Mandrake

[supremegoddessofall]

A plant of true arcane power, mandrake has been used in a multitude of ways by witches, magicians and thaumaturgists for eons to many, many vastly different ends. Whole pieces are carried for protection, or are used in poppet magick. Ground herb can be utilized in spells for money, lust or defense. The lore of the mandrake does not limit it to magickal use. The root was chewed as a simple anasthesia, and it has been widely employed as a sleep drug.

Very herbal and incredibly potent. I don't know - I don't particularly *like* this scent, but somehow it's compelling. Very rich. It's like it wants me to like it. I'll be keeping it.

[Deiicide]

From imp to vial it was mostly dark dirty ceder scent. It never changed much from wet to dry, abit dry it was a bit lighter but never once lacking the depth from the ceder. A bit too strong for me.

[kat15lee]

Amazing.

I'm absolutely amazed at how people can smell different things from the same oils. Especially true for MANDRAKE.

 

Well, here's what I smell, and I think it goe along with 50% of the other comments I've read.

 

In the bottle - It smells like dirt with a hint of cedar. A clean dirt, but its still dirt.

 

Wet - Ugh! WTF? why would you bottle such a horrid scent. I swear it smells like rubber. I smell like a friggin tire store.

 

Dry - the rubber/dirty dirt smell has mellowed and now it smells shaved wood pieces that been left in... you guessed it... dirt. More dirt.

 

I didn't see the point of this oil. Was this to mimic the smell of a real mandrake? Anyways definitely a no-go. I'm so glad my seller gave this to me free, or I would've SCREAMED.

[theseagrows]

i smell pencil shavings. this means only one of two things: cedar or frankincense. not sure which one, but it's all i can smell.

Edited January 19, 2007 by theseagrows

[Bangles]

A pleasant, natural woodsy herbal smell; on wet, it was very green, almost minty, but quickly settled into a general evergreen/wood chips sort of scent.

 

Although I like it, I wasn't sure whether it was something I'd want to smell like very often, but that point turned out to be moot - three hours later, it's gone entirely.

[Quinara]

I should have reviewed this a while ago: Mandrake has an odd place in my heart.

 

Receiving this as a frimp, I wasn't really sure what to make of it. It smelt woody, but also dirty and kind of sweet (I don't know what cedar smells like, so I don't know if I agree with everybody else). With an initial test on my skin I didn't think it was particularly wearable. I did notice though, just how thick the oil was - it was like syrup, thicker than maple maybe, though not as thick as golden (for people from countries without golden syrup, it's thick stuff: you try to use a spoonful of it and it'll coat the spoon with a thickness of at least a few millimetres).

 

Anyway, I put it to one side. But then, one day, I just couldn't resist the gloopiness!

 

So, I put some on, and it was all right. A bit sharp, but not unpleasant. But, as the day went on, it developed into a really lovely and rounded woody scent. Definitely weird, but definitely nice - what I've always wanted from BPAL. It's been in rotation ever since, and is on my mental list for bottles.

[bettybaker]

I associate mandrakes with Harry Potter and Pan's Labyrinth, and I gotta say, this smells more like hand-shoveling rich earth and pulling up weeds than it smells like screaming baby.

 

It starts out smelling like a dark mossy patch of recently upturned earth. Not really my thing, but it feels all nice and mysterious and witchy and stuff. After several hours, it subsides into a very subtle, close-to-the-skin scent of cinnamon-honey root.

 

Edited for spelling.

Edited February 14, 2007 by Betty Baker

[BlackWingedRoses]

Mandrake is a dark herbal smell on me at first. Quite masculine.

Like freshly plucked roots with moist earth still on them.

 

The drydown is so unusual on me. I get cedar, and believe it or not, the smell of a freshly opened box of CRAYONS!

 

I'm keeping my frimp, cause it's so weird. but not an everyday scent for me.

[hecate_jones]

In the bottle: Mmm. a hint of cedar, forest dirt, a 'green' herbalishness, and something that smells almost musty. Weird, but I like it. For some strange reason the image I get in my mind is an old cedar chest stored out in a garden shed.

 

On, the scent morphs to something that makes me think of working in an herb garden. Dirt, and green, and maybe with a cedar tree nearby. The mustiness is gone, but there's still something dark and mellow lurking underneath.

