Desire

[OhioSky]

The overwhelming agony of passion crystallized into a singularly dark and magnetic blend: bittersweet neroli, black patchouli and black musk, gilded by apple, bergamot, blood red rose, teak, and vanilla.

The first time I tried this, it was awful.
It smelled like old church lady perfume.

But after a couple months, when I pulled it out again, it was glorious!! I wanted to sing.

it's one of the best and sexiest patchouli scents I've ever sniffed, and doesn't come off as a head shop. There's also a honey vanilla smell in there and a touch of cherry, but almost every BPAL I've tried takes on a little bit of cherry on me for some reason, even if it's not listed.

[hlinspjalda]

In the vial: Hmm, this does smell dark. I get patchouli-musk and wood, with a trace of apple.

 

Wet: Sweet fruit for a second, but rapidly overcome by heavier aromas, especially floral. Now it smells sort of musky-rosy with a tinge of vanilla.

 

Half an hour: Patchouli floral musk vanilla. That wood note seems to have died back, also the apple. This has a sort of headachy top note, though, maybe the neroli?

 

Two hours: Musk vanilla patchouli, and a bit of floral. From time to time I get a hint of neroli or teak. It's warm, kind of comforting, like a winter scent should be.

 

Three and a half hours: Warm, pleasant, but mostly over. A near-miss.

[SeaMonkey]

I'm getting patchouli, black musk, and rose. The rose isn't over powering like it usually is on me. This is a nice blend. I think it's the only fragrance with rose I've ever been able to wear. It usually turns into a rose single note on me and i have to wash it off

[obsidienne]

I got this from the forums, so I am not sure of its age.

 

Basically, for me Desire started off as Snake Oil with hint of bergamot and rose; at drydown, it smelled of rosy patchouli (aka Rose Snake Oil), and at far far drydown, like honey-with-a-hint-of-rose patchouli (aka Honey Snake Oil). I know there is no honey in there, but sometimes the Lab's roses turn to a sort of honey-rose smell on me when I've been wearing them for a long time.

 

Desire is without a doubt a very nice blend, but I think its similarity to Snake Oil just makes me think, eh, whatever. I suppose I prefer it to Snake Oil, because rose is my favourite smell. I definitely want to try a new imp sometime in the future just for, um, accuracy's sake.

[stillalive]

Not really sure how I feel about it. I like the tea note, but it's too... something for me. Sweet and spicy, maybe? Not really my thing.

[gchris]

in Vial: strong aged perfume

 

wet: even stronger wood, herbs and aged perfume.

[donnatron]

Imp: Sweet apple and patchouli.

 

Wet: The apple is remarkably strong on first application. It collides with the rose and musk and all sort of have a tussle for dominance. The patchouli is present but it's not headshoppy or unpleasant in any way. It's a perfect patchouli.

 

Dry: GORGEOUS! There's something in this that reminds me of Snake Oil but it's a lighter and more skin-like scent. The apple and rose have calmed down and the neroli has peaked out. The vanilla is amazing. The more I smell this the better it gets. It's sweet and pretty but I can easily see how this would be chemistry dependent--I'd be interested to smell this on a guy.

 

Throw: Good.

 

Overall: Desire is... well, it lives up to its name. It's sweet and sexy and a perfect blend of floral, resin and sweet. I'm finding it difficult to explain exactly how I feel about this scent. I like it and a bottle is on my list even if it's not at the top of my priorities. It seems like a strange mix of Snake Oil, Sed Non Satiata and Les Bijoux together. It's a gorgeous blend and definitely worth a try.

[femmefatale]

I really like this one. It is dark and sweet and sexy and *very* well blended. I was worried that the rose would overpower, but thankfully no. I get mostly black patchouli, musk, teak, and vanilla, with a bit of neroli and hints of apple & bergamot. The rose comes out more after a while, but it's still very much in the background, so rose haters, don't be afaid of this one.

