Dee

[miss_rynn]

... His scent is soft English leather, rosewood and tonka with a hint of incense, parchment and soft woods.

Imp sniff: A musky, incensey scent, which is not quite comfortable but still pleasant.

First on skin: The muskiness is from the leather, which settles to a more suede-like scent rather quickly, and the rose wood begins to come through. There is a sweetness from what I assume is the tonka, and the incense quites down to a whisper. It becomes, surprisingly enough, a very comforting, sweet and smokey scent.

A bit later: It's a beautiful, enveloping, caressing sort of a fragrance… like being embraced in the arms of someone bigger and older than you. It is smokey and sweet, but not too much of either, with a hint of leather and woody notes. It smells like someone you can trust to look after you.

Hours later: Dammit. I do very much like it for the first few hours, but then… the dreaded head-achey incense smell from All Saint's comes into it. It's not too strong, I suppose, and it is probably the combination of that lovely smokey smell and the incense which does it... which is sad.

[dragonryder]

This is like wearing my boyfriends leather jacket! Mmmmm, the scent of leather with softer sweeter undertones.

[Rhowan]

In the vial and wet on my skin - spicey leather! As it begins to dry down, I can smell the different notes emerging, a little bit of tonka, a hint of leather, woods and incense!

Completely dried down this is very woodsy incense. I love it! I put some on my father and it was 100 times better on him - funny huh? So, my dad gave it a big thumbs up and he is usually not a cologne wearer.

conclusion? Great throw, awesome wear! This will have to be a 5ml for my father!

[Elrianra]

In the bottle: Clearly a man's scent, a little cool - I think that's the tonka - but with a softer undertone than most colognes. Sweet but not candy-like, more like an endearing scent.

 

On me wet: Still cool, the woods are coming out to play, especially the rosewood which I should have expected from the start. I'm not getting anything but woods and parchment.

 

On me drying: Oh my. The scent is warming up on my skin, that's got to be leather there. Umph, that's leather. It makes me dizzy it's so delicate and yet strict. The incense is there, like it's permeated an old leather jacket and you'll always smell a touch of incense in the coat no matter how old the coat gets... the woods are still there, a little, soft and husky but sweet. The parchment and tonka are sitting in front of me practically, oh lord, this is sexy!

 

On me dry: Sweet but still subtle, the woods are still an obvious blend in the forefront, the leather's sitting back now and just relaxing, letting the woods and parchment play out. Tease that it is, however, it leans forward now and again to kick me in the nose and remind me it's there - as though I could forget!!!

 

Final conclusion:

1 Hour Later - The sweet began to fade about 1 hour into it, letting the incense roll out in full force. There's this tangy smell that I couldn't place so I went and looked up what tonka is supposed to smell like. According to wikipedia, "(tonka bean) is known mostly for its fragrance, which is reminiscent of vanilla, almonds, cinnamon, and cloves" ... which does explain a lot to me. The nutty but spicy smell that's been dancing in and out of the incense is tonka! It's playful and cheeky, but not feminine really.

3 Hours Later - Uhrm. The leather has been slipping in and out of the tonka and woods for HOURS now. This blend is complex and continuously in motion. The tonka's settled into a nutmeg-type scent, I think it's both nutty and spicy; meanwhile, the incense is still smoothly coating the leather and the parchment is a crisp scent that makes me want to break out the calligraphy set! The woods are a nice base for this, tranquil and calm, but still solid.

 

Finale:

YURNG! This is another of those scents that made me go weak in the knees. The constant calm teasing of this scent was enough to make me mad and, nearly 9 hours after applying it, it was STILL playing with my poor nose. Several other girls took a whiff when I realized it was still playing about my skin and commented on how definitely hot this scent really is. I realize I'm commonly guilty of wearing a man's deoderant, but a cologne? This is a new for me as well. All said, however? Keeper, 100%.

[Meg]

In the bottle: A spicy cologney perfume, it smells quite medicinal.

 

Wet: Incense, incense, incense, a spicy one. Also, tonka, eep. There's something vaguely foody in here, like nuts.

