laundry straight off the clothesline on a summer day where it started nice and sunny but started to spit rain and my mom hurried out to grab the clothes before they got wet. This was the type of day I liked most in the summertime.

 

It smells clean and bright and I just want to bury my nose in and cuddle up to it like I did with clean sheets.

[vyvyan]

This does smell clean and bright and lovely and I'm not sure why I don't totally love it, except that, wonderful as it is, it's not really *me*. Clean and a little sweet, not what I'd call "crisp," a good summertime scent.

[Emu Nymph]

I got this as a late birthday gift yesterday. And I knew this would be the one I put on first. I hopped into the card opened it up and sniffed deeply. Oh that's was nice. It was light and breezy, and slightly sweet.

 

I didn't smell laundry detergent just light though. And nice.

 

I might even have to get a 5ml. This would go nicely with my wedding dress but I couldn't get a 5ml in time.

[Brianne]

In the bottle:

This is hard for me to describe in the vial... there is something oddly familiar about the smell, and also something a little boozey smelling to me, though I know this will change on my skin.

 

On me:

Wow this is lovely. Right off the bat even, it starts to smell fresh and clean, exactly what I expected from this blend. It doesn't so much smell like clean linens to me, since it doesn't have this particular...muted quality to it that I would associate with that. It makes me think of when my Aunt is over doing her laundry, and she just comes out from the laundry room and the smell of fabric softener is strong on her and underneath you can even smell a bit of her perfume. It's clean and fresh still, but it's romantic smelling to me as well.

 

Final note:

I really like this, this will be great for days when I need to feel *crisp* On a side note, this reminds me a bit of Benefit's "Maybe Baby", one of my favorite perfumes!

[Tesseljoan]

In the vial Dirty smells of clean laundry, in an intrigueing, interesting way. I felt a bit cheated when I put this on my skin and got nothing but a floral biting at me (florals have thhis nasty tendency to turn loud and sharp on my skin. I gave this imp to Quinkel, and on her skin it stayed fresh, it had a lovely melon note to it.

 

I'm off to post my skin on the swap boards *sigh*

[k00kaburra]

In bottle: Bright and clean! In many ways, this is the way bubbling water smells. It's just amazing light florals and the hints of greens, just the way fresh-washed laundry ought to smell.

On me: Reminds me heavily of Calgon's 'morning glory' without the alcohol effect. Very breezy and sweet. Clean in a bottle.

LOVE IT.

[urraca]

This really does smell like the clothes my Mum dries on the line outside in the summer. Nothing fabric softenery about it, it is fresh cotton and warm sun.

 

I smell in it a floral, neither too crisp nor too sweet as well as some kind of trat fruit like pear and even a hint of grape like white wine or champagne as well as an aquqtic scent like Penthus. I have no idea if those notes are actually there --- it is just what I smell. It stays stronger and lasts longer than I would have expected for something basically so light. Yum, another winner.

Edited June 25, 2005 by urraca

[zankoku_zen]

I have high hopes for this. I was hoping for the White Rabbit to be quite lineny but it turned out to be cloyingly sweet on me.

 

In the Bottle: Smells floral. And very clean

 

On Skin: It's a light, pretty floral. Very clean. Very breezy. There is something fruit-sweet to it.

 

On Drydown:It smells like golden sunshine, like Fae does but without the peach note. I find that I enjoy Fae for the same reasons but the peach is a great enhancement. I was hoping for a more clean-linen smell and this ended up more floral than anything.

 

Verdict: This scent gives me a 'just bathed' scent. It's a great pick me up. But I'm not wild about it. I think that there is someone who has to be more enthusiastic about it than I am, and this imp definitely deserves someone who can love it more.

[modesty_blaise]

Ok, let me start off by saying that I don´t do florals. My nose is waaay to sensitive and I tend to get a headache if I go anywhere near something perfume-y and heavy. Dirty, on the other hand, is floral, but not cloying at all. This is what I´d like aaaaall floral scents to be like, so I could wear them too!

 

Dirty to me:

Afternoon. I´ve spent all day in the garden, getting a tan, and my shoulders feel kinda sore. I´ve had loads of lemonade and ice cold water, and I´m just on my way back inside to get some more. Then I mysteriously end up in bed, curled up with a book, the breeze from the window making my curtains move and my linens feel so incredibly smooth against my sunburned skin. I know I should go back outside to enjoy the sun while it´s here, but I´ve had it with the hot weather and would much rather stay here.

[Stumbeline]

It smells JUST like clean linens. It's beautifully non-perfumey. It smells fabulous on me, very fresh and clean. Like I just stepped out of the shower in the summer. Probably will buy a big bottle of this, and definitely using it on my sheets!

[OriginalWacky]

Bottle (Imp): Oooh, dryer sheet breezes. So fresh and pretty.