 

I wasn't sure about this one, it was a "why not, it sounds interesting!" but I really like it.

[faded_stranger]

In the bottle, this smells very patchouli-esque, but that might be contamination from one of my other imps. Wet, it's...well, loamy is just about the only word that works to describe it. As it dries it goes kind of cedar-y, and reminds me of when I used to raise rats to give out as classroom pets. On me, that initial burst of cedar never quite goes away, but there's a soft sandalwood kind of scent beneath it that gradually comes out until it's about even with the cedar, and, on me, Mandrake is at its best when it reaches that equilibrium.

 

I like this a lot more than I thought I would, but it's not something I'll be in the mood for often enough to justify buying a bottle--however, it'll be a joy to use up the imp.

[Meg]

In the bottle: Hmmm, wood! Cedar, I think.

 

Wet: Definitely cedar, but it's subdued, somehow. Compared to Jupiter's joyful cedar, this one is solemn and somber. Nice!

 

Drydown: The oil seems quite thick, it takes a while to dry down, and doesn't change very much, either. It's a dark, ruddy, thick cedar, soothing but mysterious too.

 

Overall: It's really a simple cedar blend, if there are any other components I can't recognise them immediately. It would be the perfect companion to Jupiter - happy cedar and gloomy cedar. It's definitely soothing and homey, though, and I like it.

[steffanina]

Mandrake-

 

In Bottle: Wood-and-chocolate. Cedar-ish.

 

Wet: Less cedar-ish once it's on, but still woody. Still a pencil-shaving smell, and something like Play-Doh.

 

Dry: Cedar wood is still the dominant note. Not my favorite, as it reminds me of hamster cages.

 

Overall: Not for me.

[Miss Lynx]

Hmm, this is nice. I haven't had as much luck with most of the Rappacini's Garden scents as I would have liked, but this one is nicer on me than most. It's not as aggressively green as a lot of them are -- a little more woody and earthy, almost incensey. There's certainly a strong herbal current to it, but it never gets near that sharp, pine-air-freshener greenness that a lot of them do.

 

I keep thinking its soft, bittersweet woodiness seems familiar, and it finally hit me that it's sort of like Strangler Fig without the fig -- i.e. the non-fruity aspect of that one. It's a bit like a dark sandalwood or something, with maybe a bit of cedar and some sort of incense resin added: a nicely evocative woody/earthy/incensey scent that comes across as quite gender-neutral. This could as easily be worn by a man as a woman.

 

It's got a kind of grounding/calming feel to it, but with a bit of darkness and mystery added as well. Seasonally, it feels like an autumn scent, but there are likely some summer days it would work for as well.

 

So, final verdict: I like. Don't think it'll necessarily be a top favourite, but it's certainly going to get worn from time to time,

 

 

Grade: B+

[CiCi]

Out of the bottle this is soft, comforting and very earthy. It reminds me of walking through a quiet forest in the afternoon. I have a walk-in cedar lined closet and this has the same cedar notes with perhaps a touch of a sweet note thrown in. To me this is a comforting scent that I would wear to bed, but probably not during the day.

[Phaedra]

Wet this is very earthy with hints of cedar and sweet florals. When first on it's pure cedar/wood but not as strong of a "pencil shavings" smell that cedar usually is on me. The oil is very thick pouring out of the imp- as thick as corn syrup. After a couple of minutes there's a hint of resin too- almost like sap from an evergreen tree. This is a very faint blend. After a couple of hours, the woodiness is gone and it's almost like rose or another sweet floral. This is very nice but a little too faint for me. Too bad it's not stronger.

[enchantedblack]

I received this as part of a mystery imp set and at first sniff I thought of cedar and dirt. It reminds me growing up in the country, rainy summer days and how the ground would smell afterwards. Meaning it's a comfort scent for me.

 

Wet on my skin this scent smelled exactly like soil and wood shavings. As it dries though it becomes more woodsy but the scent is not strong. It's a soft scent with a hint of something piney. I don't mind smelling piney. It's a very light scent though when it dries and I have to get really close to completely smell it.

 

Basically this is a scent I'll probably keep because of its comforting smell.

