Shango

[ViolentKitten]

... The Master of Lightning’s ofrenda contains red apples, banana, chili pepper, coconut, pineapple, pomegranate and sugar cane.

 

A little syrupy and sweet, but I love the sillage of this one. It’s banana with a hint of incense first on, but when that fades a little, I get that tropical fruity feel. I don’t really get the fruits invididually, but it adds up to fruit cocktail and strawberry incense (reminds me a bit of Hell’s Belle here), but not overpowering fake strawberry. The spices in the background - I guess that’s the chili pepper – and something warm, akin to a touch of dark musk and patchouli, give it a different feel from your usual fruity scent. Really good.

Edited October 12, 2006 by ViolentKitten

[PilotKitten]

Mmmm! This smells like the interior of one of those snow cone trailers they have on every other corner in the summer. I love this banana note... it's not a true banana, which is what I like about it. That fake candy banana always makes me drool. I like this so much that even the much hated coconut isn't ruining it at all for me. Definitely the inside of a snow cone trailer. Juicy fruityness. Wonderful!! Definite must have.

[Shollin]

First sniff: Okaaaaay… I think this is bubblegum rolled in chili powder. The afterscent smells like chipotle!

 

Wearing: Like chewing bubblegum at a Mexican restaurant. This is just funny. Once it dries a bit, the individual fruits come out a bit more – I’m definitely getting some pineapple and banana, but it’s hard to concentrate on them because the chili immediately takes over my nose.

[cinderfallen]

Yum! When it's wet, it's just...yum! Reminds me of an asian candy when I was really little. The pineapple and banana pop out, but they're very well blended; then when I lift my nose away, I get the creamy edges of tropical coconut. I'm not getting any apples, sadly. =(

 

During the middle stage, I get something a little spicier--must be the chili pepper.

 

When it dries down, the base is creamy with a scent like dried pineapples and juicier fruit laid over the top. There's also a sharper smell that must be the lingering chili.

 

Love!

[Dinerdulcinea]

wet: ooooo! Interesting! bananna and some kind of wood (or that could be the pomegranate).

 

wet: bananna, apple, pineapple sugar cane.

 

dry: coconut, the fruits blended together. Later, gets a little meh and a touch acrid (but not much). I think it's a pass.

[joojifish]

A fruity blend with a dark undertone--the apple and pineapple are prominent, and for some reason, Shango also smells like wood and incense to me. Fits with my image of the god but is not something I'd choose to wear.

[supremegoddessofall]

Fruity and pretty! I'm also getting quite a bit of pizzazz from the chili pepper and just a touch of sweetness from the sugar cane.

[KassiK]

Shango

 

In the imp - grape soda followed by sweet tropical smoothie

wet on skin- bananna and a huge overwhelming bite (assuming that's the pepper)

dry on skin- a very faint sweet bananna/pineapple smell but the bite has totally taken over, giving me a headache. Had to wash off after 20 minutes.

 

It needs to be noted that I prefer aquatics/woody scents and the only fruit scent that has worked on me is The Hesperides so far. Will need to pass this one on to a better home. It's a shame. I wanted to like it.

[being_brianne]

This was a frimp from my first BPAL order! When I looked up the name on the website I was excited to see the description and forced myself to wait a couple more days before trying it on. You know, build the anticipation and all.

 

I put a little Shango on and went about putting on my makeup and within 5 minutes I was completely overwhelmed by the smell of coconut, pineapple and lime. Oh my goodness! Hubby was standing next to me and he looked over and said, "You smell like a tropical fruit smoothie laced with tanning oil."

 

This scent may work well during the summer months but it's not a winter scent for me... in fact, I don't think that this is the scent for me. Just the smallest swipe of the wand on my skin and it totally dominates me and not in a good way.

 

To the swap pile with Shango!

[Meg]

In the bottle: Ick, ick, red musk, coconut, banana and pineapple. Sickening.

 

Wet: A rather sour pineapple/apple/banana mix, with some pomegranate and still a red musk base. Coconut peeps out, and apple becomes more obvious after a while.