I am sooo happy I got to try this and I am definitely keeping the imp.

[Champagne]

Desire is the darker sister of Coral snake plus some rose and neroli, it`s sweet for the rich vanilla, misterious and feminine and it took me by surprise cause I didn`t think could wear a floral note without feeling sick. The drydown is an amazing blend of fruits, patchouli and a hint of flowers, a complex Snake but wearable. I like it!!

[magikalbrownies]

actually bought the imp for this one because i bought the album demolition by ryan adams and thought...GO FOR IT!

 

at first: its dark, musky, the vanilla pops out in some sniffs

 

applied: LOVE IT, very dark, inexplicably complicated as far as the smells go but the apples become a little more pronounced with the musk.

 

overall: i like this scent. it has a maturity to it.

[crebbsgirl]

BLASTED skin chemistry!! Rose, that is all I got. I thought maybe there were enough notes to drown it out. But no. Right from skin contact this blend went all rose for me. And stayed that way. There was no reprieve in the drydown. All ROSE all the time. GAH! Stupid skin.

[ephemera]

This scent stays apple-y and sweet with a hint of musk for a while, but after about an hour it gets to smelling like an overripe, soft apple with bad spots. Not one for me.

[angelicruin]

I'm getting mostly patchouli and rose while wet on the skin.

 

The vanilla note emerges as it dries more and almost replaces the patchouli.

 

Dries down to rose, vanilla, and apple. Not bad, but I not blowing me away either.

 

I think I'll pass this one on.

Edited January 3, 2010 by angelicruin

[lilirose]

I love Desire. Love it.

 

It's sweet and sexy on me- rose and incense and fruit with a dark musky heart. Bergamot usually doesn't work on me, nor does neroli, but this is so perfectly blended that it doesn't scream "bitter citrus" at all.

 

It's definitely magnetic, as the description says. My husband's immediate reaction, even after being jaded by being asked to smell hundreds of different BPALs, was "That is gorgeous".

 

Desire is the first scent in ages that I couldn't just put on my wishlist after trying the frimp- I ordered a 5ml the same day.

[Tess]

In the bottle - Oh how I love neroli and musk. This is a very complex and lovely scent. The roses and apples aren't overpowering, the bergmont is just a touch and the patchouli gives it base without being too heavy.

 

Wet - Much more rose on me than in the bottle.

 

Drying - Wow, the patchouli comes out with everything else slinking back. There's still some musk and vanilla in this but those floaty notes, as well as the neroli, are just gone. The patchouli is also being a very "dirty" variety, if that makes any sense. Boo.

 

Dry (2 hours) - The patchouli really came out and ruled over everything else. It's really too bad.

 

Overall - In the bottle this was extremely lovely, but the patchouli really ruined it for me. It just killed all the other notes. It makes me sad.

[sirensea]

There's a crisp, bitter sweetness to this one. The apple note is strong, but it's rounded off with something dark. As it dries, the rose note becomes more prominent, and overtakes the rest of the blend. Pretty and complex, but not for me.

[March]

This is a rather bright and screechy scent for something described as 'dark.' Faint whiff of shoe-polish under a powdery flower base? My nose doesn't feel like making sense of this. Let's hope it's the hormones!

 

*checks notes again*

 

Oh, no. It's the rose. After mentally subtracting the black musk from the shoe-polish scent, the sour, sour, scent of roses who hate me remains.

 

*sad*

[caffinatedangel]

Wet in the imp it's got a sharp note that scares me. Neroli? I dont know what that note is, so Im going to blame it.

 

Then on skin there's still a sharpness, but I think it's from the teak. It quickly tones down, though. Patchouli is faint (in contrast to Lust, for example, which screams it deliciously)

 

Dryer on skin it sweetens up, but is a dark scent. With a wetness to it. Im sadly unfamiliar with neroli and bergamont. I have no idea. But this, as a general air, comes across as a dark sweetness. Sexy, but sad. You know how sometimes, you cry, and get angry because you're crying? Or maybe you're crying because you're angry. Either way, you're now pissed with tears because you miss someone so, so much that you're about to explode. Of course Im reading into the description and the name... but it has that feeling to it.

