Port-Au-Prince

[Essay 28]

Dark, decadent and incomparably exotic: the rich scent of buttered rum flavored with almond, bay, clove and sassafras.

In the bottle: sweet cloves, very close to a cinnamon scent.

On skin initially: Cloves are dominant, with a softly syrupy note that I think is the sweet bay. If the rum's in there, I'm not able to separate it out.

After an hour: A wonderful sweet, "warm" scent that my husband identified as cinnamon. The cloves stayed dominant, with just enough of a sweet note to really tantalize me.

I will definately have to get a 5ml of this one.

[girlmadasbirds]

i was really looking forward to trying this scent...

and thus was very disappointed when it turned to pure clove on my skin.

[aritei]

what a sexy scent! it's a shame the clove started to irritate my skin after an hour or so. i should get a locket for this one.

[joseybird]

At first sniff this is almond, almond, almond, then the rum and especially the clove pop out. A while later, I can smell a bit of the bay (don't really know what sassafrass smells like, unfortunately).

 

This is the scent of dark, deep drug dens. Of corrupt and heavy passions and glutted appetites. Evocative, but not my style.

[Alannah]

My first review!

 

This scent was thrown in with my order, and I'm so glad I had the chance to try it. In the bottle, I got a water-scent impression (maybe I was influenced by the name), but I was sniffing a bunch of stuff so I think my nose was confused.

 

On, it was totally different... all cherries and cinnamon. Really different than anything I've smelled. I loved it instantly! As it dried, I got more of the almond and clove along with the cinnamon--it's a very golden scent.

 

I was surprised that so many people in this thread said it was too masculine because I definitely don't get masculine from this scent. In fact, because of its sweetness, I find it very feminine. It softened as I wore it and almost got a bit powdery. I can't imagine my boyfriend wearing this!

 

I think I'm going to buy a 5ml of this one!

[blaqpearl]

Since my dad is from Haiti, I had to try this scent despite the clove.

 

wet...almonds, like the extract.

 

5 minutes later...clove, strong clove and this is where it stayed for me. I had to wash it off.

 

Too bad, I was trying something out of my element and it was a no go for me.

[Lit Chick]

I was worried about this one. Sounded yummy, but clove... hmmm. Would it behave like cinnamon? Cinnamon amps way up on my skin, and ick. Always goes candy-sweet.

So, I swiped this on with hope, but little expectation. And yep, clove loves my skin too. Clovey-clove-clove-clove. BUT - It's freaking gorgeous! It's a little sweet and foody, but not overly so. I cannot stop sniffing myself.

As it dries, the clove starts to let the other notes pop out. It's been a few hours, and now I smell buttery and spicy and so ridiculously good.

 

This has very little throw on me - very second skin.

 

Thanks so much to the lovely Macha, who sent this over to me!

[fathom]

Ooo, I like this.

I don't drink at all, and I am not sure what rum smells like now that I think of it. Or Bay Rum, really. So my review is from that perspective...

I didn't think of alcohol when I smelled this in the imp, which is good-- I was a little afraid it was going to smell really boozey.

On the skin I smell warm spices, cloves and vanilla mostly. And cinnamon, but not dry spice-rack cinnamon. More cinnamon rolls or something.

It starts to smell like marzipan to me as it wears. Mmm, marzipan kicks ass!

I also smell a sharp note every now and again, something peppery and almost metallic. But mostly, it smells sweet and delicious.

Like a warm breeze through a beach town. Amazing.

[rainbow]

Oh, I like this one alot!

 

In the bottle and wet on skin- lots of sweet almond with just a hint of clove.

 

Wearing- almost an overwhelming shock of almond (again with hints of clove).

 

The clove develops and comes into its own. This develops into a really warm, spicy clove scent. It's very nice, and I may have found something to fill the spicy niche in my life vacated by Three Witches).

 

Unfortunatley on the drydown I get more sassafrass than clove and spice, but for the overall experience I love this scent and will be ordering more.

[olympia301]

 

I like this blend. I can believe that it is made up of carnation or cloves and cinnamon or just about anything. It is really beautiful in the wet as well as in the dry stages. I will be buying a bottle of Port-au-Prince and I do consider it in the same family as Alice, but without the tea. There is a lemon smell in the background of Port-au-Prince which gives it a bit of lift.

 

Only two catches...I don't smell any butter or rum at all in this blend. I will have to layer it with Grog if I want the Port-au-impy-goodness treat.* Oh, and one more small caveat, I sure hope I am not smelling any small sour notes under all the great obvious notes. We shall see. I hope it's my paranoia.

