Grand Guignol

[magdalene]

... Our Grand Guignol perfume is a shot of sweet apricot brandy; just enough to settle your nerves after a ghoulish, gory brush with the macabre.

in the bottle: an alcoholic apricot, down on its luck in an alley with an almost empty bottle of brandy at its feet.

wet on skin: I used to really like the apricot scents, especially March Hare, but one day I woke up and everything was changed. Apricot smells suddenly became overly sweet and cloying, getting caught in my nose and making me choke. Grand Guignol, unfortunately, is full-on apricot with a slight brandy-like sweetness.

dry: The boozy aspect of this came around a bit, towards the end, but not enough to make me want to wear it again. hoom. Edited January 6, 2006 by Shollin

[silver_springs]

I don't think apricot agrees with me.

 

I bought a bottle of this scent-untried, and it didn't work out. It's very, very bitter on me. In fact at one point, I swear I smelled a little like salad dressing. My chemistry just didn't like this one at all.

Edited January 16, 2006 by silver_springs

[bellis]

This is much softer and gentler on me than I was expecting. This is definitely girly sort of booziness, more syrupy than pure alcohol smell. I'm developing a fondness for apricots, and this seems like a playful yet sophisticated scent. It's relatively light, however, and I'm going to have to test it on its own rather than on arms with five other scents dabbed on before I make a final decision.

[wanderingredhead]

very fruity booze, pretty much dead on depiction of apricot brandy. It brought up unpleasant sense memories of peach schapps for me, so it goes to the swap pile.

[Miss Lynx]

Got to try this at the recent Meet'n'Sniff in Toronto.

 

Although I like the apricot note in with other things, on its own it's not very interesting. My reaction to this scent was pretty much like my reaction to Akuma: Yep, that's fruit all right. Plain old fruit. Yawn.

 

I didn't get a lot of brandy from it except for the slight boozy touch that my skin gets from nearly all fruit scents. But that on its own was not enough to make it interesting. It wasn't an objectionable scent at all, just kind of bland.

 

Grade: C+/B-

[gingersnapp]

This is sweet and punchy. I'm not too familiar with apricot brandy, but it definitely has a boozy undertone to it. Very fun and outspoken, this is rowdy and cheerful and uplifting. Much like, I'm guessing, apricot brandy.

[AlaskaSnows]

Wet: Tart apricot and sharp alcohol.

 

Dry: Definitely apricot brandy, I also get a bit of wood. Cask? Bar wood? For me this is very musty and mysterious. Dunno how much I will enjoy smelling of it though, it's probably a Fall only scent, for reading mysteries and feeling enigmatic.

[loralei]

Grand Guignol is what I wanted March Hare to be like. Unfortunately for me, the apricot in MH disappears as soon as it hits my skin.

 

Not so GG. It's fruity and sweet but not sickly. I'd say apricot schnaaps but it's a bit heavier than that, and the apricot definitely overpowers the booze on me. I love fruity scents and it makes me think of Bordello in that 'bad n boozy' type way.

 

I need a big bottle of this pronto!

[Diana]

This is one of those scents that just doesn't change much on my skin all day, other than fading over the course of several hours.

 

Apricot. The brandy is there, but it's mostly apricot. But the apricot is nice and sweet, but light. It's not syrupy, cloying or overpowering. It's lighter and more delicate than March Hare, which was a bit TOO fruity, if that's possible. The alcohol note makes it a little perfumey and almost drinkable. I can't drink this, right?

 

I think this is another keeper!

[leapylees]

In the imp: UK people will know what I mean when I say... REFRESHERS!!! This smells exactly like Refreshers sweets (a kind of sherbetty, fruity sweet)

 

On wet: soft and fruity.

 

Drydown: ... and it's gone.

 

Overall: I was worried about trying this as I didn't like Depraved (which, as I recall also contains apricot) and it also lasted 48 hours on me, during which time I took two showers and it went on ... and on ... and on. Grand Guignol is a whole different kettle of fish - it's very bright in the imp, but on my skin fades very rapidly and vanishes without a trace within 10-15 minutes. I wish it lasted as I don't usually like fruity scents and my first impressions were excellent.