 

Drydown: Dry spicy woods, spices and smoke. There's a very dry papery-leathery note in there that makes me think of parchment, but I nearly taste it more than I smell it. There's still that slightly foody note in the background, I wonder if it's the tonka. And I get the leather scent of old worn seats.

 

Overall: This is a masculine scent, for me, the smell of a librarian who has a side job doing weird rituals. Heh, it smells like Giles in Buffy. I mostly get a rather aftershavey scent that stays around, with the parchment, incense and leather wafting over it. I wouldn't wear it, but I'll keep my imp.

[goth_hobbit]

Dee was one of the ones that I had to try because of my Elizabethan fixation.

 

In the bottle: Very sharp note on top; not quite Lear's cedar-y sharpness, but very present. Almost off-putting, but I give it a shot anyway.

 

Wet on skin: Almost immediately, the sharpness morphs into a more subdued note with peppery hints. The rosewood and leather bloom, and ....there's the parchment; dry and papery. I'm glad that I persevered.

 

Dry-down: This just gets better and better as the tonka comes out to play. None of the notes is overpowering the others. I get the mental associations of esoteric libraries and antique still-rooms: lingering spices in the mortar and well-used alembics. The leather doesn't make me want to pounce on someone the way that The Black Tower does; this scent is a bit too ...dignified for that.

 

Mature: The incense notes have started to come to the fore, perking up the blend again. The throw is moderate; a bit more than most of the other blends I really like, but not enough to knock an innocent bystander over the head. Dee could easily work as a masculine fragrance, or a feminine one for someone like me who doesn't gravitate towards extremely foo-foo girly-girl perfumes. It's subtle and comfortable.

 

If The Black Tower reminds me of Rupert Giles reminiscing of his Ripper days, then Dee reminds me of the slightly older Giles. Still sexy, but mature and self-possessed. It also reminds me very much of the Elizabethan room at the J.B. Speed Art Museum in Louisville, where I spent many hours when I was young. It's also what I imagine the Bodleian Philosophy Library might smell like.

 

Dee is most certainly going on my big bottle purchase list.

[sarahmarie]

Wow. Dee is so good! I wasn't sure what to expect, but I'm really enjoying it. It's all sexy and masculine, yes, but in way that I think will work nicely on any gender. It's really yummy.

[ViciousBleu]

Dee was one of the ones that I had to try because of my Elizabethan fixation.

 

Also my reasoning, I seriously did a little squeel of excitement at seeing a John Dee scent.

 

In the imps: Whoa, holy strong men's scent. I don't like it.

 

Wet: Still super strong and smells like I've been smoking a pipe.

 

Early Dry: You know, this isn't that bad....

 

15 minutes later: OMG. Must smell wrists. I have to find a bottle of this for the boyfriend.

 

The scent on me after drydown is smokey and dusty, but still clean feeling in a way. It's definately the smell of an old library with leather chairs, one kept clean by a meticulous male librarian with an older scent that he leaves lingering amongst his books. It's the smell of escaping from the day to retreat to the upstairs aclove with the old encyclopedias and curling up in a worn leather chair.

 

I was afraid it was too mature and masculine of a scent for my little rockstar boyfriend, but just the very thought of him wearing this in the fall makes me unbelievabley ready to buy him a big bottle!

 

This is the first male scent I've tried out and if the rest of them are this good, I may have to start dating several boys so I can smell them all.

[moonarcana]

reviewed courtesy of Quikslver's GC circle swap

 

 

Dee

 

first sniff: medicinally antiseptic. Not sure I want to put this on my skin.

 

tested wet: but I did and it smelled like strong aftershave wet on my skin.

 

tested dry: but it mellows nicely. it now has an attractive scent - definitely more of a man's cologne (at least in my opinion) It has a rugged sophistication about it.

 

conclusion: I wouldn't wear it, but I would recommend or give as a gift to a quy who appreciates fragrance.

 

2/5

 

additional note - this one is really hard to wash off the smell

[Galatea]

In the Imp: Clean and yet, somehow...dangerous. I think the parchment scent is leading the pack here.

