Silk Road

[ocicat]

Silk Road

A panoply of cultural treasures, spanning the herbs, flowers, oils and balms of the Romans, the Byzantines, the Mediterranean, the Levant, Northern China, Eastern Europe, Iran, the Bulgar-Kypchak, Mesopotamia, the Crimean Peninsula, Anatolia, Antioch, and North Africa.

 

In the bottle: Cinnamon! And more cinnamon. With a under note of….cinnamon! This was some serious spice.

 

Wet on me: The spice kicks up, but there's a bit of musk now to tame it. It's not as strongly cinnamon as it is in the bottle.

 

Drydown: The spice decreases and lapses into something very pretty and sexy. I feel like a hippy with a bite!

 

A few hours later: Silk Road faded fast on me, unfortunately. But it's so pretty that I have to forgive it for it's awful staying power.

 

Overall rating: I love this one. Despite the scary cinnamon at first, this one 'ages' beautifully. I just wish it lasted longer

[Miss Lynx]

I really wanted to like this one. It smelled intriguing in the bottle, and while my skin initially amped up the floral notes on first contact, as it often does, they faded down again fairly soon, leaving a pleasant, incensey scent -- which proceeded to fade to nothing inside of half an hour! This has got to be the quickest-disappearing oil I've tried yet apart from Thanatopsis.

 

*sigh* If it had stayed, it might have been a B+. I even reapplied it, but the same thing just happened again. I'm having trouble even coming up with a good description of what it smelled like because the window between the initial floral blast and total disappearance was so small it was hard to get any kind of solid grasp on the scent. As it was, it was just kind of a tantalizing tease.

 

Grade: C+

[lookingglass]

Very cinnamony in the bottle and while wet. As it dries down, there is a very complex spicy smell, and I cannot identify them all...very spicy, but not foody...just a dry golden orange scent~mysterioius, oriental, but not overly sexy. There is not a creamyness like Chimerea. I wonder if there is some sandalwood holding it down...It fades fairly quickly on me. I would feel very comfortable wearing this to the office.

Edited September 15, 2005 by lookingglass

[ladymissspyder]

Ahh! This itched going on and I had to immediately wash it off! I'm really upset, because the reviews sounded so intriguing.

 

Anyway, I'm making a note for anyone else with sensitive skin.

[carolinachiquita]

This is a very delicate scent but that could just be because I have a cold when I'm testing this one! It smells very well blended, it’s a warm scent and I really have no clue what is in this one.

 

It has now changed from being warm to being quite sweet (I wish I didn't have this stupid cold so I could appreciate this better!). This might be a possible 5ml bottle purchase

[Monster]

Out of the vial, this one smells sort of soapy to me. It's not your average soap though, more like the kind of soap you'd find at your local natural foods store.

 

On my skin it still has the same soapy quality. I'm not sure exactly what I'm smelling here, I can't pick out a single note.

 

As Silk Road dries down, it morphs into something gorgeously soft, herbal and spicy. I'm stil unsure exactly what it is I'm smelling. All I know is, I love this, it works really well with my chemisty.

 

Anther winner!

[BlackWingedRoses]

I am so happy this was added as a frimp

 

my first impression upon sniffing the bottle: CHRISTMAS

 

on my skin it's so warm and inviting and comforting like you are walking into a room filled with candles of different scents like cinnemon, gingerbread, vanilla, bay berry....

I do smell a little floral, which i think is what reminded me of pretty decorative soaps.

 

I really love the spiceyness of this. but it is mellow. I even got complimented on this after I had been on for about 3 hours, so it does have some staying power, well at least on me.

I might just have to buy a 5ml of this one.

[zenvodunista]

this is a lovely perfume, way lighter than i'd expect from the description. right now i'm wearing too many scents to tell if it's just faded fast, or if i just can't tell it from the others.

 

i'll be trying it again though.

 

n.

[Ankhet]

Silk Road:

In the bottle: Light, oleander-ish.