[n1k1ta]

Brunt earth with wilted carnations straight out of the roller bottle. There's a little meat powder note in Mandrake that hits me in my throat. Mandrake is dry wood, almost dry rot, and a little herby.

 

Luckily, the throw is pretty weak so I don't have to smell it unless I bring my nose to my wrist.

 

Once dry, Mandrake is more tolerable. Powdery pine resin leaning towards an old crayon box.

[funkmoppet]

Frimp from the Lab. I would never have sought this one out, but I'm happy to try it!

 

This doesn't morph at all from wet to dry on me. It's almost a vetiver and dirt mix, though woodier and dryer than vetiver would be. It smells like ginseng root.

 

While it's definitely not something I'd ever want to wear, it's a pretty darn perfect interpretation of mandrake. Smells exactly like a weird root yanked out of the ground.

[n3m3sis42]

I received this as a frimp on my first imp order. I'm not sure I would have ordered of my own volition, but that's part of the fun of frimps, right? I am the type who will try on ANY blend, just to see if I like it (even if I don't like the smell in the imp).

 

In the bottle:

Dirt and grass.

 

Wet:

Dirt and grass, but only the tiniest whiff of grass. I have heard of "dirt" notes in BPAL scents, but still being a major newb, I had never smelled one until now. After about 5 minutes on my skin, this starts to smell like something I recognize, but I can't for the life of me place it at first: wood mixed with something else. When I read through some of the other reviews on here, it hits me: pencil shavings. It smells just like pencil shavings.

 

Dry:

It still pretty much smells like pencil shavings to me. It's not really unpleasant, but I doubt I'd wear it as a perfume. I can't decide if this just doesn't work with my body chemistry, or if my nose is too unsophisticated to understand it. Either way, I don't think it's for me.

 

(edited to fix typos)

Edited July 15, 2007 by n3m3sis42

[Lit Chick]

I am so glad I'm not the only one who smelled crayons. How odd is that? Pencil shavings I can understand, what with the wood and all - but waxy crayon?

This is earthy and very dirty. Very low-key. The woody notes remind me of the rich wood in Intrigue, though these smell very different.

I kind of like this. Now I see what allt he fuss about dirt is. I might not keep this, as I generally like to smell stronger than this - but this is a BPAL to try. So very off, in a fun way.

[KassiK]

This is a very woodsy and earthy scent. I love it! Definitely on the big bottle list. It smells like itself. I can't pick out a single note and I don't want to.

[aquazoo]

I'm getting a soft chocolate scent from this. Chocolate and a light dust. A bit musty. Nope, not happening for me.

[Miseraya]

In the imp: Earthy and sweet. Figgy!

 

On the wrist: This is a very oily oil, if that makes any sense. It seems to stay wetter longer. It still smells very earthy, figgy, lovely. Nummies.

 

Drydown: This stays pretty true on me, still earthy, figgy goodness. Not much throw, but lovely skin scent.

 

I'm not sure why I got fig so much from this one when others didn't but... *shrug* I'm pretty happy about it. This is a keeper.

Edited September 15, 2007 by Miseraya

[hipslike___cinderella]

Well, I've just tested Mandrake on accident. I got it as a frimp, tried to open it to sniff it, and the oil was so slick and slippery that I dropped the wand and it spurted on the back of my hand! So naturally I think, oh well, I'll try this one first!

 

Mandrake is THICK in consistency. I couldn't believe it. I had to wring my fingertips around the palms of my hands before typing. Although thick, the scent is so very faint. I think this is one of the most natural-smelling BPAL's I've come across. It's earthy, without a "dirt" note. More like a "root" note. I distinctly smell a hint of cedar- not like classroom pencils, but I specifically think of sharpening my lip liner pencil. Ha! Don't know why.

 

Really, that's all I can say. Earthy, rooty, a bit cedar-y. I've never come across real mandrake, so I can't compare. This is interesting, but way way to faint to be interested it. Someone a couple of pages back mentioned it could be good in an oil burner, and I agree.

[MaidenGenevive]

Mandrake

 

My initial thoughts are, this smells like dirty crayons and mineral oil. This stays wet for an eternity, so I don't really have the patience to wait for this dry down. Basically, this is quiet and somewhat comforting. It's a bit hard to describe, but my initial thoughts seem to be what are sticking most with me.

 

[ 3 - Like ]