Chimera

[shriekingviolet]

The fiery, volatile scent of cinnamon, thickened by myrrh, honeysuckle, and copal.

Initial Impression:
Smells of cinnamon and honey. Firey, but rich and sweet too.

After Wearing It:
Wet it's absolutely divine. Fiery but rich, thick and sweet. Makes me think of syrup, though not the scent of it, just the texture. The honeysuckle is apparent and really gives body to the smoky and spicy scent. Once it dries though, I can't smell the honeysuckle as much which is a shame, but the scent is still really beautiful. Fullbodied scent that's blends the scents of cinnamon, myrrh and copal really well. A great scent for cinnamon lovers.

Final Thoughts:
Since I liked the sweet, wet phase of this oil best, I might buy the single note oil of honeysuckle though to layer it with the chimera to keep the original level of sweetness I originally enjoyed. Love this!

[antimony]

I picked this out saturday because I could mostly smell the honeysuckle in the vial, and thought it would be something light and fresh to wear to yoga. [i usually wear Embalming Fluid to yoga. I put a touch in my cleavage, so the people around me don't have to smell me, but I get a whiff of something nice every time I go into the downward dog pose. Which the saturday morning instructor likes. a lot.]

 

Anyway, I spend the entire hour wrinkling my nose thinking: "It's not anise, but it still smells licorice-y... I hate licorice. That isn't quite it, I think it's kinda like one of the spices I've permanently banished from my kitchen... wait, wait, I've got it! It smells like fennel!"

 

Fennel isn't in the description. I think I'm going insane.

 

However, I'd say this is a beautiful complex scent assuming you like everything that's in there... Unfortunately, I don't.

[jj_j]

This is one of those few BPALs I didn't care for. On me, this was absolutely Big Red gum.

 

Sharp, overpowering cinnamon, although a very thick, lightly resin-y version. Drydown softened it up a bit, but this clashed with my chemistry and turned my skin (admittedly, very sensitive) a bit pink where I applied it.

[feycat]

This was one of my favorite scents from BPAL. The sweetness of the honeysuckle and the spicyness of the cinnamon blend together beautifully. It's sweet and rich, but not cloying.

Unfortunatly, this was also the scent that confirmed that I'm sensitive to cinnamon oil

oh well, win some, lose some...

Edited March 21, 2004 by feycat

[Fulltiltredhead]

I don't care for this one. It smells good to me at first, but it fades very quickly into a dusty cinnamon scent that just doesn't flip my switch.

 

Edit: I put this on last night, late - just woke up a bit ago and was sitting here with my elbow on the desk and my chin in my hand, reading, and kept thinking, mmmm, smells good, mmm. So it lasts very well and the dry down smells darkly sweet, very alluring.

 

I'm going to give it another try. Maybe dispersed over greater area, spread out more thinly, in lotion.

 

For what it's worth, it smells great the morning after!

 

Edit: I'm doing a 180 on this one. I really like it a lot. I made up some lotion, about 1 drop per tablespoon of lotion, and put that all over head to toe, and then Harlot on my pulse points. I smell GOOD.

 

http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/neilyoung/cinnamongirl.html

Edited April 1, 2004 by Fulltiltredhead

[allamanda]

Chimera

 

Spiced candy when wet. This reminds me of German Christmas Markets, cinnamon spiced almonds all I need now is mulled wine. The cinnamon is noticeable but honeyed.

 

As this dries it is getting darker and more resinous. This is really growing on me.

 

On my skin the cinnamon is not too loud and is sweetened, presumably by the honeysuckle, and then given more depth with the myrrh. Very nice.

Edited September 13, 2004 by allamanda

[chai_girl]

I thought I had reviewed this, but I guess I hadn't.

 

I got this as imp and had to get a big bottle. As you can tell by my nick, I love chai...I love that cinnamon/spicy combo. I am hooked on the Lush Chai shower gel and this is a great complement to it. They don't have the same scent, but they go well together...the Chimera has a more resinous dry down to balance out the cloves of the Chai shower gel.

 

I thought I'd try it as a room scent. I put my wax in the burner and added a few drops. I smelled the cinnamon but it wasn't a foody cinnamon. I guess the myrrh and copal kept it from being too foody.

