Numb

[iriedanym]

...a singularly chilly, delectably ice-rimmed perfume. Revel in the gelid polar frostiness that is Numb, and forget about the heat for a moment.

After seeing everyone sell this scent off left and right, curiosity overtook me and I bought a bottle. In the bottle, my first thought was "this smells like a grandmother at church". Not unpleasant, but I wasn't really wanting to smell like a grandmother. I dabbed some on the top of my hand and let it dry. I can pick out violet, but I have no idea what else is in it ("something sharp" according to the boyfriend). It still reminds me of a grandmother (not really my grandmother, but a grandmother), and is powdery rather than "cold".

[quinkel]

As soon as i read it contains violets I became very very happy although a little afraid it would be like ultraviolet.

 

No on the the review, I love this scent, it smells different than every other BPAL I smelled before. It smells like a metal table in a morque, cold and clean and a bit medical, or like a OK(ER) in a hospital before the make you sleep, but really in a good way.

I am wearing it today and i feel clean like i have been sterilized(s that a English word?) no microbes can live where Numb lives...

Will wear this a lot to the office because it's a busineslike scent.

 

edited because OK is not an English abbreviation

Edited November 16, 2005 by quinkel

[yeahbutnobut]

Numb

 

In the imp: Yog-Sothoth-lite! A cooler, lighter, more feminine YS with violet.

Wet on skin: reminds me of that 'familiar' soapy scent I got with YS.

Dry on skin: I like this. It reminds me of clean laundry-it has a certain soapy, powdery feel to it, but it's no bad thing. It has violets and other florals I cannot quite place, and also aquatic notes and ozone. It is a cool scent, indeed, but not icy cold. It's lighter, more floral and more powdery than YS but is on a similar vein. It has what I call a 'fizzy' ozone feel to it, and also a cool airiness that reminds me of air conditioning, for some reason. But, paradoxically, it also has a warmth to it, reminiscent of freshly tumble dried clothes.

After a while: white musk? I think there's white musk in here, one of the non-sweet, airy, clear varieties. Also getting hints of citrus as well, amongst the ozone and powdery florals.

Verdict: this is an unusual scent. To me, this is Yog Sothoth's younger, lighter sister. It has ozone, violets and other flowers, possibly something aquatic and cool, some powder, and probably a white musk. It reminds me of a perfume I smelt somewhere, or maybe a kind of soap or washing powder. It has a 'coolness' to it, but it's not ice cold. Now, Tulzscha, that was COLD. It smelt freezing cold, and even felt cold on my skin-and I tried it on during a heatwave. Numb doesn't have that same chill-in fact it even has a powdery warmth like washed clothes drying in the sun or fresh from the tumble dryer. It's a nice and intriguing scent, but not really my thing. I'm glad I didn't get a bottle, but I think I'll keep the imp.

[Rackham's Vanity]

Numb smells just like those little Victorian violet candies, all sweetness and violet. Pretty. Sweet. Pretty sweet, in fact. And, to be sure, a cooling scent.

 

Not for me at all, but during a visit home, my mother lept upon the bottle with a "Wait, you don't like this? Then I'll take it!" and giggling, off she ran down the hallway.

 

Huh.

[rainbow]

When I open the bottle- this smells like powder with a hint of violets.

 

Wearing- on me this is all heavy powder. Powder is clearly the predominant note, and the violet completely disappears. This basically turned into singe-note powder on me. It's very, very strong- a little goes a long way, and lasts a very long time.

[Wench457]

ITB: violets. On: slightly violet soap. Dry: this is still a bit soapy, but for some reason I get a strong feeling of "potential" from it. I'm going to age it for a couple of month and see where it goes.

[WidgetAlley]

Hmm, scored an Imp of this over on the alchemylab LJ. I'm unsure how I feel about violets, and not many people seem to be all that keen on this, but... here goes.

 

In the vial: You know, when I was first reading the reviews I had no idea what people meant by "powdery". I get it now. This is all powdery, slightly sweet violets. It smells very soapy/clean and, yeah, pretty cold. So far not an "I love it!", but not an "Eeeew, get it away!" either.

 

Wet: Stays true from Imp to wrists. Powdery, clean, soapy violets. Pleasant but odd. Actually, make that extremely soapy. If I put my nose right up to my wrist, it's got a very traditionalist, perfume-y smell to it I'm not entirely sure I'm keen on, but if I sniff from a few inches away, it's a barely-there, violet-and-citrus scent. Not great, but very tolerable and even pretty nice.

 

Dry: Not an instant love-at-first-sniff, but pleasant and wearable, and would go great with the florals of my Dove deodorant (I <3 that scent, whatever they put in there.) I think I will keep this one around and use it before martial arts classes, so I can smell clean and fresh even while sweaty. I don't normally do that-- don't like to impose my scent on other people when we're grappling, since we're always so close to each other-- but Numb is quite inoffensive and doesn't scream "perfume!" More like, "clean laundry"!