[moon_lemming]

At first, I really loved Grand Guignol; it's a dark syrupy apricot when it's wet.

 

But after it dries it acquires this horrible tone to it that I can't describe -- maybe apricots that should have been trashed a while ago? Rellyjean previously described a "really sharp fresh grass clippings" scent, and that's pretty close . . . we must have similar chemistry, at least when it comes to apricots.

[rinoastar]

In the bottle: Sharp and a bit sour. This is not the same apricot in March Hare.

Wet: Boozy, in a sharp, acidic sort of way. Slightly sweet, and fruity.

Dry: Definitely not the same apricot as in March Hare. This one is sharper, meaner in its own way. I really want to try layering with Mme de Merteuil.

 

Overall: I like this one a lot, but not as much as March Hare, I think. It's a very sharp, sarcastic sort of apricot, whereas MH is very warm and friendly. This one has mega amounts of throw, though, and I'm certain it's one of those I'll soon grow to love--after all, not every BPAL is love at first sniff; sometimes you have to give it a test-run before you can really love it wholly. I'd give GG a 3.75/5.

[Thaleia]

The only other blend I've tried with apricot is Katharina, which I absolutely adore, so, naturally, I have high hopes for Grand Guignol ... even though I know it's totally different. I associate 'guignol' with those silly, yet ever so slightly scary, French puppet shows that I had to watch videos of in high school French class - scary only because they're just so silly and weird, and not because they dealt with macabre topics like death and murder in the context of a puppet show. In the vial, this Grand Guignol is boozy, dried apricot. Not the peachy apricot of Katharina, but a boozy Katharina-the-alcoholic sort of smell.

 

On me, it's a large bag of dried apricots, such as what my mom keeps in the kitchen cabinet for snack purposes or to put in breakfast cereal. No brandy, no alcohol, no boozy note at all. This is more apricot than peach, and gets very cloyingly sweet on me very quickly. There's something weird and waxy underneath the sweetness that I can't place or account for. It ends as sugared, dried apricots that have been sitting in the kitchen cabinet for a while.

 

Not something I'd wear ... for apricots, I'll stick with Katharina. 5/10.

[evanesce]

Boozy Fruit. I was a bit warm when I put this on and it was like "woah"

 

Imagine generic "fruit juice" left on the porch all day in the middle of the summer to "stew" - That's the smell I get off this. Sticky sweet and intoxicating.

 

It's not bad at all.. In the dry down it gets floral and sweet.

 

Although I don't dislike Grand Guignol overall, I'm not sure I'll be picking it out of the imp box again.

[Caltha]

Grand Guignol

Love the name but the scent is so-so. A sweet & sour scent, like a fruit-flavored dessert or candy with a hint of that schampoo freshness. Overall it's surprisingly light and lacks "body" and boozy warm sweetness. I don't get the brandy at all, only the apricot and I've smelled better apricot.

[sookster]

straight from the imp i get all boozy and beautiful apricot

 

upon application this does what bon vivant and hollywood babylon did.....

while it starts off lovely and creamy, it turns doughlike with my chemistry

and escalates into a yeast-like aroma.....

i've concluded that whatever that dough note is, itz something that reacts

adversely to me.....

 

boohoodles....the description sounded perfect for me...

[inbigtrouble]

I felt an immediate affinity for this scent when it was released because it made me think of my first year learning French in the 8th grade.

 

When first applied, this is all juicy sweet apricots. Reminds me of my Grandma's homemade apricot jam. There is a slightly boozey note, but nothing heavy or identifiable. This goes a bit powdery fairly quickly on me, but the apricot goodness also hangs on.

 

Sadly, this doesn't last on me at all; probably no more than an hour. Why is it that all of the "sparkling" or delicate scents that I love (Alice and one other fruity one that escapes me at the moment) don't last on me at all? Too bad. If this one had more staying power, I would certainly order a bottle for Spring.

[yeahbutnobut]

Grand Guignol

 

In the imp: boozy apricot. It’s like apricots steeped in strong alcohol.