 

Wet: Sharp green, with something bitter in it. Not at all what I expected from the ingredients listed. There is a bit of the woodsy note in it, but it's something like a forest at the edge of the property kind of smell; it's a ways off.

 

Dry: The violent green smell calms down a bit and the leather bouquet comes a bit more to the fore. Then the rosewood peeks about the corner, but only peeks. So sad. I love rosewood and hoped it'd be much stronger than this. I don't smell the tonka at all. Whatever incense it is is taking over I think.

On the up side, this does smell intensely manly. Maybe my hubby will like it?

 

Throw: On me the throw is pretty damn strong.

 

Overall: So far the period of time it lasts is nice, I wish I really wanted it to last. It's just too manly smelling for me. I thought for sure that since this has leather, tonka and my dear rosewood that it would smell lovelier than it does. Sadly, no.

[edenssixthday]

Dee is predominantly rosewood and tonka on my skin and is very, very masculine. It has a moderate level of throw and really good staying power. When I find a scent I like that I think would smell better on a man than on me, I pass it off to my husband, but I passed this one to another friend who wanted it because it was just too strong for me. The rosewood, in particular, dominated most of the other notes and well, it’s just not a scent I care for too much. I think I’d love to be in a room that smelled like this, if the ambiance was right (antique, intellectual, a little dark), but otherwise, the scent is really not for me at all.

[selkielass]

Wow, I don't get any sweetness or incense off this- all I smell is wood.

Resinous freshly cut wood- this reminds me strongly of the wood storage room adjacent to the wood shop in my high school.

I smell pine, rosewood, mahogany and perhaps birch and apple or other fruitwoods.

The leather is subtle or blends well with the woods which surprised me as lately my skin has been amping leather fiercely.

 

This is nice, but the piney-ness is putting me off. It is NOT a pine-sol pine scent, but the smell of a pine resin on the air as a board is cut. Very pleasant, but as I'm allergic to pine, it has unpleasant connotations lurking in the back.

 

Very masculine and woodsy-just not a fragrance for me.

[Kittyflop]

Dee is competing with Haunted for my favorite night-time wrapped-in-a-robe comfort scent. Libraries and dark leather and polished wood and contemplation. Burgundy-gilded smoking jacket complete with watch chain and monacle. But despite all this, it’s not too masculine – or if it is, I don’t care!

 

It lasts tremendously well, I can smell it still in the morning.

[Caltha]

Dee

Dee is everything I hoped for. It may not be what I expected, but it's lovely. I've been intrigued by the description for a long time, but now I can only remember parchment, so I have no idea what's in it really.

Dee starts out strong and warm and dry and vintagey boozy. I'm thinking maybe a similar dry wood note to the one in Tombstone. And spice. Red chili and saffron? And something to sweeten and mellow it a little, tonka? I'm pretty sure I'm way off...

Actually, it reminds me of the cosy "burnt rubber" note I got from Saint-Germain. Only cosier and better and more edible and less like, well, burnt rubber. A truly original and exciting scent, I can't quite describe it. I only know it's warm, hot even, and cosy and spicy and yummy.

In the drydown I get a lot of spice. Food-spice, not perfume-spice. Pepper and chili and curry. The only other perfume I have ever got that kind of spiciness from was Oriental Lumpur from Les Nereides, which is much drier and flatter than Dee, without the touch of mellow sweetness or the cosy woody base (it actually has a clean soap base instead).

There is a certain spicy herbal note in Dee that might be a very well-behaved lavender. I've recently discovered that I enjoy lavender when it does not smell like lavender, when it's only green and herbal, not that old purple floral to freshen up your linen.

Oh, I don't know, I'll stop guessing and go read the description again. I do know however that Dee is a new BPAL love of mine.

Edited July 7, 2006 by Caltha

[gwyllgi]

When this hits my skin, it goes straight to wood in a fresh-out-of-the-workshop sort of way. It's a nice wood, a very pretty, sweet wood, but still wood.