[Diana]

I put off wearing this until today because I was too afraid. Based on the not-so-favorable reviews and the way it smelled in the bottle, it just sat on my shelf.

 

In the bottle, it smelled reallllly super perfumey in not a good way. Like Windsong or some drugstore perfume from the 70s. Ugh. THIS is why I never put it on.

 

Today, it touched my skin! The perfumey quality lessens within a few minutes. NOW I get violets, but only briefly. A shame, since I really love violets. I can sort of detect something really faintly green & herbal, almost like aloe. The spots where I applied it are chilly!

 

The perfume smell becomes a bit more powdery. It definitely has an ozone quality to it, but only just. The powdery smell reminds me of days when I was little and my mom would be doing laundry. The smell of the detergent for my brother's baby clothes, freshy starched & ironed cottons. And just a tad of the violet mixed with baby powder.

 

Huh. Totally not what I expected. It's pretty and clean smelling. Not something I'd wear every day, but this would very much would be a nice summer scent (and today is so not the best day to wear it—cold & overcast!). I'm definitely keeping my stash!

[iriedanym]

I decided to buy a 5ml of Numb as a whim. People kept saying it had violets, and I like violets. Then I noticed that this scent was being sold like crazy by people who said it just smelled nasty. This furthered my resolve to try it.

 

I'll admit that I didn't like it at first. It gave me a headache and it smelled like someone had taken "essence of Grandmother" and stuffed her in a bottle. Wasn't quite sure I wanted to smell like a grandmother. I figured that I would store the bottle away for a bit, and if I still didn't like it, I could throw it in a sale.

 

I took it out today and dabbed on a bit. I think being stashed away did the trick. It's now not headache inducing. The violet smell is actually quite lovely. Less grandmotherly. It reminds me of what a Romantic era writer would have worn. I'm going to have the boyfriend sniff and get a final verdict if he thinks this is a "me" scent.

[LushNatty]

I was trying and trying to identify what this smelled like. I knew that it was a dead ringer for some past memory, and then it hit me: bubbles. You know, the bubbles you get in the little plastic jars with the wand when you are a kid.

First off, this was not at all what I was expecting. If you are expecting an “icy” scent (like anything minty or eucalyptus-y or whatever), this is not it. It does have a faintly cold smell to it, but I can’t imagine this being a particularly cooling smell in really hot weather. It does, however, have a good kick of nostalgia to it. I wouldn’t want to smell it all the time, though, or even for extended periods.

On a scale of 1 to 5: 1.

[emiweebee]

Mph. I really wanted to like Numb. Early reviews excited me, and I ordered, only to fall upon the latter, soapy reviews.

 

Numb smells like very light violets. It seems to be the predominant smell, although at the same time there is the soap smell. After wandering around outside, trying to get into the scent, I decided the "soapy" smell is actually some sharp spices lingering way in the background. If you really look for them, you can find them beneath the soap. However, that just seems like way too much work; I kept smelling soap, and would have to inhale deeply just to get a touch of the spice.

[Kittyflop]

At first sniff I disliked this as much as a lot of folks. It did smell cold, but in a defrosting-the-freezer-after-three-years chemically cold.

 

I just tried it again, on a whim, and it has definitely improved. Or my expectation was lowered. Hmm, it's not so bad after all. The 'waft' is much nicer when it catches me unawares than what I smell when I stick my nose right to my wrist.

 

Clean, cool, definitely powdery. Odd, but it is growing on me. I'm glad I kept it.

[OriginalWacky]

Bottle (Imp): Hmmm, seems pretty floral. It might be an ozone thing, because sometimes that hits my nose as floral. And it's certainly got something that smells powdery.

 

Just On: Yeah, seems more like ozone now, and sorta chilly, though not as icy as I was thinking. It might need to bloom some more though. I can still smell some of the powder, but the ozone thing and the florals seem to be dominant.

 

An hour or two later: This seems to be rather soapy on me. Go figure, my skin ruins another scent.

 

Around 6 hours: This is completely gone.

 

12 hours: Yes, still gone.

 

Overall: Interesting. I think I like it better in the bottle than on my skin. This might just be the perfect room scent, the floral powder things smells great, and then my skin wrecks it.

 

After reading other reviews: It is floral. I didn't really get violets, but I guess that's okay. I wish it worked on my skin, and that I got all baby powder like some posters did.

[Fefferbella]

First Impression: YIKES... Baby powder and old lady... hell of a combination.

 

Thankfully the baby powder disapeared, but the old lady perfume smell is still there.

After about 30 minutes, it's actually quite nice. It mellows out to a sweet floral violet scent...

 

Gonna need to try this one a few more times... This is the first BPAL I've tried that I'm not sure if I like or not.

