Heliotrope

[jj_j]

This is the soft, not-really-powdery, but barely sweet note that's so elusive and beautiful in Tamora, and O, I think.

 

It doesn't smell like the heliotrope that grew outside my best friend's back porch, but I could be remembering it wrong, as it's been several years. Regardless, I say ...

 

Mmmm! Full bottle needed, ASAP.

[xoe]

This wasn't as sweet as I expected. It is sweet, but not as sweet as I expected. It is soft. It isn't really powdery. It doesn't really smell like I remember the flower heliotrope smelling either.

[Ina Garten Davita]

jj_j generously decanted me some of Heliotrope into an adorable tiny cobalt bottle.

 

My one true love. It's so beautiful, it leaves me breathless and speechless.

[grrrlennyl]

at first: a thick, almost pungent floral. nice, but very heavy.

on: this is really nice. a sweet flower, but with a slightly soapy bite to it. fabulous.

half an hour later: still sweet, and a bit powdery. it's smells white. very pretty.

1 hour later: i LOVE this. seriously. it's wonderful. sweet, powdery, white. so beautiful.

2 hours later: even more powdery. this is gorgeous.

overall: i'll definitely be keeping an eye out for oils with heliotrope in them. this stuff i beautiful.

[Larila]

This scent of heliotrope is very lovely, after appying this scent it had a somewhat high pitch feel about it with a lingering sweetness in the back ground, in 15 minutes it became lighter and a dab of sweetness and slightly powderey, it's very light, had to reapply not a problem, my first time ever smelling heliotrope, i love it.

[fairywingmaker]

Wow! Heliotrope knocks my socks off! What a beautiful sweet smell. It's not overpowering in its sweetness...it's a soft lovely...mmmm what is that? kind of a scent. I too will be looking for the blends that have heliotrope in them.

[Gin]

Heliotrope

 

My first thought is that this is almost like honey in its sweetness and tone. It's warm and slightly powdery. Very pretty! This is one of the notes I love in Tamora, but I didn't know what it was until now.

[paperdoll]

Heliotrope is bright - almost sparkly - in the bottle. It is sweet and powdery... very pretty.

 

I know there are many blends out there that contain heliotrope that I love - Greed, Tamora, and Leo come immediately to mind. Unfortunately, the single note is something I cannot wear. It is instant baby powder on me, which I hate!

[Scarlett]

In the imp: floral, but not as sweet as I remember.

 

On me: I like this well enough, floral but powdery. I wish it were even more powder. Nice, but I think I prefer it in a blend rather than a SN.

[quikslvr]

Very soft, a bit powdery, and a little hard to place as floral. Not my thing, though--I can tell that from the start. I identify it as high and yellowy in tone. It seems that a similar scent might be used in baby products or something--or perhaps it just went baby powder on me. Hard to tell.

[OriginalWacky]

Bottle (Imp): This smells of faintly sweet fresh flowers.

 

Just On: Flowers. What a terribly surprising thing, yes?

 

An hour or two later: Hmm, almost like a touch of spice on the flower scent.

 

Around 6 hours: Quite faint now, still some flower, no soap.

 

12 hours: It's barely there, but it's flower.

 

Overall: Not too bad, especially since I didn't turn this to soap.

 

After reading other reviews: I didn't get quite as much sweet as everyone else seemed to, but I do like it.

[scourgeotheseas]

Heliotrope - from the Single Note swap circle.

 

In the bottle: Alcohol, actually. I wonder if this is BPAL?

 

On me: A light, sweet floral. So pretty! So very, very pretty! Delicate, yet definitely there.

 

Wow! I need to find more blends with heliotrope, obviously.

[voodoobaby]

I got rubbing alcohol from the vial as well. I think I remember someone saying something about the imps in the single note swap circle leaking and having to clean them off--maybe that's where the smell came from.

 

So with that aside, once I put it on my skin it was all marshmallows and baby powder. An extremely lovely scent. Something I didn't think I would like, but I really, really do. Now I'll be forced to pick up an imp of Hollywood Babylon.