Wet: Yes, that definitely smells like Oleanders

Drydown: Dried to a papery floral scent, but not the type of florals I'd wear.

Conclusion: Sell imp

[herongale]

preconceived notion: This scent has a really intriguing description, seemingly perfect for me. And yet, without specific notes I was hesitant to try it. When the lab sent this as a free imp with my last order, I was thrilled.

 

in the imp: The colour is that of a weak oolong tea. And... mmm. The scent that hits my nose is a really gorgeous nutty scent, lightly and complexly spiced. There is almost no green in this at all: no florals, no woods, no "aquatics," no weeds. Effortlessly this calls to mind the idea of a wagon laden with exotic hand-weaved fabrics and rare dyes and ungents. I want to say that this smells "foody," but not in a vanilla or otherwise sweet way... it's like a wholesome multigrain fresh baked bread, cut into thick slices and very lightly toasted, with a slather of real butter. This is an amazingly healthful, calming scent... it's not strong, it's light and subtle, and it seems to me that this would be a really refreshing and comforting scent to have on hand if one were undergoing something kind of scary, like chemo- or radiation therapy. Somehow it is both homey and exotic, familiar and transporting.

 

This is the first scent that I've tried that really seems to have a stong therapeutic potential. If I were to get sick and have to spend time in the hospital for any reason, I'd want to have this scent on standby. It doesn't travel, so it won't annoy other people... but inside its own space this scent seems to have the potential to drown out and modulate a lot of unpleasant things.

 

wet: aaah. This is beautiful. Simply beautiful. This is how the goddess Demeter would smell.

 

drydown: delicious almond and chessnut roasted and served in paper cones; this is a small village in a remote and lovely part of the world. My impression that this is a healthy and rejuvenating scent only strengthens as the scent lingers... which it does, for several hours.

 

verdict: I must have more of this. Forever.

 

post-conceived notion: I think this is a scent that would be adaptable and pleasant for an exceptionally wide range of people, perhaps because it is so complex and yet delicate... there is an underlying blandness that reminds me of Aveeno baths, and yet on top there is something beautiful and changeable and ultimately indefinable.

[arabella]

First Impression: A bouquet garni of spices.

 

Dries down to: A very faint, light spicy scent.

 

Additional Comments: This is so faint - I'm so disappointed. It's lovely but barely there. I thought I was going to rupture my nostrils inhaling it, trying to get a stronger whiff of it. There must be cinnamon in it, because I had this on overnight and my wrists were red, where I had applied it, the next morning. - surprising, because I don't usually have a lot of trouble with cinnamon, and I couldn't even distinguish it here. Oh well, you can't win them all.

 

Lasted: Hard to tell, since it was so faint.

 

Rating: 2 out of 5

[Wench457]

ITB: Sweetly spicy. I wonder if there is lotus in this. On: spicy, and a bit masculine. Dry: The sweetness is coming back to the fore, and I'm getting stronger hints of the Juicy Fruit smell I associate with lotus. Later, it goes all Old Spice on me, and there's something in there that's making me queasy. Alas.

[Julilla Regina]

At first when it was on my skin, it was like a cinnamon floral. Delicious! There are so many ingredients, I can't really tell what is what. I could swear on the cinnamon though. Unfortunately, about five minutes in, it gets kind of soapy. I don't know what goes soapy on me, this is my next skin chemistry o'Julilla study. I'm very sad though, because if it had stayed cinnamon floral on me, I would have loved this forever and ever. Damned skin chemistry!

[melange]

Bottle: woody-spicy-pungent.

 

Drydown: the same, but sharper.

 

Worn: spicy-woody-warm. I really like how I can't really pick out individual notes and it blends without being overpowering; even the cinnamon settles down with its cousins.

 

Conclusion: I particularly like this scent for cooler weather and when I want a sort of warm energy that's not just desert, not quite a market, not as epic as Lawrence of Arabia, and definitely not a blacktop-and-concrete city: a comfortable traveling tent, perhaps, one that's sheltering rather than stifling, with colorful, textural pillows and rugs strewn about.