 

Well, stupid me, I went out to my daughter's school carnival and forgot about the tealight still burning under the burner. I should have come home to find the house burned down...but instead, I'm enveloped by this wonderful scent when I walk in the door...it is kind of a cinnamony buttercream frosting scent. How that came about, I don't know...but it is truly divine.

 

So Chimera is a true dual purpose scent. It is a great room scent as well as a divine body scent...yummm

[Joey]

This is wonderful. When I first put it on, I can smell the cinnamon. Then it turns to an almond scent. I think it smells just like Lush's snowcake soap. Then it goes back to smelling like cinnamon with the myrrh underneath. I love this but I don't find that it lasts very long on me.

[ipb]

loooove this, it's like the honeysuckle version of harlot only better (which, i'm sure, is the contribution of the myrrh and copal). lovelovelove. and it lasts forever - i can stilll smell the drop i put on my elbow almost 24 hrs later...

[maiden]

Chimera is a great scent for cinnamon lovers! Lots of cinnamon on a background that's a little resiny and a little incensey to me. Very nice and extremely long-lasting. This is one of my favorite BPALs thus far! Update: After wearing this some more, I find that the drydown has a fair amount of vanilla in it to my nose. Smells like cinnamon, vanilla, and a bit of incense. Sweet, but not overly so. Just very yummy!

Edited June 2, 2004 by maiden

[TygherRayn]

I got a chance to sniff Mars and was in love, and then I tried this out of my latest order, and I'm a very happy girl!

 

In the Bottle: Wet cinnamon red hots. And for me, this is a good thing, as I'll eat the things until they make me sick. There's a hint of something else .. a sweetness I suspect comes from the honeysuckle and the copal I suppose. I like it, but I'm more pleased with the cinnamon-y scent, because I've been searching for one.

 

Wet: Ooooh. I can already tell I'm gonna like this one. It's hot, but not irritating like some people have mentioned. No red rash or itchiness for me, and this is a pleasing thing. The sweetness comes out more and more with this, but it's tempered by the spice of the cinnamon, and that makes this so good I want to eat my wrist.

 

On Drydown: This is still yummy. It stays that nice blend of sweet and spicy cinnamon, and more than that, it wafts well on me. Most scents I like I have to sniff my wrist after a few hours .. not this one. It's so perfect!

 

Definitely a 5ml bottle on this one.

 

ETA: This stayed with me ALL day long. I just reapplied only because I'm at work, and the smelly cleaning guy is around and I needed something to keep his nasty BO from making me ill.

Edited May 20, 2004 by TygherRayn

[MilkAndSugar]

In the vial: Oh my gods! Sweet, vanilla-ambery scent. Lots of freshly ground cinnamon. Real cinnamon, not cassia.

I like it!

 

On skin: *stunned*

 

Chimera is a round, cotton-candy cloud of spicy vanilla-amber goodness.

To me, it smells exactly like dripping some *really good* vanilla ice-cream on warm, sunkissed skin during the hottest summer months, then trickling spiced caramel sauce on top and licking it all off. Sexy and sweet.

 

The weird thing is, this is not a sticky scent. It's soft and fluffy and sweet, but not sticky. Just delicious and round. No sharp edges in sight.

 

Drydown: Cookie dough! Cookie dough with cinnamon and vanilla.

 

This is not like Snake Oil, but they still have one thing in common - the gourmand quality. And I'm a sucker for foody, sweet scents.

 

I am definately getting a bottle of this!

 

-Milk

[Vaniclion]

There's nothing really I can add to this review thread

 

Chimera is incredible, a lovely fresh richly foody scent.

 

Ben & Jerry put out a limited batch of ice cream called 'Oatmeal Cookie'. Stay with me, it's relavent I promise This ice cream was cinnamon ice cream with chunks of oatmeal in it. INCREDIBLE. That is what this smells like, although warmed... and fresh out of the oven. It's coming home from school with your grandma, or mother, baking cookies. It's cinnamon buns on Saturday morning with a tall frosty glass of milk. And now I'm making myself hungry.

 

I love this scent. I don't think I'd wear it enough to necessitate a 5ml, but I will keep an imp around.

[paperdoll]

Initial Sniff: This is most assuredly cinnamon, but with added depth - it is sweet honeysuckle cinnamon in the vial.

 

Wearing: When wet, this is red hot candy cinnamon (not a great thing in my book), but it quickly dries into something that is more true to the vial scent. After 10 hours, my wrists smell just like brown sugar.