 

Angry, sweet, passionate, all covered with a dark sadness.

 

soft patchouli, sweet vanilla, and a tempered, beautiful rose. As it dries more, rose becomes the central note for me. It's an almost... spiced rose. But I'm starting to wonder if rose just goes spicey on me, even in Katrina van Tassel it ended up a spicey rose cream. But whatever it is, I really love it.

 

It's an intimate scent with very little throw for me. But beautiful. Something to toss on before climbing into the black silk sheets with an SO P:

Edited July 23, 2009 by CaffinatedAngel

[cinnamonster]

First off let me say this was a lab frimp. I NEVER would have tried this from the notes, but, hey I am REALLY glad I got this.

 

From the start there's a sharp but musky smell, a sexuality that makes me feel this belongs in O's family.

 

I had a really hard time putting notes to this, my guesses were perhaps myrrh, and maybe also opium. I was very very surprised to discover the real notes this morning when I tried it on again as my nose was a bit blocked due to allergies last night.

 

Coming through is a sense of woodiness, under a sweet, sexy kind of smell. This is a such a mystery to me how this smells how it does, I get a vibe of violets now, the throw is violet-y but not close up. I'm really sorry to anyone reading this review and finding it hopeless. I'm baffled by this. I love it though!

 

Breaking it down by notes...

 

bittersweet neroli - I love Neroli

black patchouli - this is kind of a no

black musk - no no no no no

gilded by apple - lab's apple is a no on me

bergamot - usually good

blood red rose - I amp up rose and usually avoid

teak - teak hates me

vanilla - vanilla is good

 

This shouldn't work, but it seems to. So if you have reservations about any of the notes in this I would have to say just give it a try!

[Eucatastrophe]

Praise the Lab! No Obnoxious Rose Explosion! It's a scent with rose that I can wear! Until it starts to turn to baby powder after a few minutes. I like the first stage of this enough that I might try the last resort: scent locket.

[aquazoo]

A floral that jumps right up the nose! Flowers growing in fresh earth, in the rain. Maybe that's the apple, giving it the freshness. I like this.

[Indigo78]

Okay - unless I'm missing the post, I somehow haven't reviewed this one yet. I'm a little surprised and a lot sad about that, because this was one of my early loves. I remember how it struck me as very sweet back then, but I have a totally different perception of it now. (To be fair, I'm testing a lab fresh imp. Maybe my older bottle smells different- will update if I smell a big difference when I compare the two.)

 

Wet it is rosy & sharp, reminds me of Cleopatra Testing Poisons in the later stages. Ten minutes later- the roses have gone stemmy & apple has stayed pretty but distant. The notes are well blended and this is hard for me to untangle, note-wise. To sum it up, though, this amounts to a bitter seduction on my skin. I can see it as 'Desire' in a contained way. The prim roses make it wayyy too tied up in conventions to be seductive. It's more like the object of a seducer's desire, if that makes sense.

 

edited- fixed typos

Edited August 3, 2009 by Indig0

[melrose]

On, wet: My nose is thoroughly confused - the notes blend so well that all I can say is it's spicy with just a hint of sweetness underneath.

 

It dries down to baby powder, though, so it's a no-go for me.

[elecktrik]

I really liked the smell of this in the imp - I felt like I could pick out a lot of the notes individually and it smelled pretty darn good.

 

But then I put it on.

 

Once it dried, it became this slightly chaotic blend that reminded me of my grandmother's perfume. That's not necessarily a bad thing, but not something I really want to smell like. I'm definitely going to hang on to my imp and try it again at some point, but my first go-round didn't go quite as well as anticipated.

[BuxomM]

It's teak, vanilla, and black musk. It's dark at first then goes a bit soft and powdery and sweet.