Dana O'Shee

[nightbird]

... Offerings of milk, honey and sweet grains were made to placate these creatures, and it is that the basis of the scent created in their name.

I thought I was going to like this one based on the description, but it's one of the few BPAL scents that has totally disappointed me. When I first opened the vial, I could smell almonds very strongly; almonds smell sickly-sweet to me and never fail to churn my stomach. I tried this oil anyway, and it dried to a very disappointing fakey vanilla play-doh scent on me. Yuck! This one is going to get traded off. I know a lot of other people really like it, but it's just not working out with my personal body chemistry.

rating: 0/5

[DangerInRed]

Wow!

 

On me, this is the perfect oatmeal, milk and honey scent! While it's nice in the vial, it's even better on the skin. Unfortunately, it doesn't have much throw and becomes really faint really quickly, so I have to keep sniffing my wrists to smell it (but when I do, it's SO GOOD).

[shellyshells]

Imp: true to its description. Oatmeal, honey and milk!

 

On me: Whoa, just like Lush snowcake. Hmm, doesn't last so long on my skin. Sweet almond!

 

I like it enough to hold onto the imp, no desperate need for a big bottle though.

[whitecrow0]

In the bottle: Whoa! Is that almond? Sweet and foody. And strong. Pleasant, though.

 

Wet: Mmm! This is good! Cookie dough? It's rather lickable. It's creamy and lighter than Chimera is on my skin. Dana O'Shee is fresh and kitcheny-sugary. It feels warm and comforting, comfortable. I can see why this would be "placating."

 

Drying: Drying I start to sense the honey / oatmeal note, though it's still overpowered by almonds. It's a light scent; there's not much throw (I have to bring my wrist up to my nose to smell it right now) but that's not a bad thing. Sometimes light is preferable; subtlety has its place, and too few people utilize it.

 

Afternotes: I had a real "uh-oh" moment during the dry-down process; I could smell the milk and oatmeal, but it was kind of bad; as though it had gone sour, rancid. Luckily, that stage lasted seconds to minutes; Dana O'Shee is back to almonds on my skin, with a faint almost vanilla-ish thickness. I don't really smell honey, milk, oatmeal or sweet grains, which is disappointing.

 

Scott-sniff: "They're all starting to smell the same."

 

Verdict: I'm really rather bemused that it's all almond, all the time. I didn't want it for almonds. Almonds aren't even in the description! However, I like the smell of them.

Keep imp to try again. May swap at a later date.

[EDIT: After two more tries, I've decided that if I want to smell like almond, I'll slather myself in my Burt's Bees Almond Milk hand lotion. It doesn't smell as sweet, and I like it better.]

SWAP!

[Miseraya]

In the imp: This reminds me of my favorite drink, amaretto and milk! It's very sweet smelling. It smells heavy, I'd better go easy on this one...

 

On the wrist, wet: Same as in the imp! Yay!

 

On the wrist dry: Much lighter now, but still the same boozy sweet scent! Less booze now though....

 

Final Analysis: It's not nearly as heavy as I thought it would be. It doesn't have much in the way of throw on me, and doesn't last as long as I would like it to, but I love love love the smell.

 

Definitely a keeper.

[thraxyl]

I put on Dana O'Shee today before an ophthalmologist appointment hoping it would calm me down and take my mind off my very unhappy eye. It did give me something else to think about, although it didn't make my eye feel better...

 

Starting out on me I can't pick out individual notes, just a very warm, calm, comforting scent. The milk seems apparent, somehow, although I can't get the note-just that kind of homey, round smell that hovers around Dana's edges.

 

After a few minutes it morphs into pure vanilla on me. I somehow found this stage very evocative-I got a picture of my house, with a candle sitting on the counter and our bitter Wisconsin winter outside. Much in keeping with the idea of Dana-comfort and homeyness against something wild and untameable.

 

Eventually it morphs back into the original scent, and loses the only-vanilla feel. The sweet grains seem to become more apparent as it ages, but overall the scent is very consistent and hard to pick notes out of. Dana fades fast on me and after about an hour is only detectable close to the skin.

[maijasu]

I get mostly honey out of this, with a hint of cream. It's very sweet and not that complex, and it doesn't last very long. But it's so comforting and lovely, that I think I might just get a 10ml and slather.

[filigree_shadow]

From the number of reviews in this thread, it looks like sooner or later everybody tries Dana O'Shee. The description does sound great, and I can see why it's highly recommended, but unfortunately it just doesn't work on me.

 

It smells like cherries and honey at first, and then it gets milkier and sweeter and the cherry scent fades out almost entirely. I have a feeling that this would be a lovely scent if it weren't for my skin chemistry making the honey smell like play-doh. It's done the exact same thing all three times I've tried Dana O'Shee over a span of several months, so I'm pretty much giving up hope at this point. I'm glad this smells great on other people, but it's never going to work for me.