 

Drydown: Hmm, I get fresh apple, coconut, and an impression of juicy fruit over mashed banana. Red musk is still very obvious in the background, but the top notes are clean and fruity. After a while it gets a bit spicy from the chili, but very softly. After a while, most of the fruit evaporates, leaving a muted coconut/musk mix.

 

Overall: If you like musk and coconut, this one is for you. The fruit is very pleasant as the top note, the apple is particularly realistic, and then it all turns into a mixed sweet scent. The pomegrante gets quite tart and bitter after a while, which isn't very nice on me. It reminds me a bit of Red Lantern or Snake Charmer, it would be great to replace those blends.

[brownbear]

Sweet, sweet, sugary fruit. It is a little much. Very tropical and not very "adult." Later it goes more musky. I probably wouldn't wear it.

[wanderingredhead]

in the imp this smells like bananas and bubblegum. The oil is dark brown, so the smell seemed counterintuitive to me.

On me Shango dried into something sweetly tart with spices. The fruits may be the greatest contributors, but overall this is an extremely well blended scent- my (admittedly insensitive) nose can't pick out any individual components.

I like.

[jiggahava]

Not your typical fruity scent. Right away I get banana, apples, cocoanut and a dash of pepper, but I cant quite describe it. It smells dark and rich, kind of like a an expensive fruit/chocolate dessert you'd eat in a high class restaurant. It's making me so hungry right now. It has a lot of throw although the scent has faded a bit over the three hours I've worn it. No matter, this is delicious and definitley worth slathering.

[enigmae]

I ordered this because of the mouth-watering “fruit salad” description, though I was leery about the banana. This is one of the few blends in which I think I can actually pick out *all* of the notes. The banana is not too overpowering, and the coconut is perfect – gives it a creaminess so it’s not pure fruit salad. It’s wow – gorgeous. It’s blended so well that it smells more like perfume than food. 5 ml for sure.

[belegwen]

I got this one mostly out of curiosity, because the ingredients sounded interesting. I wasn't expecting too much.

 

When I opened the imp, I was expecting even less. It smelled too sweet! Painfully sweet. All bubblegummy.

 

Once it was on my skin, however, it smelled fine. Smelled about the same when I first put it on as hours later. I could catch most of the fruits (no pineapple) with the most noticable being the apple, followed by the banana and coconut. The pomegranate was fainter, as was the sugar cane.

 

But I smelled the chili powder most of all. All together, there was more of a fruit scent, but the chili powder was stronger than any of the individual fruits and I rather liked that. It was very nicely spicy.

 

It lasted nicely. The package arrived about noon, and I could still smell it when I was getting ready for bed . . . after a rehearsal that included hot sweaty costumes and a lot of dancing in a too warm building. I was surprised I hadn't sweated it all off.

 

Overall, I like it, though I'm not passionately in love with it. I think some of it's going to end up in a bottle of conditioner.

[mspixieears]

This smells straight off to me of vanilla, sweet apples and a hint of sandalwood thrown in. Usually I don't like a lot of the notes above (especially notes like banana and pineapple) but I find myself constantly drawn to wear this and it makes an excellent olfactory companion in the summer months! Not obviously or commercially 'tropical' but more of a true tropical scent, something you would expect to smell if you lived in such areas but more likely from the local cuisine, at least from my personal experience. Am I ever glad I received this in a mystery imp pack!

[little_galaxie]

Chili pepper, I hate you. Shango was going to be my *perfect* fruit scent, but YOU have to come along and ruin it. Thankfully, I don't cry myself to sleep anymore because I've realized the fruit notes are actually to "warm" for my liking, whereas I prefer bright, sparkling fruit scents.

[n1k1ta]

When I put Shango on, I was instantly transported to a summer picnic. I imagined a huge bowl of sweet fruit salad. It was so relaxing and warm. I wanted to simply stay home and sniff my wrists all day.