[maewitch]

Unpleasantly sharp at first, the spices dropped right down and this became so very soft, a barely detectable spiciness clinging to the skin, with something just faintly sweet-floral underneath it, almost like the faint remnants of incense I have in my hair when I pop into my local occult shop. But prettier, somehow.

 

I don't know if I'd get a whole bottle, mostly because it's so light and fades so quickly.

[Laurel the Woodfairy]

A delicate and slightly dry spice scent, pleasant rather than OMG-WOW! like Bengal. Cinnamon is most prominent, with other spices and incense intermingled. I think I caught a whiff of tea, as well. I'm almost out of Hamadryad and think I'll use up this imp while I wait for more to arrive. It'll also be good for yoga--spicy and warm but not strong or overpowering.

Edited October 22, 2005 by Laurel the Woodfairy

[quikslvr]

Definite cinnamon at first, with its accompanying tingle. Dries to a light touch of chai, touch of floral, touch of herbs. Very nice, but I'm not crazy about it.

[aedes]

I got a fine, herbal/spice soap for about 15 minutes. And then *poof!*

 

I really wanted that smell in soap form, though! That could smell great!

Edited October 30, 2005 by aedes

[Freyja Lux]

Boring, soapy, non-descript. Lightly floral, nothing spicy for me. Fades quick. Did I get a decant that was somehow corrupted or something? I have no idea! I had such high hopes for this one... definately do not like.

[polydactyl]

This is a very spicy, invigorating scent. I think I smell sandalwood, cinnamon and something like ginger or ginseng. It's very zesty, a bit dry, and sort of Eastern medicinal-smelling, but I don't really mind this. I don't smell any other scents like florals, they may be overwhelmed by the spices. The oil doesn't change much throughout time, it just fades away. This oil reminds me of a Asian herbal shop, or even more fantastic - a crowded spice bazaar in the desert.

[TroubleDoll]

This was not very spicy on me. It was warm and woody. A bit tame for me, but a very comforting background scent.

[Fefferbella]

This was pure woody cinnamon bark on my skin.

 

Very pretty, but not something I would want to wear. Maybe burn in an insense burner.

 

This is fresh cinnamon scent, not the foody cinnamon found in christmas scents.

[QueenFae]

This one is definitely a soapy scent, sort of like Joy in the old yellow bottle. There's a bit more depth to it, though, and I can detect a hint of incensey undertones. It's a clean, bar of soap type smell, not for me but lovely just the same.

[jewelbug]

This is one of Beth's many scent adventures for me:

 

Imp: Citrusy--I wanna say orange--but also very herbal and fresh, kinda grassy.

 

On, wet: This smells incredibly green, not what i was expecting from the name. Its like cut grass with a hint of orange and barely there incense. Its very clean and fresh. I think there's ginger in this, as well.

 

BUT....

As this dries, the fresh grass takes on a dry grainy smell, which then disappears into the background.

about 3-4 minutes, i get dry grass/grains with some incense, and bit of floral-gone-powder.

 

Never fear...

 

Dry: This is a musky wonderful cinnamon bark over a dry floral. I think there be some dry spicy woods in here, too. Its lightly sweet, and just intriguing to smell. It still has a hint of incense, but not of the head-shop variety. Every now and again I kinda feel like I'm getting some tropical type fruits. Its completely different from the green grass and orange smell of the beginning--if i had a dry one and wet wrist of Silk Road, I would never guess they were the same. What a fun morph to follow!

 

Overall: This one is complex and beautiful. I'm becoming really enamoured with Beth's spicier scents. She continues to kick perfume ass!

I'll be holding onto this imp and using it up to decide if i want a bottle or not.

Edited January 1, 2006 by jewelbug

[Phaedra]

Wet this is spicey, fruity and nutty. When first on it’s spicey cinnamon and fruits, very similar to Harvest Moon 2005. The sweetness fades after about two hours and it becomes dusty/powdery. This is okay but I thought it would be more exotic and less sweet.