 

 

ETA: I just asked my hubby what he thought Dana O'Shee smelled like on me, and he said cherry-flavored play-doh. So now I know for sure it's not my nose, it's definitely my skin.

Edited August 1, 2006 by filigree_shadow

[fairy]

When I smelled the honey I thought oh-no (because O and #20 Love Oil hated me) but for some reason in this blend it worked. And I know it isn't listed in the ingredients but I smell almonds. Wet yummy almonds. When it settles a bit it get a tad powdery soft, which is quite lovely. One of my new favorites

[Dinerdulcinea]

Dana O'Shee

 

imp: LOTS of sweet almond.

 

on: a little bit of sweetness, but almost nothing at all. Like a very pale sweet milk. It reminds me a little bit of the time that I cooked bulgar wheat in milk for breakfast. The tase of bulgar in milk is stronger than this smells, but Dana O'Shee smells about as strong as the actual cereal smelled when I cooked it.

 

This is so faint as to be almost completely gone on me in a bit over an hour. So sad!!!!

 

--after several hours, I get a faint soapy smell that almost gives me a headache. : (

 

Maybe I will try it again another day and see if the headache was just work (which is icky and would give anyone a headache.)

[aestien]

Bottle: almond

Wet: almond, vanilla, honey, plastic doll smell

Dry: it goes through a little dusty phase, oats?, and then settles into sweet almond vanilla honey

 

This reminded me too much of vanilla lotion I wore in high school, and it settled into the plastic doll smell that vanilla sometimes does on my skin. Sadly, not for me. Still on a hunt for my perfect fairy scent, I'm looking forward to trying Queen Mab.

[gaai]

Ah...the scent that has gotten me into Bpal-addiction unsniffed

 

I was lured by it after people said it smelled like Lush's Snowcake soap.....and I luurrrrve my Snowcake!

 

And, to my nose at least, it really does smell quite like Snowcake! It's all sweet honeyed almond milk on my skin.

Doesn't change much from bottle to drydown, nice throw and stayin power too.

And while I love this scent very much and I will never part with my bottle, I've gotten used to more complex Bpal scents by now.....so I don't think I'll wear it much. Although it will be nice to be able to keep smelling like Snowcake for a whole day after I showered with it.

[Clementine]

This is pure almond extract on my skin. There's no complexity or even the slightest hint of milk or honey (how I wish!). I think I may be having monthly hormonal scent weirdness, though, so I will give this a few more chances, or it will become bath oil!

[neuilly]

Wow!! I love this scent. It's mostly almond on me with an afternote of cream. And some vanilla. It's scrumptious. I was nervous because O and Dorian did not work on me and this is often mentioned along with them. Love it! Definitely need a bottle!

 

[juniperus]

Bottle: gentle and sweet

Wet: I recall making a Welsh recipe when I was a teenager, one that I found in a cook book in the library. It was a honey cake - and this smells very much like I remember it.

Dry: there must be some vanilla here, even if only a touch, as vanilla is a very obviousl thing once it touches my skin.

Later: Interestingly enough it's lost that cake quality and the honey has not, as it oft does, gotten a bitter edge to it. I might have to borrow this from Colin some time, it would be nice to find a honey that actually works.

 

(this is the kids'; Emma made a face, while Colin nodded emphatically and added his now infamous "Yes!")

[Trish]

I got this as a frimp from the ever generous Lab.

 

In the Imp: Lush's Snowcake with a twist.

 

Wet: Snowcake, with a touch of honey and something else I can't pick. Quite sweet.

 

Drydown: I still get lot of Snowcake in this, but it's softer and doesn't have the playdoh note that it can sometimes have. As it dries I get more of the honey and grains, but it doesn't really smell like a bakery to me. A little bit of throw, which seems to be more honey.

 

Dry: The sweetness backs off a little, but it's still sweet. Soft, sweet almond and honey with a little cream drizzled over the top. The throw has almost completely gone.

 

 

Well! Even though I like Snowcake quite a bit this still had the potential to be horribly wrong for me. I don't usually like to wear (as opposed to washing/bathing with) sweet foody scents, I'm not overfond of honey, and I'm wary of almond ever since the almond in Bastet completely smothered everything else. This is why I never ordered it despite it's reputed similarity. But I really like this a lot and the imp is a definite keeper. This will be a great scent in the summer when my usual ones are too heavy and I don't want to wear florals (which is most of the time). It's also a good one for visiting the in-laws, soft and innocent. I don't normally like scents that I associate the word innocent with! I've got a feeling this could end up being on my bottle list.