 

Slowly (slowly, slowly), the wood sweetens a bit more to smell like a resiny incense, at which point it becomes amazing. I never really get much leather out of this, but the rest blend together into something warm and timeless. It stays sweet enough that it never becomes particularly masculine, although conversely it's not a scent you would traditionally regard as feminine, either. It straddles the line beautifully.

 

On me, it fades fairly quickly; the wood is the first to go, leaving a ghost of old parchment that lingers. At that point, it's lovely. The scent makes me think of quiet competence and understated self-assurance; I can already foresee using it for a study-aid on those nights when I've got three projects to prepare and I've been putting them all off for weeks.

[filigree_shadow]

This oil smells like a gentleman's cologne -- it reminds me of my dad. My dad was one of those guys who wore a tie to work every day of his life and always carried a briefcase. He was very meticulous about his appearance and picky about his shampoo, shaving cream, and aftershave. When I was a little girl I used to love giving him a kiss before he left for work because I loved the way he smelled. I thought he smelled clean and like Daddies were supposed to smell. Looking back, I know it was woodsy and sweet and must have had a little bit of leather in in somewhere. Just like Dee.

 

I think Dee is the only BPAL oil that reminds me so strongly of my dad that I would prefer that my husband does not wear it. It's also an oil I will always want to have on hand... just so I can sort of have my dad around sometimes. I miss him a lot.

[TrailerTrashPrincess]

tonka and i... we.... well. i was(am) a barbie girl and there just wasn't much room in my life for toy trucks. so, even today, we don't have much in common and generally would just rather not have those awkward social interactions.

 

but absolutely everything else about this blend sounded lovely... so...

 

sniffed from the imp: first thought: "Brut. it smells like a man"

(or maybe i'm smelling Aramis. one of the two. early 80's men's cologne scents)

 

on me, pretty much instantly becomes English Leather....the cologne that's been around since the late 40's...with the big wooden (or plastic that looks like wood) almost egg-shaped knob for a cap. my daddy wore this when i was little, and its a very familiar, comforting scent.

[sofiaviolet]

In the imp: Leather, like a shoe store. I think I like my other leather scents better.

 

On me, wet: Now it smells like a leather coat. Much better.

 

On me, dry: It smells like old leather.

 

Verdict: I do like it, but I wonder how many leather scents I need.

[luxuria]

In the imp, I smell the same 'burning wood' smell I get from Djinn and Brimstone mixed with some leather and something softer. On my skin, that fades, just leaving the smell of wood backed by the tonka and something spicy. Yeah, it smells like burning a bit again--I think that might be the spiciness? OK, now it's back to leather. Wow, is this a morpher. It's gorgeous, though! Creamy yet masculine. Too masculine for me, alas, but I'd get a bottle if I weren't single

Edited July 24, 2006 by luxuria

[kakiphony]

In the imp: During the course of the General Catalog swap to date, one thing I've learned is that I'm terrible at picking out individual notes in the imp -- especially in complex or strongly scented oils. Dee is a perfect example of this lack of olfactory ability: It smells like a generic men's cologne to me. I can't detect one note from the other except to say that it's sharp and a little spicy.

 

Wet on skin: Surprisingly mild. I actually has to rub my wrist to wake this one up. Once rubbed, it's mainly a wood blend, with something sharp and spicy laid over the wood.

 

Early dry down: As this blooms on my wrist (and bloom it does -- what started very faint has a considerable waft after about five minutes!) the incense notes develop. As they rise up over the wood it reminds me of being in Catholic churches filled with dark wood pews and shadows. It's a very gothic wood/incense blend to me. There's something a little sweet lurking at the very heart and it reminds me faintly of the frozen vanilla-caramel coffees I've been getting in the heat. I suspect that this sweet coffee smell is the tonka, and it is really lovely.

 

Late dry down: This fades down almost as quickly and efficiently as it bloomed. After only half an hour the waft is gone and what I'm left with is the type of subtle skin-scent that I adore. The woods have maintained their emphasis in this blend on me, and I've never smelled a hint of leather. The incense has faded to the subtle ghost of itself so that I'm left with soft woods with just the hint of ashy resins and that deep, sweet tone at the bottom. I think I adore this oil. I think I might adore it even more on a man. I'm going to order an imp of it with my upcoming CD order so that I can try it on J since I will NOT double dip in a swap imp.

