Absinthe

[Christine Daae]

Fall under the spell of our Green Fairy! An intoxicating blend containing wormwood essence, light mints, cardamom, anise, hyssop, and the barest hint of lemon.

Imp: green + licorice-y anise

Wet: so green! So licoricey!

This is quite strong! A little sugary, the anise and mint blend together and are quite strong, a tiny bit of lemon. The lemon isn’t bothering me the way it usually does but it’s probably that I don’t particularly love the rest of what’s going on here (plus the lemon disappears pretty quickly)! It reminds me a lot of Throat Coat tea with lemon, to the point where I can almost taste that in the back of my throat. I like anise/licorice as a flavor but not so much as a scent, I guess!

I think this is really evocative of absinthe, though I’ve never tried it myself, so mainly going by what it looks like and what it evokes: glowy and green and licoricey. It’s not really something I need to smell like, personally.

This does last quite a long time and has a decent amount of throw, so if you're in the market for an absinthe scent I can imagine this would be perfect!

Edited June 8, 2016 by Christine Daae

[Kay Torres]

Full disclaimer: I hate anise. Very, very much...

 

 

Wet: complex, herbal and very, very green. I liked it wet, the anise was in the background where it belongs, and this was very clean smelling.

 

Dry: This turned to single note anise. Since I can't stand the smell of anise, I immediately washed this off. It was nauseating.

[raptorsmile]

In the bottle: Holy anise, Batman! As a person who loves both anise and Absinthe, even I was taken aback by this, a little. The first scent is strong anise, followed by the wormwood. To be honest, I don't smell anything but those two things at first sniff.

 

Application: Anise is still very strong, but the wormwood is making itself more known.

 

5 minutes after application: Hot damn, but that does smell nice. The anise mellows a lot, and the cardamom and mint lightly come to the surface. The fragrance is very crisp and green, much like the liquor itself. It smells very clean.

 

1 hour after application: The same as 5 minutes after, which is just amazing. I have very acidic skin, meaning a lot of scents morph and get weird on me. This is the same as when I applied and it just smells so clean. The anise is still present, but very light and doesn't scream "black licorice."

 

I was pretty skeptical of this fragrance when I first smelled it, but it is now one of my favorites. It's one of the very few fragrances that has both staying power on me, but I don't feel like I'm swimming in a cloud of fragrance. I've also gotten several compliments on it, which is great! <3

[maudlinrose]

Not for me no....it smells exactly like a glass of absinthe. Awesome to try as a novelty, but not my style for daily use.

 

Wet: its definitely anisey but something is throwing it off for me. Maybe the hyssop. I do get a little lemon, but no cardamom.

 

Drydown: it all comes together and definutely smells like absinthe. It almost tastes like absinthe when sniffing.

Edited October 6, 2016 by maudlinrose

[freyasfae]

Yep, even Beth can't make me like the smell of absinthe. I had to wash this off - it's the licorice apsect I can't stand, and not just licorice, black licorice.

[kpaige]

Licorice.

 

To be fair, licorice is probably up there with banana as my least fav note ever. But I wanted to give Absinthe a go. It definitely has more to it than just straight anise/licorice, but the licorice is by far the most prominent note. Unfortunately, I had to wash this one off after about an hour because of that, so I can't comment on durability too much.

 

For what it's worth, I do find it to be a pretty and well-blended scent. I just personally can't stand the anise/licorice note so I had to bail.

[lizabelle]

I have had absinthe all of once, and a very small sip at that, so I'm not sure I can compare this accurately to the real thing. However, this is lovely. Sharp, herbal, with some sweetness coming in as it develops (much like the traditional sugar cube dissolving). There is a lot of anise, but several of my favorite scents are anise-based and I don't mind at all. The cardamom in this is very green, which is possibly why others haven't been smelling it. The lemon (which to me is mostly rind) sneaks in at the tail end and is almost more of a feeling than a smell, if that makes sense. This is another scent that strikes me as fizzy, which BPAL seems to do wonderfully.

 

This is very well-blended and I would love to try it in the summer as a hot-weather perfume. Very likely a full bottle for me!

[ramblingrambler]

Wow. As soon as I opened the imp and applied it, my nose definitely transported me to the first time I drank *good* absinthe. This is the stuff. Yowzah. I wanted the green fairy to take me away. It stayed true to its namesake for about ten minutes, and then as it dried, it became more black jelly bean/black licorice, but the real stuff, not the knock-off generic flavor. You know what I mean. I'm absolutely keeping this, though I probably wont wear it alone, but as a layering note it would be beautiful.

[slyvanestra]

Disclaimer: I have never had absinthe, or been within sniffing distance of any. Let's say I'm going in blind.

 

Wet: Sharp and woody- wormwood maybe? It's nice though, and I get a little of the anise and hyssop, with a breath of mint. No lemon, oddly, which I though I'd notice right off. Not that I mind- I echo earlier comments about being leery of lemon things, due to Pine-Sol.

 

On skin: Oooh, much warmer! Wormwood still, with spices and mints and herbs. Very nice!

 

Locket: The anise and mint are stronger, but they definitely keep some sharpness from the wormwood and herbs, and the lemon adds a little tang. I'm an anise fan so this is great for me.

 

All in all, this will be a consideration for a future bottle. I think I could love this in autumn.

