Sri Lanka

[blu°]

Indian sandalwood and cedar, and the dry incense smoke of olibanum, gum mastic, patchouli and myrrh.

I've been dabbing this on before going to work in the morning and didn't pay all that much attention to it initially. I only got "dry" and "woody" then.

During the day, anytime I got a whiff of the scent it was heavily men's cologney. On my wrist it had a resinous-spicy sweetness, similar to tobacco-leaf scent, but the waft was harsh and dry.
The scent on my wrist seemed to fade and did not display any "high-lights" while it faded, but I still noticed the waft about 6 or 7 hours later.

I think it's been the thick sweetness of myrrh and the sharpish dense smoke from olibanum (which is, btw, as far as I know a kind of frankincense) coupled with that airiness of cedar combining for harsh+dry.

I got that Midnight Mass vodka effect, too, and think it might be myrrh+olibanum when freshly applied.

It's probably the patchouli in this that adds the slight spiciness, and together with the more skin-sticky particles from the resins it resembles the kind of spiciness tobacco leaf has.

It's kind of light, the way Aureus is light, but whereas Aureus is golden light, this is greyish-olive-brown, but not dark. I don't see it very dark. Maybe because dark to me would be less airy, less dry.

As a perfume, it doesn't quite grab me. There's just this masculine thing going on, that's not working for me. I was wondering whether there might be ambergris involved. Not that I could exactly tell what ambergris smells like, but scents that have it listed always turn this greyish smoke thing on me, that I lack the words for but maybe: empty, thin, having force but no substance.

I've also several times been thinking there might be something leather alike.

(It really scares me that all of above review is analysis and not the tiniest trace of imagery.) Edited April 1, 2006 by Shollin

[Shollin]

First sniff: Chilly, wet and green. Which is bizarre, because not a single one of the listed notes says chilly or wet or green. It’s green in a green-wood sort of way, not in an herbal-fresh way. I’m not explaining this well.

 

Wearing: OK, now it’s starting to dry out a bit, and developing an edge of spice and incense. It’s still rather a high, chilly scent, and the edges aren’t quite smoothed down. As it dries further, it develops a truly glorious warm wood base – the cedar isn’t too sharp, and the sandalwood is the happy soft-focus kind that works really well on me. Before the woodiness appeared, I’d mentally stuck Sri Lanka in the category of “interesting enough to try again,” but now it’s very much a keeper.

[Diva Urd]

Oh, Sri Lanka, how do I love thee? Let me count the ways...

 

I'm a sucker for woods and incense, so this is a complete winner for me. For once, the patchouli doesn't turn out to be a screamer on me (while I don't mind that since I love patchouli, I prefer it if it doesn't drown out all the other notes in a scent, since I might as well wear it as a single note then), instead, everything mingles perfectly into a warm, smoky, spicy overall scent. It makes me think of a temple or shrine in the middle of an exotic forest. This one also has great staying power on me - it easily lasts a whole night at work.

 

I'm definitely gonna want more of this once I'm done with my imp.

[septima_pica]

Hey, wow, what is that? It's tingly! Lots and lots of wood and incense, with some straight-up cedar too. Oh, and here come the patchouli and myrrh. Oh, man, I love myrrh; it makes it just sweet enough, but not overpoweringly so. The patchouli's the good kind, too, not the one that smells dry and funky -- I gather this is black patchouli, as opposed to red.

 

Like a cedarwood chest full of incense and nice clean silks, kinda like a Tibetan import store. This smells like I wished some other scents had -- like Anne Bonny with more complexity, Tombstone with less sweetness, or Silk Road without the part where it smells like potpourri. Gorgeous.

 

I should get one of these for my dad, I think he'd like it -- he wears patchouli and sandalwood, normally -- but I might prefer just to keep it myself, and I might get a bottle for it.

Edited May 28, 2006 by septima_pica

[juniperus]

Bottle: Wood! Cedar chest, freshly made!

Wet: Incense and smoke and wood, oh my. I imagine this smells just like the entrance to a shrine where there is a lot of woody incense burning all of the time, so that the smell has permeated the walls. It's smoky enough I almost want to cough in reaction.

Dry: The patchouli has stepped forward while some of the cedar has stepped back, so now it smells like a hippy new age store. Seriously.

Later: Cedar remains strong though some of the other notes are fading and warming. Very incense-y, warm, and, yes, hippychick. Not quite the blend for me, I'm not much of a patchouli girl.

 

 

 

edited to add: I decided to try this one again since I tried it for the first time pretty early on my voyage of notes...and I'm grooving with the woods moreso now, less hippyshop memories and more awareness of the interplay of the incense. So, it's a rediscovered happy.

