Nuclear Winter

[tehriaz]

Annihilation. The ice, desolation and barrenness of nuclear devastation shot through by a beam of radioactive mints.

sorry guys, I'm not seeing how "sugared christmas tree" equals desolation. gross.

[mooncityminx]

In the vial: aquatic and minty.

 

Wet: peppermint and aquatic. It feels very slushy.

 

Drydown: The early drydown is a very well blended mint, like the peppermintmint from Lick It Again, and the slush note which is aquatic but not soapy or overpowering. It's nice and cold, but there's a little something extra in there, something musky. Then the long drydown is very musky reminding me of Pisces 08. I love Pisces 08, I love peppermint, and I love Nuclear Winter. I tend to hoard my foodie scents most devotedly, but when something comes along this well-balanced and classy, and yet evokative of a certain mood, well I can't just let it pass by un-hoarded.

 

I can imagine this getting heavy use in the summer, but I could wear it all year long.

 

Edited to add: this is the '05 version that I have reviewed

Edited October 29, 2008 by Tempest

[hkhm]

bottle: peppermint snow. this is what i thought numb was going to be. but no, here at last is my perfect winter scent!

 

wet: slushy, mushy dripping wet snow with a stab of sweet peppermint. this is so pretty, so breathtakingly pretty.

 

dry: snow scents always do well on me and this is no exception. this is lovely minty snow. it's sticks around for quite a while too.

[Kippy]

Aquatic, mint, a whisper of pine. The drydown was lovely, but after an hour and a half the mint and the pine are gone, now I've just got aquatic.

[jehrichardson]

This is wonderful - a crisp and cool mint that isn't recognizable as "spear"mint or "pepper"mint. Very nicely blended! I almost get a whiff of rosemary in there, some sort of herbal underpinning. Reminds me of Aveda's Rosemary Mint hair conditioner. Incredibly refreshing, a tiny bit soapy, and completely glorious.

[mgrazulis]

'08 Version

Icy sharp blended mints in a delicate white musk background...very similar to Snow-Flakes, minus the vanilla note. No powdery snow here, though...the scent is frozen through and through!! The initial sharpness of the mints softens quickly with an aquatic note. Uber clean and refreshing!!!

[hellomoonglow]

Ick. Blaeh. Poopy! Why do I keep buying this scent? Too weirdly minty for me. I didn't even try it on, it actually made me feel sick just smelling it. Into the swap pile with ye!

[galahad]

In The Bottle

Cold grassy mint

 

On Application

Icy mint and grass.

Dry Down

The grassy note fades pretty quickly, which is a shame, to leave clear, cold spearmint. The slightly sweet spearmint morphs to more of a peppermint (I would have expected it to go the other way around) and then the grassy note comes back (yay). This gets colder the longer I wear it. I love it. not alot of wear length.

 

Rating (0-5)

4

[goblinshark]

In the imp this smells like winterfresh gum.

On, I get the same faintly grassy note as mentioned above + extreeeeeme mint. It reminds me of the Origins mint facial cleanser I used years ago. I like to smell it but I don't necessarily want to smell like it; i may scent some shampoo with it, though!

[Brianne]

Oh my, I'm so sad about this one I have wanted Nuclear Winter since it's original release because I'm a huge fan of mint scents (minty minty minty for the win!). When it got released again this year I had to get some finally. But it is so not what I was expecting at all.

 

I don't get very much mint in this - the green and grassy note is the most predominant in this blend, followed by a wet/aquatic tone and then some crisp mint. This is not (in my mind) a very wintery blend, it instead makes me think of the Spring with it's watery green tone.

 

The mint fades on me pretty quickly so the end scent is a pretty and refreshing aquatic, but since I'm not a fan of aqautics, it's definitely not for me. It's not a bad scent at all, my disappointment is more that it was not what I was expecting. I think people who enjoy aquatic blends will enjoy this one.

[Schmoozy]

This is a beautiful snowy, slushy pine with mint. There are hints of greenery and berries, and for some odd reason I can detect a touch of cirtrus, specifically orange. Nuclear Winter is soothing, peaceful and

very relaxing. I adore BPAL's snowy, slushy pines and the addition of mint in Nuclear Winter make this another coveted yule for me.

[jade_starlight]

Oh, this is lovely. It's wet, piney mint; an almost perfect Christmas scent. I absolutely love it, and am so glad I stuck a decant in my circle order. *g*

[kjirstiben]

Nuclear Winter is minty--but a non-foody minty, if that makes sense--going on. It has a greenness to it that I didn't entirely expect, when I read the description. It was distinctive and sharp enough, for the first few minutes, that I found myself sneezing a few times. It has a touch of an edge, something akin to ozone or eucalyptus.

This scent softens over time, while retaining its overall character. After a couple hours, it was still mint and slush and chill, but as it mellowed it took on a more mossy tone. Something that started out sharply blue-green and zingy ended up a dusty silver green, covered with half-melted snow.

Nuclear Winter is all about ozone and mint, and it's one of the first mint scents I've tried that remains a mint scent over a day's wearing. It's a bracing scent without being "fresh and green" the way many refreshing scents are.

[Methos]

In the bottle it smells like half-frozen mud and corrupted mint. With that image in mind, it does rather live up to it's name. o.O However, on me it smells like sickly, mint bubblegum.