[Shollin]

First sniff: Very, very sweet. Syrupy-sweet. This doesn’t smell like any flower I know of, but I’ve never smelled heliotrope in person.

 

Wearing: Still seriously sweet. It’s just at the very edge of being cloying. As it dries, it becomes less sweet, but also starts to go powdery. I’ve noticed heliotrope and gardenia paired together in quite a number of scents, and now I’m wondering if the sweet-white-flower scent I identify as gardenia is really a combination of both. At any rate, it’s not me.

 

Sounds like it was a lot sweeter on me than on most other folks. Odd.

[anmorata]

SN Heliotrope:

Wet: Strong alcohol.

Drydown: very soft, sort of a powdery floral. Almost vanilla but not quite.

[yeahbutnobut]

Heliotrope

 

In the imp, this smells like almond, but with a soft, 'juicy' quality. I don't get alcohol at all, just something I can only describe as 'juicy almond'!

On the skin, it becomes truly beautiful! A gorgeous, sparkling, light, soft and powdery floral scent with nuances of vanilla, sugar, marshmallows, cherry and almond, but without being foody at all. This is the drydown of Eclipse I love so much…

I remember going into a garden which had a heliotrope plant with white-lilac coloured flowers as opposed to the usual purple flowers, which had a lovely sweet powdered vanilla like scent. The drydown of this smells very similar, I think, but it also has the cherry-like bite of the purple variety.

I'm so glad I have an imp of this, it's complex enough to be worn alone, and to experiment with layering.

[hadaverde]

In the bottle, this is a light, sweet floral with a subtle undertone of spice, lending it a rather effervescent quality. On the skin, my first impression is cream soda, but in a subtle, not-sickly-sweet way...a hint of vanilla, and more of that fizzy quality. I swear i can detect this particular note in Morocco, although Morocco's official description contains no mention of heliotrope. I got very little change between wet and dry with this oil -- the only difference was a slight deepening of the scent, and a mellowing (though not disappearance) of the effervescence.

[Blood onmy hands]

Heliotrope singlenote has much the same feel that I got from Al Araaf. Waxy white blossoms drizzled in honey. It is sweet and subtle. The drydown is powdery, but not in a bad way. It's not a baby powder sort of scent, just very soft.

 

I like this one a lot, but it's not something that I'll probably ever wear.

[roesmoker]

I like Heliotrope SN a lot - so far it's my favorite single note. I was surprised at how much more I liked it than expected "sure hits" like Vanilla Bean and Sweet Clove. It seems to have a little more depth than they do. As to what it actually smells like? I get a golden, sparkling, almost ambery vanillic scent. It could be floral I guess but since 99% of florals turn to soap on me, I don't associate them with anything nice. It does make me think of honey, but not the BPAL honey note since that one hates me.

Edited December 10, 2005 by roesmoker

[k00kaburra]

In bottle: Spicy ginger. Strong and nostril-puckering. It makes me think of my grandmother, who keeps chopped bits of ginger all over the house to keep bugs out. (Or something - I've never actually asked why she has it everywhere.)

On me: Very faint and dusty-spicy. Someone else said potatos - I get a bit of that, yes.

[Muppetk]

A moderately strong scent. It's a sweet, somewhat rich, definitely *distinctive* floral, somewhat clasically perfumey. It doesn't have the baby-powderness of the Demeter Heliotrope. Somehow it has an undertone of diet seven-up. (And this both before and after I've eaten, so it's not just because I applied when hungry.)

 

It's interesting at least. Not something I'd wear on its own, I don't think. It's possible that this one is an acquired taste. But there are several bpals with heliotrope notes that I like, so it's definitely not a blend killer for me. And I like that it's not wussy. It's a strong, solid scent for a floral.