Edited August 15, 2006 by Juniperus Intrepidus

[Eunice]

The only thing I smell from the bottle is the myrrh but when I apply some to my wrist the cedar and sandalwood appear. I was expecting something spicy when I first saw the name but this is more of a woody spice rather than a cinnamon or clove spice. There is a greenness to this which plays well with the cedar. Totally comes off as an elegant and masculine scent. Very clean and playful. Lovely!!

[The_Merf]

In the imp: This blend smells very complex. I smell the cedarwood and patchouli most prominently.

 

Wet: Whoa! It looks like this oil might pull an Umbra on me--in other words, the patchouli is dominating everything else. I love patchouli when it is working in concert with other things, but not on its own. (I'm surprised that no one else's reviews are mentioning patchouli--perhaps my skin plays it up?)

 

Drydown and wear: Thankfully during the drydown the patchouli gives way to some of the other notes, particularly the cedar and myrrh. It takes a little long to get to this stage on my skin, though. I'll probably use the imp, but I'm not sure if I'll get a while bottle.

[sissa125]

The cedar-and-sandalwood base links Kathmandu, Sri Lanka and Magus in my mind. Sri Lanka is the spicy, incensey variant. This is very very nice, but my preference is for Kathmandu.

[Eros]

In the imp this is semi-sweet, spicy herbs. It touches the skin and immediately the herbal edge starts to disappear allowing the cedar to come through then, close behind, sandalwood. The patchouli remains soft and the sweetness from the myrrh is there but never overpowering.

While it eventually goes very light, the beautiful, smoky-incense scent and feel remain.

This one's a winner

[HennaFairy]

bottle:

green herbal/woodsy

 

wet:

cedar - woody and herbs/incense

 

dry:

really nice! Actually a little like doc buzzard, just not quite as dark. A really great incense scent!!

 

overall:

really nice!

 

rating: 8/10

[Buttercup]

Sri Lanka = blah blah blah wood wood blah patchouli blah blah blah wood blah blah more wood blah patchouli blah blah... with an odd floral note that my skin seems to be projecting on top of everything. I say floral because I smell the pollen off the stamens of the flowers but -- but -- there's not supposed to be florals! Just blah blah wood blah blah patchouli! What's wrong with my skin, omg?

 

I'm not sure what is wrong with t3andcrumpets, but I have the same issue! On to the review:

 

In the Imp: Possibly the most gorgeous amber gold oils I've seen in a long while. Smells spicy and woody.

 

Wet: Ack! Stinky patchouli dirt! I have the same gagging feeling I got with Alone. Passes quickly.

 

Dry: Mellows quickly. The cedar becomes predominant, which I like, but it burns of in lass than half an hour. The sandalwood/myrhh is soft, woody, rich and not at all soapy on me. Very nice.

 

Later (2-4h): WTF? Florals? I have a faint, but definite "golden floral" going on. I keep asking people to sniff me. Unless they get very close, they all tell me "sweet and flower-y". A bit of cedar/sandalwood on my skin. The patchouli is gone, baby, gone.

 

Verdict: Interesting. I don't think I'd get a bottle (unless it was a swap) since it fades so quicky and them morphs into a floral weirdness. I might want to try playing with it in body oil, though. Still searching for that ideal sandalwood. . .

[edenssixthday]

Sri Lanka took me by surprise. Based on the description, I didn't think it would be a winner, but it is! With scents like sandalwood, cedar, patchouli and myrrh -- all of which are scents I can rarely wear -- I thought for sure it was going to bomb. But it's a gorgeous, golden, warm, spicy scent, but the spice isn't overwhelming in the least. While it's not the kind of scent I would want to wear often, it is something I will wear. I'm not sure where or when, but I definitely see more of Sri Lanka in my future. It stays fairly close to the skin, but not completely, and seems to last for quite some time.

[malanna]

This does sort of smell like Anne Bonny in that it smells like the wood planks of some sort of warm building (Anne Bonny smelled like the wood in a sauna). This is basically just sandalwood and a lot of cedar to me. My nose isn't so sophisticated (and patient) as to pick up the various incense notes. A fairly tolerably scent, as far as wood scents go, which I'm not a fan of.

[valentina]

In the imp, I really get a lot of cedar overlaying sandalwood and patchouli. On my body, I'm another person who thinks that Sri Lanka is really very much like Anne Bonny, but with a smidge more of the cedar scent. It's more masculine and woodsy, and to my nose and brain, a male version of Anne Bonny. After a few hours, the cedar mellows out, and it becomes very much the scent of aromatic woods and patchouli. Since I love all that stuff, I think this is a beautiful, unisex scent.

[sookster]

straight sniff from imp is very woodsy and smoky

 

once applied the patchouli, sandalwood and myrrh get amped up and

create a very fabu blend for me

 

after about 1/2 hour...