Wet on skin: boooooze. This is what happens when apricots get drunk. It’s not too bad though.

Dry: what the? I get something burnt in this scent now. Like the brandy’s been set alight, like on a Christmas pudding! It smells a bit like burnt wood as well. The fruity apricot scent, however, is very fresh smelling, like a plump ripe fruit. It’s sweet and full bodied. But I’m not really keen on the burning brandy note I get in here.

After a while: this is really weird. The burnt note in here really does smell like charred wood, it reminds me of one of those very rare sandalwood/myrrh/incensce with a hint of sweetness scents that goes to sawdust on my skin (the reaction here reminds me of what Black Lotus turned into on my skin) and there’s a definite fruity strong booze scent to this. Like a wooden barrel of brandy that’s been set alight. The apricot note has faded away considerably, or has just merged with the brandy and turned darker and boozier.

Verdict: I wasn’t expecting to like this so much as strong boozy scents are hit and miss on me. I think this scents confirms that I can’t do brandy scents. Despite the promise of sweet, plump apricot, the brandy note in here turns to fruity burnt wood on my skin…like sweet alcohol that has been stored in a wooden barrel and has been set on fire! It’s not too bad as a scent but I’m really not keen on the burnt scent this turns to on my skin. Off to swaps.

[smallvoice]

This is -really- boozy in the imp. It does resemble dried apricots soaked in some sort of alcoholic beverage, and when I put it on my skin, it turns sour. It smells almost rotten, or something unpleasant, anyway. But I'm longing to experiment with soapmaking, because this strikes me as one that would smell so beyond gorgeous in a bar of soap, if that makes any sense.

[niter]

Imp

This smells sweet, delicate, and like fuzzy fruits (peaches and apricots)

 

Wet

This is very gentile and pretty. I can only catch the faintest hint of apricot, yet the blend smells very fruity (in a light fruity way).

 

Suddenly, this got rather plastic yuk on me. This is not the apricot of Jack, this is the smell of silly putty. Why!

 

Dry

Silly putty galore. Pout. I wanted this to work!

[crescentwench]

I had really high hopes for this one, but apparently apricot brandy on me = nasty rotten gummi bears. eeeeew. I guess i'm sticking to march hare for apricots.

[dragonryder]

Still undecided about this one. Definitely apricot on the outset, but became more subtle later that was not at all like apricot. Nice scent though, but I don't think for me.

[abbycomix]

Love the name, and I like apricots so I knew I couldn't miss with this one! I didn't detect any booze scents, but so far none of BPAL's booze notes have shown up on me yet. This smells a lot liks the apricot body lotion I use daily. It's more of a creamy, gentle apricot. I like it, but I guess I was expecting something a little tangier or stronger. I'll keep it and it's good, but it didn't exactly wow me. Maybe March Hare will do better for me.

[Ryvre]

Grand Guignol came as a frimp from the lab. On me, the apricot turns sickly sweet and the brandy gets terribly boozey. It smells like I've been out drinking all night. I had to wash this off after about 10 minutes.

[Brianne]

In the bottle:

Very pale pale apricots

 

On me:

This wasn't what I was expecting at all. I'm not a big drinker, so I couldn't identify the smell of brandy for the life of me. But, I had in my head that it would be rich and sweet and heavy. But it really REALLY wasn't.

 

In fact, it's pretty much the opposite. The apricot is just barely there, it's so faint and soft and I wasn't expecting that. When I put this on and it dried I thought to myself, "Hey that smells like something..... something I use. It's really familiar" and I knew that there was SOMETHING in my house that smelled like that. So I went to the bathroom and bam it hit me. St. Ives apricot scrub. If you use that - go smell it. That's what this smells like. Honestly, on me it smells like a DUPE of the apricot scrub. It's such a faint, barely there apricot smell underneath a pale green herbal smell. It's very light and refreshing and green...

 

Final notes:

Again, I would describe this scent as pale green. It's not heavy, it's a barely there apricot, and it smells just like St. Ives Apricot Scrub lol.