 

I guess it proves the Labbies know best!

[Melantha]

Hmm. I got almond first off in sniffing this, which is odd, since there's no almond in the description. On, I got more honey, and sweetness. Quite nice. I'll keep my imp, though i don't think I'll be getting a big bottle.

[gypsybaby1]

I'm not quite sure how to review this... it's an odd duck. LOL

 

in the bottle and wet, it's very much milk and honeyed almonds. Very rich smelling and very luscious. But it doesn't seem to last too long - I can't smell it on my skin. However, I can smell it in wafts around me, catching it once in a while when I'm not paying attention.

 

The scent doesn't change much, just gets softer.

 

I'm on the fence about moving up to a big bottle of this. One one hand, this would be great for the kids and dress down days and it'd be FABULOUS in a body butter, but I'm not 100% sold on it.

[porcelain72]

In the bottle: creamy sweetness with a bit of almond, a lighter O.

 

Initial application: the honey amps a bit, but this is really, really light. Even immediately following application I'm not getting any kind of throw.

 

Drydown: well, that was fast. I think I would need to all but bathe in this to really get any staying power. It's pretty, don't get me wrong, but it barely lingers on my skin before fading to nothing.

 

Smiley rating:

[arcticwolf]

Dana O'shee

In the bottle: Almonds. Lots and lots of almonds.

 

Wet: Almonds and Vanilla.

 

Dry: Almonds, vanilla and honey. Kind of smells like an Almond Steamed Milk. This is very light, and kind of foody to me. I'm not really a fan, but my room-mate seems to like it.

 

EDIT: A month later, and I discovered that I actually do like this one. Funny, because I'd sworn to never wear it again, and then found myself in need of some BPAL therapy, and it was all I had in my purse. It's still very foody, but after that initial wear, I now get a more grainy feel from it, and so I don't feel like a giant marzipan confection.

Edited June 8, 2007 by arcticwolf

[supremegoddessofall]

Amaretto. Maybe honey, but mostly amaretto. Kinda sickly sweet, not really my thing.

 

My girlfriend says it smells like baby powder.

 

Score: 2 out of 5

[elphaba]

I keep trying Dana O'Shee again and again because it sounds like it would be SO good. Sadly, it always seems to fall flat on me.

 

The initial scent is a mild almond, like a soft almond skin cream. After only a couple of minutes, it's barely perceptible and that's the end of Dana O'Shee for me. I've tried this blend at every time of the month and during every season and it just doesn't have ANY staying power or throw on my skin. It's with great reluctance that I'll be parting ways with this one, but it's just not working.

[Natch]

in the bottle: mmm, sweet milky almond cakes with a teeny tiny touch of floral somewhere back there.

 

wet: YUM! Lightly honeyed, vanillaed, almonds that are just wonderful beyond description. Sweet while still being very clean.

 

dry: same as wet, but a tad intensified and even more wonderful.

 

overall impression: eep! This is the smell of some body lotion I was gifted off the forums, when I was a newbie, which I loved and is now almost gone... I had thought it just smelled wonderful on it's own, but I guess it must have been scented with Dana O'Shee! Anyway, I am delighted to be smelling this again. It was the only thing that kept my towels smelling fresh at camp (I always wrapped my yummyily lotioned body in a towel to get out of the shower, of course... sorry if that's tmi ) I need to get multiple bottles of this to make my own body lotion, because honestly, I wouldn't mind smelling like Dana O'Shee's delicious milk, honey, and almonds all the time!

 

A+

[steffanina]

Dana O'Shee-

 

In Bottle: Oh, it's like the faintest smell of almond extract.

 

Wet: Holy heck, this smells exactly like The Body Shop's Milk Cream, which I wear often and think of as having "no" smell, except I'm not wearing it tonight so I can't be mistaking it!

 

Dry: It goes away so fast! Well, it's lovely and subtle. I think I'm going to try another wand swipe and see if it makes a difference...Lordy, it hardly does! Such a subtle faint scent...Maybe I should use it as a lingerie sachet scent, because at least it wouldn't be cloying and heavy for me.

 

Overall: I love but so faint.

[birdiefu]

Trying Dana O'Shee reminds me why I need to read reviews before ordering scents. But at least I got this as a frimp before I ended up ordering it.

 

Imp- Vague and light sweetness.

 

Wet- Almonds? That's not in the description! Argh...almonds and milk. However, it is a very light almond and not too overwhelming, but the almond note is almost always sickly to me.

 

Dry- I can smell the sweet grains now, but it's still mostly almonds and milk. Very faint scent with minimal throw.

 

Overall- If the honey would replace the almonds I would really love this scent despite it being so light. I've been looking for something to come close to my beloved Milk Moon, alas this isn't it.