 

it faded....almost completely!! is it the heat and humidity or

just my chemistry as auntie flo is visiting??

 

hmmmm...need to try this a few more times to see if it changes

at all ... if not, this will most definitely go into my scent locket to last

longer as i adore the scent!!

 

ADDED Nov. 12:

 

straight sniff from imp is a heavy duty wood blend...lots and lots of wood....

and bone dry...once applied a lot of cedar....there is some incense smoke and myrrh....

i never get any patchouli....darn....i am so thankful i was able to try this in

imp form...i thought for sure this would be a scent to knock-me-over-with-a-feather...alas, this one is just far too woody for my liking....

[Dinerdulcinea]

imp: I get a strange grassy odor mixed in with the incence smell.

 

wet: The grassy smell is reallllllly getting amped on me. I don't think we will be friends. We'll have to see...

 

Dry: The grassy smell goes away and I end up with a SUPER HEAVY commerical-smelling oriental. I think this blend is just not right for me. I like Scherezade on me better than this one.

 

Oh well...we must try it before we know if we like it!

[PilotKitten]

Gah... cedar! < hides > Nothing but cedar... I feel like I'm locked inside of one of those giant cedar chests that my great-grandma used to put her sweaters in. Nothing but cedar..... perhaps a faint hint of patchouli, but too much overwhelming cedar to know for sure.

[strangemusic]

This is one that my friend S. (whom I've fully enabled, *evil heehee!*) and I tried together. When I opened up the imp, she got a floral kind of nose-feel from the mix of resins and barks; I got a very spiky shove of what I recognize as frankincense with a shy, thin scrim of brighter cedar, and dark, bitter myrrh, which goes straight into my upper sinuses and spins around for a little while. Mmm.

 

On my skin: wet, the faintest blossoming of myrrh... and there's the cedar! This time, the cedar is warm, lustrous, freshly shaved from the tree, as opposed to nearly non-existent in Tombstone; its scent lazily twines and spirals around the myrrh's shagginess, circling around a whisper-soft spire of sandalwood... and, yep, a faint background threat of soap.

 

Damn.

 

S. came back to me an hour afterward, exclaiming "I smell like church!" with a great deal of glee. Which led to a discussion of our relative religious upbringings, and our conjecture that there was frankincense in that thar imp. By the end of my dry period, this was full on, spiky, dusty, spicy, soap. Sigh. Yet another that doesn't quite work well enough on me to keep.

 

Medium to strong throw.

 

C&P from ye LJ 4 July 2006

[SultryWolf]

imp: spicy with a sort of dark fruitiness

on: if I concentrate, I can pick out the cedar, sandalwood, patchouli, and myrrh, but it's so nicely balanced that no one takes the fore.

Incensey, but the cedar keeps it feeling green.

[buzz23666]

Ok - who gave me the E-ticket for this scent rollercoaster. Mary mother of god I am so befuddled.

 

Wet - a completely rain-soaked cardbord box filled with new green leaves

 

next - arid, bloody dry as a bone scent

 

next - cedar

 

next - I swore I was on the river here in Bangkok. A melange of confusing elements (just like living in the city here. LOL)

 

last - sweet cigar smoke.

 

Ok - who spiked my coffee!!!

 

Needless to say this one is not for me. Oh well...

[Jia]

Eh. It's a very, very dry scent on me, sort of incensy and slightly woody, but there's no... depth. No sweetness or florals or fruit or distinctive spices. I don't hate it, but it doesn't do anything for me.

[ND¢]

In the bottle: Incense.

 

On me: A sudden burst of flower. Search me; I don't know what's making it do this. People are referring to the sweetness of the sandalwood, so.... It gets a dangerous hint of the soapy... looking through other perfumes that got the same soapiness, the only one I'm coming up with is Sleepy Moon, which has 'white sandalwood.' Man, it's the same exact soapiness, but unlike Sleepy, the soapiness doesn't jump off my arm and bite off my sniffer. I don't get the patchouli much if at all. Nope... not at all. A sweet and spicy, vaguely woody but not at all sharp smell, soft and light, evocative of places I've never been. Dries down to a soapiness much like Sleepy. Sigh.

[TrailerTrashPrincess]

impsniff: sandalwood

 

skinsniff, wet: sandalwood and cedar

 

skinsniff, dry: cedar, a touch of cedar, olibanum and a touch of myrrh.

[lookingglass]

Very, very woody and dry. Not a good match.

[LiberAmoris]

Sri Lanka smells just like some sandalwood incense a friend brought me back when she visited her relatives in India. And then there's also a green note in here that's almost sap-like, and it gives the woods such a lift.

 

I really want to try this one in my oil burner. This is what relaxation and a peaceful mind smell like to me.