 

Just On: Yummm, fresh and slightly sweet dryer sheet breeziness.

 

An hour or two later: Mmmm, this is fresh. Just a hint of sweet. Not so much dryer sheets, now, which is okay, but I did like that part too.

 

Around 6 hours: Pretty much the same, but much softer, quieter, if you will.

 

12 hours: This is totally gone.

 

Overall: I like this more than I expected to. I tend to lean more towards foody and sweet, but this is really fresh and nice.

 

After reading other reviews: Yes, I got the breeziness. The dryer sheet part was nice, and the barely sweet freshness was great.

[Elemcee]

Dirty does indeed smell like clean sheets. There's also a soapiness about it, too. It is like getting into a bed that has just been changed and the sheets have that crisp, clean smell.

I can definately smell the floral, and there is lemon and maybe I can detect a hint of tea, as well.

[emzebel]

I got this imp as an extra in a swap (thanks Gin!). It is not something that I probably would ever have gotten around to ordering on my own, but it is a really nice scent. In the vial, it is very fresh and simple. It appears to be very much the base note of White Rabbit, which I adore, and any floral notes I pick up are of the afternoon in the garden, not of the wow, we are in a big flower! kind...

 

So, liking the scent in the vial, somewhat appropriately, I think, I decided to try Dirty after indulging in a bit of, er, afternoon delight, with my hubby. It was a very appropriate "pick-me-up" scent in that situation, particularly on a hot summer day, and it stays true to my impression in the vial on my skin. But it is just a little too much of a good thing, I think. It is almost like a linen single note, and while I like the scent overall, I like it better blended with other things to temper it (did I mention White Rabbit). At the end of the day, I am glad that I tried it, but will probably pay this one forward to some other good soul when I finally get around to swapping some stuff.

[dcmo]

Light, airy, clean, refreshing..like a dip in the pool on an extremely hot day. This is gorgeous

[Muppetk]

Wet: hmm, interesting. It reminds me of cucumber melon without being overly fruity -- I guess it's the clean linen scent.

 

Dry: 20 minutes later, it's nearly as faint as the Vechernyaya I tried on last night. Some lingering sweetness without being the slightest bit cloying. Not very me, but nice enough.

 

To the swap-pile, Robin!

[Abbie]

In the bottle: Orchid. I'm not much good at notes but this is definitely a tropical orchid. Very sweet, summery floral.

 

First on: I don't know where everyone else is getting the linen, cotton, and fabric softener scents. Perhaps I am purchasing the wrong sort of fabric softener and detergent, because if it smelled like this, I would do a lot more wash.

 

Dry: It's really quite sweet, with the crisp floral note going bye-bye. Probably not for me overall.

[scourgeotheseas]

Dirty - emzebel passed this on to me, 'cuz she loves me!!

 

In the bottle: I can barely smell anything in the vial, but I get a whiff of laundry detergent, and maybe cucumber.

 

On me/wet: At first it does smell of dryer sheets, or laundry detergent, but it rapidly turns into a sweet aquatic note mixed with cucumber(?) and a soft, wispy floral.

 

Drydown: For such a light feeling to all the notes, this is actually quite a strong scent with some decent throw. As it dries, aquatic and florals combine into a soapy note, which I don't love as much. However, it does smell very fresh and clean.

 

Well, either I'd apply less next time or layer it with another scent, because it is really overpowering on me. However, it is light and summery, and very pretty. Plus, it's got a great name!

[rellyjean]

There's almost a lemony sweetness to it.

 

It smells a lot like detergent, or rather, what a lot of detergents are trying for and never get right. Like sheets that have been hanging out and drying in the sunshine. Except I always think of that as a warm scent, and this is more cool and crisp. The sheets are still wet, and flapping a little heavily in the sun, and just starting to pull the open air and sunshine in.

 

Very soothing. I sniff my wrists and feel more calm and centered. This seems like something I could dab on and curl up with if I was going to bed - it'd be calming and reassuring and maybe I'd get some sleep. (I'm an insomniac, I mean that as a very good thing. I use Blood Amber for that now and again, just a nice calming scent to get my mind to stop rattling around.)

 

I came to bed late and hubby curled around me and said "Mmmmmm, you smell good." Who knew it was an aphrodisiac?

 

ETA: Oh, this would be so lovely as a room scent (in a burner) or--even better--as a linen spray!

Oooooh, I was just thinking that. Dab a drop or two onto my sheets, since I don't have a yard to air-dry them.

 

I've mentioned a lot about night-time use and sleep and linen spray, but I also fully intend to use this as a daytime scent, for days when I want something clean and direct and refreshing. Gothabillywench's description of "you smell good" vs. "your perfume smells good" was a pretty apt one.

 

Definitely getting more of this. Mmmmm.

Edited July 20, 2005 by rellyjean