[Seismogenic]

I have to admit, the name of this one makes me think of Weird Al's song "Christmas at Ground Zero" a whole lot. I know I actually ordered the decant because I like the smell of snow and the smell of mint, but I'd be lying to say that song wasn't a factor at all.

 

In the imp: Cold, slushy, and minty.

 

Wet on skin: This is another one of those oils that actually makes the air in my nose feel cold when I sniff it! It's cold and sharply minty right now.

 

Drydown; Freshly dry, it's still slushy and minty, with the mint fusing into the snow note. I'm amazed at how snowy this really smells. At one hour in, the mint has faded entirely into the snow, and I'm left with a soft slushy cold smell. There's nothing sweet in here whatsoever.

 

Five hours later: All that's left is a little ozone. It faded to this point between the two and three hour mark, in fact.

 

End of the day: Gone.

 

Overall: For the two hours or so that this maintained its smell, it was amazingly convincingly wintery. I was sitting in my apartment catching whiffs and feeling utterly convinced that I was keeping warm inside, and that the bright air outside was bitterly cold and the occasional sparkling through the window was from ice and snow. Sure, opening the door reminded me that I'm in southern California and it was 70 today and the sparkling was light reflecting off the swimming pool, and that we don't get that kind of winter here - but for a little while, this scent brought winter home. Problem is, it was too little of a while. All the mint and slush was gone by three hours in, and the ozone that was left could have been from any number of other ozone blends. I guess it's also a far departure from real life that I'd be wanting the snow and ice to stick around longer, but that's how it goes!

[sookster]

2008 version...

 

straight sniff from imp is a minty christmas tree...

 

once applied the notes swell...the mint is overwhelming but then settles and i

am left with a freshly cut christmas tree overloaded with sugar...nice

[lainevierge]

There's a nice elegant quality to this scent that makes it smell like a very expensive perfume to my nose. Unfortunately, there's also a note in there that my nose reads as SPEARMINT, which never fails to make me nauseous.

 

Not a keeper, but I love the concept.

[milo]

Wet, this is nice and minty. I love mint, so this is a good thing. After a few minutes, there's a whole lot of ozone, and the mint has taken the background. After twenty minutes, it's about equal. I'm overanalyzing this one, as I'm kind of on the fence. I love the mint, but not the ozone. Ozone reminds me too much of a lot of the CK perfumes, which I'm not too big on. I think I'll just enjoy the imp in the summertime.

[Ravenclaw79]

This is a rather astringent mint, no sweetness at all. I was hoping that either it would be a bit sweeter and more Xmas-y, or else it would be the sort of pungent mint that clears your sinuses ('cause I could always keep it around for when I have a head cold). But this is neither. It's not bad, per se, but it's not something I'll wear again, not my taste.

[femmefatale]

I was so excited to try this because I *love* mint. At first it is a wonderful sweet mint with a bit of ozone, but then the mint unfortunately calms a bit and out comes the dreaded xmas tree. If I could just have the sweet mint, even with the ozone, I would be thrilled. Oh well. I'll probably keep the decant (dh seems to like it on me) but I doubt I will be getting a bottle.

[akiko]

(2008 version)

 

Most of what I'm getting from this is an aquatic. In the imp, it smells minty, but once it hits my skin, nothing. Just a slightly floral aquatic.

 

Not for me.

[Astarial]

I tried this a couple days ago as a quick test, and got no mint, or possibly a very light, sweeeeet mint. Mostly it smelled fresh and green and completely delicious.

 

This morning, I went to try it again and... tragedy struck! As I was unwrapping the lid of my decant, it slipped from my hands and fell to the floor. The bottom shattered, and all the lovely oil spilled onto the floor. It didn't splatter, luckily, so I was able to dip my finger into the puddle to get some on my wrists, but the rest of it had to be wiped up and tossed, along with the shattered remains of the imp.

 

This time, I got some mint right away, but that soon gave way to the same utterly lovely slushy greenness I smelled before. I really don't know how to describe it better than that. The mint has since disappeared, but the freshly melted snow and sweet grass is going strong. I love this.

 

I got the boy to sniff my wrists, and he said "Not bad". It had better be, since it's his bathroom that'll smell of Nuclear Winter for a while.

 

I *definitely* need a bottle, if not more than one!

Edited December 10, 2008 by Andyl

[Coldfire]

Imp: Citrus leaf with a hint of mint lurking in the background

Wet on Me: More minty freshness over ozone and less citrus leaf now.

Drying Down: This is almost the scent I smell in the air before it begins to smow.

Dry: faint traces of the citrus leaves are swirling and dancing with the ozone-y mint.

This is light and refreshing..and I want to wear this in the middle of summer. FTW!

[zomathesadist]

I'm a mint freak, so I was really looking forward to trying this one. On me, though, it just smells like department store cologne. =/ The mint is very subtle, it gets very perfumey, and dries really sweet. It also made the Spousal Equivalent cough uncontrollably. D'oh!

 

I'll hang onto it for a while, but I have a hunch that my mint needs will be met by SGA and The Coil.

[starwild]

This one's a sort of slightly sweet, slushy, cool mint. Mint leaves strewn over snow, maybe. It's not the winter scent I was hoping for, but it's nice, uncomplicated and unobtrustive. I've been wearing it to the office a lot, and in my hair.