[gloame]

Oh wow! Green licorice! I totally forgot absinthe had anise (and thus 'licorice') and this was a fun surprise. I've never smelled absinthe (the real kind or the 'legal' kind) so I can't speak to whether or not it matches that, but it certainly smells like a green fairy. Very unique, unexpected, and fun. I like this! ...But it is not a scent I'd wear.

 

Where I'd wear this: A candy-themed party or an opium den.

[follis]

Wet: Anise. Haha

On: definitely gives off the scent of Absinthe

Drydown: Annnnd it's still there! Just settled and more wearable, definitely a whiff of cirrus at the end (but in the barest way). Lovely

Edited September 27, 2017 by follis

[achildoftime]

It really does just smell like the infamous drink. Green licorice booze is pretty much what I get with this, as advertised. This might be perfect for some, and there might even be complex notes in it, but I'll never know because my brain keeps screaming at me "Why did you spill your self with booze? Go clean up right away!" Gonna say that's a pass for me.

[Ghost of a Rose]

Frimp fresh from the Lab.

 

This isn't something I would have selected. I detest licorice, and naturally I don't like absinthe either. But I'll try anything once. (Or even several times, in the case of absinthe.) I was offered a sample of licorice fudge once from a booth at an artisanal cheese festival. It had three kinds of licorice flavors in it, and no chocolate. To my utter surprise, it was exquisitely delicious! The maker of it told me that almost everyone says they hate licorice, but love the fudge.

 

And I love anise in cakes and cookies, and in Indian spice mixes. And fennel seed in Italian sausage. And fresh fennel cooked in soups or raw in salads.

 

So, I'm game for this too. It wouldn't be the first time Beth has surprised me.

 

In the imp: Yep. 100% black licorice. A dead ringer for the kids' Halloween candy. I couldn't stand it even when I was a kid.

 

On me, wet: This is different than in the vial. I could swear there are florals in it, and they are as prominent as the licorice. Who'd think to pair those scents up? But it works rather beautifully! The florals really lighten up the bitterness of the licorice, and make it . . . maybe even pleasant.

 

At 5 minutes: The licorice has already faded noticeably, and now there's a green herbal note that must be the hyssop. I love the reference to the color green, and that particular choice of herb is so perfectly fitting!

 

At 10 minutes: I'm kinda liking this. The overall character is of a very unusual and not-too-sweet floral perfume, with a light accent of licorice, not enough to be obnoxious. Just enough to make it interesting.

 

At 15 minutes: The florals or whatever that is, are vanishing. Which means we're back to licorice, but not solely. There are things I don't recognize in it that keep the licorice under control. The hyssop, probably, and maybe the wormwood as well? I have no idea what wormwood tastes/smells like. I've heard that it is bitter. I never noticed anything but licorice in the absinthe I've tried, although at least twice I know it was true absinthe which includes the wormwood.

 

At 30 minutes: The fragrance is weaker. It's almost all licorice again now, but faint enough that it is mild and inoffensive. Interesting rather than unpleasant.

 

At 1 hour: I can pick up the tiniest bit of lemon. Usually citrus are top notes that disappear very quickly on me, how interesting that it shows up now. I think the licorice had to fade a lot before the lighter lemon could be detected. Like the earlier notes, it offsets and balances the licorice to make it more pleasant. The overall fragrance is very light and close to the skin.

 

By 1 1/2 hours, it is mostly gone. But 4 hours later, there is still the faintest trace left. It no longer smells like licorice, or any of BPAL's usual final drydown notes - none of those are in this blend. There is nothing I can identify, but it is very soft and pretty, a little powdery.

 

I never did notice any mint or cardomom. I'm glad about the mint, as I don't like smelling like toothpaste. I'm sad to miss out on the cardomom, though. I think that would go very nicely with the anise. Maybe that's why I didn't notice it, because they blended together so well.

 

Funny thing about the mint: Whenever I opened the shipping box, the interior smelled strongly of minty toothpaste. I was kinda dreading testing whichever oil was doing that. It had to have been this one. None of the other fragrances had any mint in them. And when I sniff the paper label on the imp, I get licorice and mint in almost equal strengths. How odd that the mint in the closed imp (which did not leak) could permeate the whole box and overpower all the other notes in all the other blends, yet I could not detect it in the actual perfume! It's not an effect of skin chemistry, either - or not solely, anyway - because I didn't pick up any mint in the open vial or on the wand.

 

Verdict: It isn't going to make my shortlist of favorites, no surprise there. But I do like it. I won't wear it out in public. I don't want to go around smelling like candy, and certainly not like one that I, and many other people, hate. But it will be perfect for wearing around the house when I get tired of being in the same old rut and have a hankering for something really different. Or when I'm reading Oscar Wilde or Paul Verlaine.

 

4 out of 6 stars

Edited September 11, 2018 by Ghost of a Rose

[dementia_divine]

In the imp: Soft anise, light mints, a bit of lemon, and what I think is the hyssop.

 

Wet: The light mints and green herbal notes are what I smell first, and then the anise joins in. After a few minutes, the cardamom joins in as well.

 

Dry: The anise is the dominant note now, backed by the cardamom, and then the mint and green notes. It’s much more licorice-y in this phase thanks to the strength of the anise. It has lots of throw, too!

 

Verdict: Yeah, that’s absinthe, all right. It’s far too licorice-y for me, but I’m glad I got to try it. I am going to pass this one on to someone that isn’t averse to anise.

Edited September 18, 2018 by dementia_divine