 

Yay for finding new possible loves!!!

[jarvenpa]

True story: I slathered on Dee (thank you generous gifter...er, giftor??donor.)

 

And then went onto my day of serving soup in the bookstore (we do odd things here).

 

One young man, who insisted I take some sparrow-feather earrings in trade for soup (and they are nice, and I realize my hair is bird-feather color), stayed a bit to chat.

 

After randomness he looked at me closely and said..not, "oh, lovely smell!" (I think the ambiant smell was rich soup, in any case)--but "You know--I'm getting this--feeling about you. You are--an astrologer!" (and I said "and you are pretty insightful" and we talked a long while).

 

How appropriate to have Dee's scent on.

 

It started with lavender, which was fine. I am fond of lavender. And then it was dry wood, sandalwood and cedar, also lovely, and then it was wafting sweetness, unidentifiable (sorry, naive nose here). It has lasted very well, settling into a mingled rich and comforting sort of fragrance, with a touch of what I thought might be vanilla, and a drift of flowers--or maybe dried flowers, pale, but evocative. Someday I may figure out why it is that the "gender neutral" fragrances seem to be the ones I most love.

 

This one goes down on the "must always have around" list.

[juniperus]

Bottle: leather, woods, and parchment..very dry and about as British Academic as I could have imagined.

Wet: hints of the sweetness of the tonka, none of the incense yet.

Dry: leather still in the foreground, the tonka isn't taking off on me like it often does...but this definitely has a masculine feel to me. hm.

Later: I really like this, but I think I'll keep it for Bri - this smells really male on me, like I borrowed it from some guy. (but I have to say, this is exactly what I imagine Giles smelling like. er. uh. oh. )

[Miseraya]

In the imp: Leathery and sharp. I like it. It shares a similar leather note with Black Tower, to my nose. I can smell wood in this as well, and what almost reminds me of tobacco? This leather note always makes me think of smoke for some reason.

 

On the wrist, wet: This definitely has that note that I always identify (wrongly) as tobacco smoke....

 

On the wrist, dry: This reminds me of an expensive men's cologne, but I can't put a finger on which. It's definitely a masculine scent, and sexy as well.

 

Final Analysis: Nice, but not me. Smells great on Anubis though!

[ND¢]

I confess I have really high hopes for this one.

 

In the bottle: Pleasantly foresty/musky, not overpowering, smells like a dryer sheet when I breathe out.

 

On me: Oh my lord, it really does smell like leather. Spiciness, fresh-cut wood and a touch of leather. The spiciness and wood takes over, but the leather comes out from time to time. Not the raw leather smell of a leather goods store, a faded, more cultured-seeming smell. It has a sweetness, but not a candy sweetness or a floral sweetness. I ordered a bottle of this unsmelled, so I sure am glad it's good. I bet it would be great on a man. Too bad the bottle is for me.

[Naamah_Darling]

This is leather and spicy wood in the bottle, warmly masculine and inviting.

 

When I put it on, it smells a bit like the smoke from green wood, and a bit like sweet incense, and a bit like old leatherbound books. It's quite sharp for a few seconds, but then it settles right down into a warm, comforting leather and wood scent with just a hint of smoke and greenery.

 

This is a mature, dignified scent that is confident enough not to feel the need to shout, and secure enough in its dominance that it doesn't see the point in playing head games. This is the sexiness that comes with experience and true confidence, with none of the brash swagger or threat implied by most leather scents.

 

In the same general class as Old Scratch and Hellfire, though it lacks the floral notes and powdery tinge of the former and the aggressive smokiness and subtle menace of the latter. This is a very friendly scent, inviting. It smells a lot like my room used to smell when I'd finished some ritual or other; a mixture of the wood boxes I kept my supplies in, the lingering incense, the smoke of burnt paper offerings, and the leather wrappings of my ritual tools.

 

Traditional in its approach but very smooth and low-key, this blend wears close in, and doesn't last overlong. It's at once earthy and cerebral. Very, very nice.