 

Final Impressions: I think this has replaced Wrath as my favorite cinnamon scent. I wouldn't mind having a big bottle of this, but it's not at the top of my list.

[Faerykin]

Swiped across wrists and along collarbone.

 

Initial Wet (8-8:30am): A delectable, warm, spicy scent. Reminiscent of baking cookies … snicker doodles?

 

Initial Dry (8:30-11am): A very strong, warm, sweet, thick scent … like melting brown sugar. I can’t isolate any one scent above the others, but I am unfamiliar with myrrh, copal or honeysuckle. This could be the myrrh and/or copal, as it is very rich, thick and resin-like.

 

Midday: This scent (like Fey) gave me a headache, which slowly dissipated as the potency of it calmed a bit.

 

Throughout the Day (11am on): This has finally started to calm down. Now I get gentle whiffs of a warm, sweetness. I was really hoping the cinnamon would be more prominent – as I was looking for a spicy cinnamon scent.

 

This has calmed quite a bit. Every once in a while I catch a whiff of a warm sweetness, reminiscent of sugar cookies. This was truly a lasting scent, as I caught little whiffs right up until my morning shower.

Edited July 3, 2004 by Faerykin

[Electra]

Wet: Sweet cinnamon that somehow just misses smelling like Big Red. Not foody, somehow. I like it.

 

Dry: Tragedy! Way too sweet (maybe the honeysuckle?). Loses any bite of spice. Not a winner on me.

 

Waking up five hours later: Hang on, what's this? No more cinnamon, no more honeysuckle, just a warm snuggly wonderful vanilla (?!) that makes me keep sniffing my wrists.

 

Vanilla is not in this scent. I don't know what's going on. Wish I could find a bottle of that third incarnation of the scent, though - it was divine.

[TheDarkMother]

In the bottle, it wasn't as cinnamony as I expected from what everyone was saying. In fact, that seems to be more of an undertone, but it is there. The overtone...I can't describe it...it smells kind of like buttercream. Its beginning to remind me of the Birthday Cake ice cream at Marble Slab Creamery.

 

On me....WOW....there's the cinnamon! It does really smell like red hots! Mmm...I LOVE red hots.

 

There is something else here though, something in the initial sniff that I just can't pinpoint because you only smell it when you first sniff your wrist, and then there's nothing but cinnamon. The more you try and sniff it out, the more cinnamon you smell. The cinnamon doesn't take on a baking smell, like Eclipse, but its still there. I don't know if its the honeysuckle or not. I was really hoping for that scent.

 

I've noticed a slight burning/tingling sensation in my wrists all of a sudden. It doesn't itch so much, it just kind of burns. Its not totally unpleasant either, its more of a statement. I guess I must be allergic to cinnamon oil, unless its something else in this one. I've noticed it with Eclipse too, so its probably the cinnamon. Its not making me break out in hives though, which is good.

 

Oh well, the cinnamon smell is SO good though. I love this!

 

[hypothermya]

This one never made it onto my wishlist until a friend of mine passed it under my nose for a minute. Immediately I needed an imp of my own.

 

First Impression

 

It's a light fragrance, like maybe Vanilla Karo syrup, just sweet, almost vanilla, almost honey, and spiced. Spiced how? Well, cinnamon obviously. But I think that the myrrh or the copal is adding some sort of incencey touch to this also. Yes, it must be the myrrh which is adding a sweet/smokey/sexual quality to this blend... I think I'm beginning to recognize the scent of it from Voodoo, Velvet, Lust, etc. Either way, this smells good.

 

Wearing It

 

Oh, this is heaven! When you sniff up close, it turns into a blast of pure cinnamon, but from a distance this maintains a sweet spicey syrup scent.

 

Ben & Jerry put out a limited batch of ice cream called 'Oatmeal Cookie'. Stay with me, it's relavent I promise This ice cream was cinnamon ice cream with chunks of oatmeal in it. INCREDIBLE. That is what this smells like, although warmed... and fresh out of the oven.

 

Oh my gosh! Vanicolion is *so* dead on! I remember that ice cream! Normally I'm not a fan of ice cream, so my boyfriend will buy me a pint and then share it with me after he's finished up his pint. But this was the only ice cream that I wouldn't share with him -- in fact, I recall threatening him with my spoon if he so much as touched it! And this stuff smells just like it!