 

*I did this and you know what you get when you combine Grog and Port-au-Prince? You get Jack. No question about it, you create Jack.

Edited May 28, 2005 by olympia301

[Bean Rua]

Am I the only one who smells saffron strongly in this blend? No, it's not on the list, but I swear, I smell it!

 

I smell rum cream, spices, aromatic wood and saffron.

 

And it is absolutely heavenly.

[quikslvr]

Way dark bay at first, very reminiscent of the darkness of the cinnamon-clove combo that goes into a Danish mulled wine that I love. Bitter, almost. There's a hint of the strong Snake Oil spices. Sticks very close to the skin, and seems to fade fast on me.

[nineveh]

This started out as a boozy, spicy almond, but once it dried, it turned into nothing but clove on my skin. I like clove, but obviously this blend isn't working on me if nothing else is showing up.

 

While it was wet, it was a fun, outgoing, spicy scent, like a more playful version of Black Phoenix and a less floral version of Seraglio, so hopefully that will be helpful to those of you who are considering this scent.

[Yagathai]

In the bottle: I get no rum when I smell this. Instead, there's an overwhelming sweet almond scent, with a strong cherry-ish undertone, and hints of something spicy and interesting underneath. Truth be told, I wasn't that excited about trying this one on.

 

On my skin: Whoo! Not ten seconds after it hits my skin, the almond scent completely disappears. For about ten minutes I'm left with something spicy and distinctly citrus-y. I thought I smelled lime and bergamot. But then that scent fades, and I'm left with the powerful aroma of sweet cloves. I smoke clove cigarettes, chew clove chewing gum and hang sachets of dry clove to scent my apartment, so you can guess how happy that makes me. About ten minutes later the clove tones down and warms up, and if I put my nose to my wrist I can pick up that tantalizing spicy note once again. I don't know what that is -- it doesn't seem like sassafrass. Maybe the bay leaf? Whatever it is, I like it. The longer I wait, the more the clove and the spicy note seem to meld.

 

Final verdict: We likes it, my precious. I might wish that it had a bit more throw and staying power, seeing as it's mostly faded to nose-to-skin levels not an hour after I apply it, but overall I give Port-au-Prince strongly positive notices. I'll probably be getting a big bottle of this.

[OriginalWacky]

Bottle (Imp): It smells boozy and buttery.

 

Just On: I'm going to guess almond, since this smells like boozy buttery fruit.

 

An hour or two later: It fades to a sicy (maybe clove?) scent.

 

Around 6 hours: Barely a hint left.

 

12 hours: It's gone.

 

Overall: I don't think it's my skin, because other scents are lasting, but this faded faster than I'm used to, and faster than I expected. I really like it though, so I may pick some up so that I have enough to touch up with it through the day.

 

After reading other reviews: I have to agree with those who say this is something that one wants to drink or eat. I have the sale feeling. If it didn't fade so fast, I might be way hooked. Well, I am hooked.

[wickedgoddess]

Origins - gift imp from the lab

 

Preconceived Notions - I have sniffed this a couple of times in the past, but the almonds always scare me off.

 

Wet - almonds and a bit of rum.

 

Dry - wow, the bay really comes out as soon as it starts to dry, and the scent completely morphs. Next comes the clove and I am enveloped in warm spiciness. Yum! Sniffing the imp I never would have expected this. It's now primarily clove, with sassafras and bay rum in the background. I don't notice the almond at all anymore. I love Laudanum and this reminds me of that, but at the same time it's completely different. I just may end up with a bottle of this as well, I really like this.

 

On the wickedgoddess scale of 1 to 5, with 5 being best, this rates a 4.

[emzebel]

In the bottle, like a lot of people, I got almost pure almond - it smelled a lot like a spicier Dana O'Shee in a way. It was a yummy yummy smell, but not at all what I was expecting Port-Au-Prince to small like and not really evocative of Haiti to me...

 

The second, and I meann the absolute instant that the oil hit my skin -> transformation. The spicy, rummy notes shot out like a cannon shot almost completely overwhelming the almond.

 

On drydown, the almond fought its way back into the mix, though. This is a really yummy blend and something that I will almost certainly be keeping around in come form or another. My only real disappointment is that it is one of the few blends that actually faded quickly on my skin.

 

Al well. Can't have everything.

[Finny]

Almonds, spice, and rum!

 

It is a wonderful summer evening scent. Warm and sweet, with a mellow rum.

 

I love it!

[quimerula]

Wet it's all almonds on me!

I don't like almonds at all, but in some blends, like Salome, they fade away in a couple of minutes and I can forget about them. But this is not the case.