 

After an hour, the chili pepper seeped out and added this sharp zing to the fruit medley. At the four hour mark, Shango went floral with spice and became rather nondescript. It was still lovely and I still enjoyed wearing it.

 

Now I've been wearing Shango for eight hours and it's still hanging on. I'm really impressed with this perfume. I don't know if it would do well on everyone, but it certainly did well on me.

[mellie]

Bottle: Very fruity. I can kind of smell the banana and apple specifically, but there's really no discernable scent yet. It's sweet and it jumps out at you, but it's hard to figure out which notes are doing the jump.

 

Application: Still no real discernable scent. The fruit smell is completely gone. It's almost spicy, which I assume is due to the chili pepper. My mom said she could smell the pineapple, but I couldn't. All I got was "hello scent that has no real personality."

 

Dry: Less spice, more musk. In fact, musk is all I can get from this one.

 

I was hoping for more of the apple, banana, and pineapple to come out, but instead this was beyond musky.

Edited March 24, 2007 by mellie

[theseagrows]

another tropical scent that is strangely appealing to me. it's sweet but not cloying and has a sort of...dustiness to it, which i am assuming could be from the sugar cane. it kind of smells like a tropical drink sans the alcohol. i normally dont like fruity scents, but this one is kind of cool. i'd probably only wear it once in a blue moon though.

[QueenFae]

This is sweet, fruity and wonderful. The top notes on me are pineapple, coconut, banana, and pepper. While this is a fruitilicious blend, the pepper note lends a darker, more complex feel and makes this a bit sexier. It's like a lovely tropical frozen drink rimmed with cinnamon. It's very red, throbbing, and alluring.

 

This is beautiful, I wish it had a bit more throw, but I really like it just the same. Unlike any other fruity blend.

[roxyhead]

First time I wore this, I liked it but couldn't identify why, this was before looking at the description. Wearing it again,I can pick out the pineapple when wet, a sort of fake pineapple that I like better than the real kind. Then it gets a bit warmer and almost...butterier? A bit of coconut and maybe some other fruits, as it's drying, but it never smells particularly overtly fruity or foody, maybe as mentioned above it's the pepper toning it down. It's just *good*. Might need a bottle of this.

[emerald_ibis]

In my ever-continuing quest to find a fruit scent that plays nice on my chemistry, I gave this a try. It didn't work. It initially smells like children's Tylenol, and then goes into an almost cotton-candy like sweetness that's tempered with something savory that I assume is the chili. It doesn't change much after that. I like cotton-candy. Normally I can wear coconut, apple and pomegranate scents very well. However, the banana and pineapple took over and formed an unholy alliance with the sugarcane. This killed it for me.

[Megara]

First applied, I get coconut with something darker underneath. Chilli pepper, maybe.

 

As it dries I get a pineapple pomegranite blend, with coconut dancing in and out. The banana is not easy to pick out, but it's in there. It's such a wonderfully blended mix, nothing overshadows another note. There's even something a little green in there- like splitting the peel of a banana while it's still green. I don't get an impression of tanning oil at all. But there is a certain sexiness to it, and I love it.

 

It's sweet, yes, but not cloying. Just lovely, tropical fruity goodness. The throw seems to be pretty good.

 

All in all, I love this. It reminds me of the beach, summertime, and a tropical drink. This will be a 5 ml, for certain! Bravo, Beth!

Edited June 2, 2007 by Megara

[bibliophile]

I got an imp of Shango when it first came out. I tested it fresh from the lab... and it was straight-up fake banana candy on my skin, which was not what I was looking for. I decided to let it age a bit before giving up on it and tossed it in my imp box... where it remained, forgotten, until now. Year-old Shango is a much better match for my chemistry -- it's much richer and spicier. I can still pick out the banana, but it's receded and is blending nicely with the other fruits. The chili pepper adds a really interesting depth and a musky feel (though, like many of the previous reviewers, I wouldn't be surprised to find out that there was a dash of red musk in here as well). I am glad I kept this one around!