[TroubleDoll]

I actually like this. At first I was expecting mint, so it took a moment to get past that, but now my impression is of sugared violets, maybe just out of the freezer. It's not freezing cold but it is cooling, and I get a distinct impression of the color blue from this scent.

[PrettyPenny]

Numb smells exactly like these fancy violet soaps that my grandmother used to keep in her bathroom when I was a kid. It's not a bad scent (it's actually very nostalgic for me) but it isn't something I could wear all the time.

 

I recieved an imp, which I sent to my sister. She loves floral scents.

I also have a bottle, which I'll probably gift to my grandmother. (of course)

[cynthia1960]

I got a bottle from Belladonnastrap on the alchemylab lj ( hello if she has the same name here!).

 

Having read the reviews, I decided to go very easy on the application. I got a blast of violets out of the bottle.

 

On first application, it's a very old-fashioned floral, but has dried down to a pleasant soapy smell. It's sort of comforting and certainly fairly discreet. After about thirty minutes, my tiny application has almost gone away.

 

I'm going to try more on before I go to bed tonight; this may end up being a nighttime scent for me.

[Summerpixy]

I purchased an imp of this off one of the forumites, and I hate to say it, but I'm glad I didn't go for a bottle.

 

In the imp it smells of powder, and once on the skin it's all powder and violets. Nice, but no where as chilling as my beloved Ice Queen. This scent is more remincient of fresh laundry right out of the dryer, rather than the dead of winter.

 

I'll keep the imp, but as I said, not a bottle scent.

[Phaedra]

Wet this is pure baby powder. When first on it’s a mix of baby powder and baby’s breath. After a couple of minutes violets start to come out. This stays pure violets on me. I’m not sure if I’m going to keep this one or not since my favorite violet blend right now is Ultraviolet. I’ll try this a couple more times and see if I really need to keep it.

[Lissa]

When I first got this I tried it and it was just too strong on me. Gave me a headache. Yesterday I decided to try it again before I went to my family's for Thanksgiving (I thought it was a nice, sweet, innocent, see-the-family kinda scent). I put just the smallest amount on. On me it is all violets all the time. No powder and no soap. Just violets. Like I said I just put the barest amount on, but the scent has lasted for the longest time. Normally on me scents last about 5 mins on my wrests, but thankfully longer on my neck. I put this on at 5pm yesterday (barest amount!) and I can still smell it at 3:30 the next day. Strongly smell it.

 

It's not really a smell I want to smell like often, but I think it might be great for times when I want to smell good for a long time. I have a 24-hour movie festival coming up....might be great for that.

[Leda]

I like Numb.

 

Reminds me of a black & white image of an ethereal movie starlet, sitting at her dressing table in a silky slip and feathery high-heeled slippers. Her eyelashes make shadows on her cheekbones, and her hair falls in shiny waves to either side of her face. Her bowed dark mouth is neither in a smile or a frown as she gazes upon her reflection. She holds up one of those perfume atomizers with the bulb and tassel, and this is what her perfume smells like.

[FireInCairo]

I knew this was familiar-and I finally figured it out. It smells like White Linen from Estee Lauder. I really like it though.

[Pachelbel]

I didn't know what to expect when I snatched this one up, but I don't think I was expecting florals.

 

Bottle: Flowers! Very cold flowers. Interesting.

 

Wet: Baby powder? I hate baby powder...

 

Dry: Powder's gone! Rejoice! When I've got my nose an inch or two from my wrist, it smells just like fresh fallen snow.

 

After a while: Snow, and icicles, and violets. Ever read/seen White Oleander? Well, Ingrid Magnussen--the main character's crazy murdering poet mother--wears violet perfume. Even if this didn't smell like winter at all I'd still love it, because the violets are so pretty and they remind me a bit of that book.

 

The fact that BPAL has got me wearing floral perfumes speaks wonders of the Lab. Overall rating: 4 out of 5 stars.

[merebrillante]

In the vial: Powdery and sweet.

 

On the wrist: Dry and aldehydic, with an undernote of a floral I can't pin down.

 

Later: Way too sugary and powdery. If I were 80 years old and had no desire to ever have sex again, this would be an appropriate scent to wear. On the other hand, and after a few days' reflection, I can see myself wearing this on PMS days when I don't want anyone getting near me. I think it would be calming on me, and off-putting to those inclined to hit on me.

 

Edited to add: I woke up this morning -- the first day of that veddy, veddy special time in a woman's life -- and found myself craving this scent. Not just for the name associations, but the actual smell of it. It's very comforting. I think I did Numb a disservice with my original review.

Edited January 11, 2006 by merebrillante

[SeaMonkey]

Like everyone else has said, Violets.

 

It reminds me of Ingrid Magnussen in "White Oleander". She was always described as smelling of violets and ash, which is exactly what I get from Numb. It is definately haughty and cold.