 

 

Okee, just a quick decoder: Copal, I just found out, is a resin that is kinda like amber, but precedes amber in its chemical make up. If you leave it long enough, it might just turn into amber.

 

So, here are my thoughts on this one: I adore it. Really. There aren't a lot of sweet perfumes that'll make me happy, but this is one of them. Even though I hate cinnamon essential oils, I don't know why but Beth's make me the happiest being ever. And unfortunately my boyfriend hates cinnamon in all it's incarnations, including this one. So I think I'm going to hide it away from him, and wear it when I'm not going to be around him....to school, to clubs, to any place where I can get my cinnamon fix while not having to hear him complaining about how I smell like cinnamon...

[lorajc]

This is one of my favorite blends. I can't believe I've never reviewed it. This is the blend that made me HAVE to buy all of Beth's cinnamon scents. This is light, but spicy with the sweetness of honeysuckle grounded by the myrrh mmmmmm. I had several compliments the day I wore this. It is exquisite!

[quinkel]

The best cinnamon scent I tried do far!

This is a sweet cinnamon, not sharp cinnamon like in Voodoo or All night Long.

 

On my wrist it's all cinnamon cookie This will be my warming autumn/winter scent.

 

ETA: I still love this deeply but....the boy doesn't I came home today from sport and I had put a little dab(very tiny dab, honest!) after the shower. The boy opened the door and some minutes afterward started complaining what that yucky strong scent was, he even opened the windows(it's freezingly cold) and told me about 10 times to not ever wear it again at home

 

To be honest, I can hardly smell it.... well never mind I will enjoy it on days I am alone.

Edited October 19, 2004 by quinkel

[Ina Garten Davita]

First Impression: Sweet warm spices.

 

Second Impression: The cinnamon note in Chimera is sweet and honeyed, winter wonderland rather than red hot candy. Sometimes cinnamon blends fare better as room scents then as perfume, but Chimera would stand up to double duty. It's a bit foody and not at all "craft-shop-y". The honeysuckle is adding honey sweetness, the myrrh brings depth.

 

Final Analysis: This will be a fantastic winter perfume, I only wish it had more oomph on my skin.

[Nepthys]

Wow. I was worried this might smell too similar to my other cinnamon scents but Chimera has a rich honeyed sweetness that sets it apart. Wet I could smell mostly cinnamon sugar; then as this dried down, the honey cake smell came through stronger and stronger, until the cinnamon was just lightly on top. I adore this and it's very comforting, much like Velvet, but it also makes me drowsy. It also gives me the feeling of being sated, so who knows, maybe this is not only going to smell gorgeous but also function as a sleep aid and appetite suppressant.

[ChupaChup]

I got Chimera in a swap and loved it the moment I popped the top off the imp. Wet, I can't detect much cinnamon, just a dusting. It smells a lot like O, that luscious honey and vanilla wafting around, with a little bit of cinnamon sugar added in. Later on the cinnamon gets a little stronger and a smoky incense note emerges, I think that's the copal, it's yummy. Even later, the vanilla honey notes come back. This is the softest of the BPAL cinnamon scents I've tried to date and my favorite.

Edited September 19, 2004 by ChupaChup

[jessamynit]

this one I really wanted to try even though I thought I wouldn't like wearing it. I'm really not into cinnamon scents. BUT the honeysuckle idea intrigued me... getting the imp I was like, "oh yeah, smells like big red". I'm so glad I made myself try it though. after I put it on I felt it was a very NICE big red kind of smell but still much too strong for me. then I put it tried to swap it for a danube with someone - luckily the swap fell through because an hour or so later I was like, "what IS that wonderful scent? oh, it's ME?!!"

the cinnamon got much less powerful (and smelled more like nice cinnamon bark, instead of intense undiluted cinammon oil) and suddenly got very complex, dark, smokey, and mmmm. I want to try it a bunch more for sure - I still don't know if it's something I'll wear frequently but I can definitely see finishing the imp and figuring out what friend would like this scent (I know someone will love it!).

good job with the chimera! very mysterious and lovely.

[Effluvia]

In my opinion, this is Dana O' Shee with BALLS! I've been in love with Dana, but she's too distant. Chimera stays around. It's the sweet, creamy almond-honey goodness of Dana amped up and more bad ass, courtesy of the cinnamon. OOOH, HOW I ADORE HER!

 

5ml is despertely needed.