After some time, the almods let the clove and the sassafras come out a bit.

[BlueStar]

Skeptically I tried this.

 

In The Bottle: Mmm Bay Rum and Clove! Could be tasty!

 

Wet on Skin: Ahhh! It tingles a little must be a hot clovey goodness. The rum, almond and clove notes are strongest on the outset. This smells like a regular bay rum cologne.

 

Dry Down: Maybe I was too hasty. This smells pretty darned good. I am getting almond, rum, sassafras, clove and another surprise, likely from my skin's reaction with the oils, tobacco?

 

Verdict: A nice sweet, allbeit mature fragrance. Too grown up for me to wear often but still tasty

Edited August 11, 2005 by BlueStar

[eadavenp]

In the vial, it smelled like a spicy man aftershave...

 

on my skin, it smelled of cherries and almonds first, almost like dragon's blood, and then it went REALLY spicey. I hate loud cinnamon and that is all i got after the initial dry down from this scent. for someone who likes big red gum (something that was a traumatic childhood experience for me) this would be great, or if your skin chemistry would allow the other notes to come out, again, it was really nice for the first thirty seconds, but this unfortunately, did not play well with me.

[arabella]

First Impression: Almonds.

 

Dries Down to: Almonds and cloves and something rich and dark underneath it all. Then, as is usual on my skin, the almonds disappear.

 

Additional Comments: I get the richness of buttered rum but not the notes. I can sense an herb but wouldn't have pinpointed bay. I can also sense something fruity and am guessing it's the sassafras. After a while, it does begin to smell like root beer, as others have mentioned. All in all, I really like this oil and, while I can't see myself wearing it, will definitely use it as a room scent.

 

Lasted: Several hours.

 

Rating: 3.5 out of 5

[tesao]

provenance:lady ell!!

 

oh my yum.

 

in the imp: cloves. cloves screaming: let me out, let me out!!!

 

on my wrist: the cloves have toned down a bit. there is a boozy nutty smell mixed in with them now. the way hot buttered rum smells.

 

drydown: there is something else in the blend that i can't identify. it too is spicy, and reminds me of something gingery, but it isn't ginger. it is almost a spicy wood smell.

 

but who cares??? when something smells this good, i don't need to know what is in it!

[kakiphony]

In the imp: This is a thinner and sharper scent than I was expecting. It's sweet, but not rich. There's a subtle alcohol scent there, but it seems more like medicinal alcohol than booze to me. I tried Hellcat yesterday, and I was expecting something similar to that, but with some herbal spice. Instead, this is a completely different scent, and if I didn't know from the descriptions that they both have rum in them, I never would dreamed they had ingredients in common. I expected to love this one, but I'm a little dubious...

 

Wet: Oh. This is interesting. When I put this on my wrist, the dominant note isn't the alcohol/rum at all. Instead, I'm getting something spicy overlaid with a green and herby sweetness. It doesn't smell like cloves to me, and I'm not getting almond at all. The sassafras is definitely the dominant note on me, and the smell of it has awakened memories of brewing sassafras tea with my fifth grade class when we went out to Camp Fort Hill for a week.

 

Early dry down: This scent is really surprising and puzzling me. The tiny amount I applied has faded pretty quickly, and now when I sniff my wrists I'm getting a smoky and woody odor, with a little bit of that herbal sweetness. The sweetness almost reminds me of sweetgrass incense. It's really like nothing I've ever smelled before and I'm struggling to find something with which to compare it. The closest I can come is to say that it reminds me of how the cabin of a little old country witch would smell, tucked way back up in the woods.

 

Late dry down: It's...gone. When I sniff my wrists, I get nothing but the scent of plain old me. I smell clean and a little spicy, but it's not noticeably different from how I smell on days when I wear no perfume at all and the only scent on me is the linger of sweetgrass soap.

 

I think I'm going to try this one on the boy and see how it reacts on him. I really liked the smell, it just didn't smell like *me*. It smelled more like someone I would want to hug than someone I want to be. (If that makes any sense at all!) I may also, however, give it one more try, with a little more applied. I suspect it might make a good spring scent for me, but that I'm just looking for a warmer, more assertive scent in the this new cool weather. I'm also curious to see how this one ages, and if it gets more oomph over time. I think I want to experiment with this imp rather than throw into my swap pile even though it isn't an immediate favorite. It's intriguing enough to me that I want to see where its potential leads.

[lohengrin]

Verdict: Spicy, but since there's no cinnamon (which totally takes over on me), it's nicely multi-dimsensional. Just very slightly buttery, with lots of clovey/bay kick. No almond or rum, but that's okay. I quite like it this way. ^^