Babalu Aye

[shelldoo]

whoot got this from the sweetest swapper ever (ivyand peony) altho i wold like to know it's ritual use i will review it as a scent

 

this is resinous, there is an evergreen in here for sure, i was thinking cedar but it may be a pine, and i believe there is sandalwood, as it dries i mellows and gets a slight touch of a spice possibly cloves, it is faintly resemblant of my clove cigarettes

 

i actually like it as a scent i am a resin lover....nw to find out the use of it so i can see if it "works"

[Penance]

Origin:

 

Shortie from the lovely ivyandpeony.

 

First sniff:

 

Very unusual. Babalu Aye manages to smell like resin, wood, astringent herbs and some sort of cleaning fluid all rolled into one.

 

Wet on skin:

 

No more cleaning fluid, but I've sneezed three times in the time it took me to put this on and close the lid. It's probably allergies (generic allergies, I mean, not a scent allergy) that just happen to be choosing now to strike, but it's a little worrisome.

 

As for how it smells...I'm going to have a hard time describing this apart from saying this smells like a voodoo blend. It just has the right sort of character for it, which is fabulous. The best I can do to pin it down is: wood...maybe redwood or possibly oak, resin...dry resin without any sweetness, herbs and a touch of pine, possibly.

 

Dry down:

 

I really like this. Babalu Aye wins the prize for the voodoo blend that smells the most like it was meant to be a voodoo blend. It's mysterious and occult smelling somehow (and it makes me sneeze, which is apparently an added bonus ). Once it dries, all the astringent qualities disappear and it's sweetish resinous wood with a hint of mystery. A very enigmatic blend to say the least.

 

The bottom line:

 

I'm not sure what (if anything) this is supposed to do, but it smells positively Voodoo Queenish. Yes, I just made up a word and I don't care. This one's a keeper!

[dreadeddragon]

In the bottle: Suntan lotion + cinnamon & mint

 

First on: Herbal and minty, but I still smell a hint of the suntan lotion

 

Drydown: Cinnamon comes out, mint goes away, but there's still the suntan lotion in the background. It's a very complex scent.

[roesmoker]

I get pure suntan lotion, both in the imp and on me. Not the fake coconut Hawaiian Tropic kind, more like cocoa butter. It's not bad, kind of pleasant, but a little distracting - makes me feel like I should be relaxing on the beach instead of trying to get any work done!

 

As far as its voodoo properties are concerned, so far it has not had a particularly healing effect.. Need to read up on what kind of spells one should cast to appeal to the orisha. I'll edit this post when I find out.

[spark]

I can't give a real review of this as I only dabbed it on at Black Broom, along with about 9 other things, but it's definitely cinnamonny and pleasant. I didn't get the impression of anything resinous or heavy.

[Barb25]

In the bottle - spicy! Cloves and sage perhaps?

 

On me - Yup, lots of cloves, I really think I smell sage, something resiny, and I also get a hint of something citrus.

 

It's not unpleasant, but it's not really me.

 

(edited for spelling)

Edited September 3, 2005 by Barb25

[Nachtwulf]

In the bottle, this is very piney or evergreen... I tend to think 'cedar' by choice, but it's almost acrid in its resinous pineyness.

 

On skin, though, it softens, gaining a warmer sort of scent. There's a bit of sandalwood, I think, but what I mostly seem to get from it is a combination of that cedar and...coconut. I swear it's coconut. Cedar, sandalwood, and coconut. I like it more than I thought I would...most of the Orisha scents don't like me much, and when I smelled it in the vial, I thought it would be the same way. But this is a much warmer and sweeter scent; just enough cedar to keep it from being foody, not incensy, just warm and slightly resinous-sweet.

 

Although I don't feel compelled to track down a whole bottle, I -do- find that I like it, and plan to keep the imp for the occasions when the mood strikes to wear it.

[alicia_stardust]

Scent: It's beautiful. It has a resinous, spicy, magic/occult shop scent to it.

 

Use: I was given a decant of this from a friend when I was very, very ill. I understand Babalu Aye to be the Orisha who governs epidemics and illnesses that are infectious. While my illness was neither of those two things, I was still very scarily sick. With my friend's help we performed a healing ritual complete with offerings to Babalu Aye. It didn't cure me, but it really unleashed something big because I found that was able to let go of fear and worry, which in turn kept me in a peaceful, pain-free state for a number of days and overall, I think I was much in a much better state from that ritual on.

Edited September 21, 2007 by alicia_stardust