Sweet Almond

[Mayfair]

If you like Dana O'Shee, you'll love this. This is a very unique almond scent to be sure. It's not nutty, like real almond oil, but doesn't smell of marzipan either. It is more of a creamy quality, like almond milk, yet this is a very strong scent with a good throw. I think it's too strong for me to wear by itself, but I think it will be beautiful for layering.

[k00kaburra]

In bottle: Sweet almond indeed! It is like marzipan, but not as sugary. The strength of the almonds in Bordello was not as apparent to me until I put this on.

 

On me: All the lovely sweetness in an almond is captured here, with none of the nuttiness. As it dries it becomes creamier, but it never loses the almost-marzipan fragrance.

[Ajila]

As Dana O'Shee is a favourite of mine, I absolutely love this, fortunately it's quite stong or my imp wouldn't last very long, I would happily bathe in it. It is very marzipany, but proper marzipan as used by qood quality confectioners rather than the overly sweet and sticky stuff sold in supermarket.

[Galen]

I didn't expect to like this, as the (bitter) almond blends are bitterly overpowering on me, but this is ABSOLUTELY GORGEOUS.

 

almost exactly the same as Lush's Christmas soap, Snowcake, it's sweet, creamy, rounded almonds. who needs to wait until December?

[OriginalWacky]

Bottle (Imp): So THAT is the cherry smell everybody talks about. I never get this out of blends, so I must suck it up fast or something.

 

Just On: Really strong cherry smell, like maraschino cherries.

 

An hour or two later: Good Gods, it's almost gone. No wonder I never smell this in other blends. It seems I really *do* suck this in and leave the rest.

 

Around 6 hours: Oh yes, this is completely MIA now.

 

12 hours: Nothing left at all.

 

Overall: I think I would really like this, but it really seems to get slurped up by my skin, leaving nothing at all. This might be a good scent for a locket.

 

After reading other reviews: Wow, I didn't get marzipan out of this, nor did it remind me of Dana O'Shee (which is probably because my skin ate it all so fast).

[chopchica]

Broke. My. Heart.

 

Sweet Almond was my holy grail of single notes - the only one of my favorite notes that I couldn't find. I love oils with heavy almond notes (Dana O'Shee, Snow White, Bastet), and I had nothing but high hopes for this.

 

Amazingly, somebody put up a bottle on eBay, and an insane amount of money later, an entire bottle of SN Almond was mine! I waited with bated breath, and happily tore open the box the second it arrived. The first sniff was heaven - that wonderful almond smell that I love so much - and I eagerly swiped some on the back of my hand.

 

Alas, our love was not meant to be. It turned instantly plastic on me - no almond scent left at all. I tried a few more times on different body parts, and spread out over a week, but no such luck. So I decanted off an imp for myself (because a girl can always dream, plus, there are many possibilities for blending), and sent the rest off to a few good homes, where hopefully it's being enjoyed with the amount of devotion it deserves.

[Blood onmy hands]

I have a rather troubled relationship with almond. It just smells bad on me. The best way that I can describe it is 'boozy rotten cherries', but even that doesn't accurately describe the horror.

 

For the first 10 minutes on my skin, this is almost unbearably strong and heavy. It reminds me of the way the bathrooms in my old highschool always used to smell. I can't shake that association.

 

After a while though, this does lighten and get much better/creamier. It's a lot like my experience with Dana O'Shee (hated it at first, was fond of the drydown). It reminds me of sugared milk after a while... but it fades quickly into oblivion after that.

 

I think this is another imp that I'll be swapping away.

[yeahbutnobut]

Sweet Almond

 

In imp: marzipan! This is pure, sweet marzipan, it’s truly almond.

On skin: now, almond usually fades so fast on me, so I’m expecting this to vanish, but for now it’s a soft marzipan scent, a very true almond…slightly smoky, and with a bit of something nutty that I don’t normally notice in almond blends. But yes, it’s fading quickly.

Though whilst the initial almond blast evaporates quicker than you can say ‘macaroons!’ I get a scent that lasts on my skin which is the true nutty scent of almonds, like raw, blanched almonds. Like the ones used for baking as opposed to an almond liqueur. Now it reminds me of homemade marzipan as opposed to the shop bought stuff-my mum makes hers with freshly ground almonds, and this smells very similar to that! Yum! It’s a very soft scent though, very close to the skin, and I think it would be better for layering-I’m tempted to add vanilla to this scent!

[UltraViolet]

BPAl blends which use Sweet Almond (vs. Bitter Almond, Almond, etc.) as one of it's ingredients:

Seraglio

 

In the bottle

This is almost a perfectly clear liquid.

The most perfect sweet foody, and God help me, almost sensual scent. *swoon*

On

Wow it's really strong, another "bang for your buck" single note in which a little goes a long way. It's so sweet and strong of an almond as to be almost piercing, but I did unwittingly put a bigger glob on my wrist so....

30 minutes

I like the sweet almond sn better when it's dry, it's certainly not as powerful, and also the sweetness tends to diminish on my skin after about 20 minutes which makes it smell even nicer (subtler) imo.

Throw:

average

Scent category:

Foody

Summary

This is beautiful, feminine and foody all at once.

It smells absolutely divine on my skin when dry.

I'd totally wear this alone but I can imagine this sn being perfect to blend with so many things.

Many of my top 20 favorite bpal blends have almond in them; Seraglio, Snow White (maybe), Bastet, Inferno, Queen of Sheba, Salome so I think my skin likes Almond in general, and Beth has such perfect almond blends apparently how could this not be a 5 rating.

Purchase again?

Yes. I'd walk through some hot coals for more.

1-5 rating (5 being best)

5

[blueroses]

This one was no surprise to me. It's a sweet sharp scent that reminds a lot of people of cherry, although BPAL's does a lot less than some other almond oils I've smelled. It's not as foody as you might think, and there is a faint nuttiness under the sweetness.

 

Sweet Almond is perfect on me - it's a shame that BPAL's almond blends don't work well on me. Dana O'Shee is nearly all almond, but something else in it doesn't like me.

[edenssixthday]

Single Note: Sweet Almond - When I first apply this, it is the incredibly gorgeous scent of almond, and reminds me immediately of the first note I detect in scents like Seraglio, Black Phoenix, and Baron Samedi. It’s beautiful and I kept help but breath it in, almost tasting the sweet, fleshy scent with each breath. The moment it begins to dry down, however, it becomes almond-plastic on me. It gains the plastic scent about it that before this, I have only ever gotten from gourmand-type foody scents. While the scent lasts for hours, it’s all plastic almond, and it’s a very sad experience for me. Almond almost always fades on me right away in BPAL blends – I guess I should be happy that in the blends, the other notes cover up the plastic scent which it turns to on my skin in pure form. I’ll be finding a new home for this one.

[wikkidraven]

this brings to mind the goodness of Lush Snowcake for me--my favourite Lush soap by far! i buy pots of Smitten hand cream to get my snowcake fix each day, and sweet almond SN is like that, amplified. it is sweet and heady almond, with lots of throw for such an innocent sounding blend.

 

fantastic.

[Pookstrell]

Can't believe I've never reviewed this until now. I've been hanging on to my two imps for yonks. Stunning, non-cyanide almond which is obviously the key component of Dana O'Shee. I think that Dana is a straight up mix of SA and vanilla bean, although I'm just speculating. Lovely stuff, but even better when mixed in Dana O'Shee!

[zankoku_zen]

Sweet Almond SN smells like Dana O'Shea, Lush's Snowcake, and in general any almond heavy blend. It's sweet, toothsome, has a slight marzipan feel to it.

 

Very tasty.