[edenssixthday]

Heliotrope - This is the prettiest single note by far. I had no idea how much I would like heliotrope. I find that most commercial perfumes with heliotrope in them are very bitter and unpleasant. BPAL Heliotrope SN, however, is sweet, and very, very creamy, almost like a vanilla-based floral. This is the type of scent I don't need to use as a layering note -- it's gorgeous on its own. I'm going to definitely keep my eye peeled for more BPAL Heliotrope SN and BPAL blends with heliotrope in the ingredient list.

[slave1]

HELIOTROPE

 

In Bottle: Soft and sweet

 

On Skin: This is so gentle! It is one of the softest sweetest scents I have ever smelled. I always thought heliotrope was more bubblegummy, and while it does have the bubblegum scent to a degree, it also has a soft powdery feel. It has the beautiful sweet depth of honey, and the velvety feel of a skin musk. I love it. I love that it is uber girly and makes me feel innocent yet sexy. It has a golden pink feel. I would love to have gallons of this as I feel about a bunch of BPAL single notes. They’re so beautiful and unique! I could see myself wearing this daily, it could fit any occasion. It has a light throw and very short wearlength on me... it fades within minutes.

Edited October 19, 2006 by slave1

[supremegoddessofall]

Spicy and mildly aquatic. I don't know what I was expecting Heliotrope to smell like, other than "yellow," but this certainly wasn't it! Color me pleasantly surprised. This is rich, spicy, and clean smelling.

[fairnymph]

Pale gold oil. This does not at all smell like what I thought it did. It must smell very different in blends or on my skin, or else it's just a different from what Beth generally uses these days. It's sour and soapy and not really very floral - it's floral, but faintly - and there's only a hint of the golden, glowing loveliness I've always associated with heliotrope. Shocking!

 

Less sour and more soapy and quite powdery on my skin, with still a sort of - tang, I guess - a brightness, if it were nicer, is what I'd call it. It smells rather ambery to me, but with some soapy & sour rose mixed in. It also reminds me strongly of the older lab blends and DC'ed oils - it SMELLS old, and it has that same general sour-soapy-floral-powdery quality that so many of those blends do. I do get some of the golden glowing quality but it's not any stronger on my skin; the other qualities are definitely smothering it a bit. I am sad.

 

Morphing. This is smoothing out, becoming less sour - though there is still a fair bit of soap and powder - and the golden quality is amping, finally! It has an almost...oiliness to it, but in a fantastic way - it reminds me of ambrette or olive oil and olive blossom notes -it's like being slicked up with high quality massage oil. This has also become much more complex - I can smell some stemmy greenery, a little bit of floral spiciness (somewhere between daisy and carnation), a lot more brightness overall. It actually smells floral now, but like a whole flower that's been smushed.

 

I'm getting a hint of sweetness now - slightly honeyed, but more resiny - I think it's a very faint benzoin note mixed with a gentle sweet musk - I'm betting on vanilla musk. However, it's hard to pick much of anything out at this point because while in blends heliotrope seems to have good longevity, this has faded noticeabley on my skin - perhaps due to its age? I do get more amber, and while the blend is still a bit unpleasantly soapy and powdery, the amber here is quite nice - a light, warm, golden type that boosts the hint of golden floral brightness.

 

This evolves well on my skin, becoming more lovely over time; it's amazing how this goes from unpleasantly sour to almost honeyed sweet over a few hours. Still, I'm not sure this works well as a SN on my skin, even though I always adore heliotrope in blends. In the final drydown, a lightly sweet, smooth and slick, golden-bright floral note eventually comes to dominate - there's only a bit of sour soap and musty powder in the background, tempered by some lovely, sweet vanilla musk and warm, rounded golden amber that doesn't go at all powdery on me. An impressive yet sneaky morpher with lower throw but good longevity.

 

The late drydown is great, and I'm very curious to see how it'd behaved layered with other blends, so I'm going to keep my bottle for now, but I'm not totally in love...yet. I rarely reach for blends which take hours to turn into something good on my skin.

Edited March 17, 2010 by fairnymph