Olokun

[sofiaviolet]

... His ofrenda is the scent of the lightless deep: the glorious, unknowable gloom of the ocean floor.

This is a nice, intense aquatic. I think it's too bright to be the ocean floor. On me, it's really not any different. Fairly good throw.

[alayni]

Definitely a grassy scent. It took a while before the 'salty' and 'soapy' came creeping out. When it did, it reminded me of the bath gel my husband uses, which funnily enough is called 'aquatic'. I am also reminded of the 'soapyness' of Dragon's Tears. It's definitely a 'fresh' scent, neutral and not overpowering. I could see myself wearing this if I don't want my scent to precede me....

[gaai]

Ehm....yes aquatic.......and yes very 'ocean floor-y'........

I don't know what else to say about it, really......it smells fresh and clean without smelling like soap and I like it.......

[Ancientgirl]

This was a freebie from the LC Sampler box,and I'm glad. I wouldn't have picked it for myself, but I am enjoying it now that I have it, and it will make a nice complement to my imp of Yemaya when it comes.

My first thought when smelling this was "tropical." I don't see Olokun as gloomy at all, although it does make me think of coral reefs and the exotic fish that might hang out in the ocean deep. I'm glad a couple people mentioned melon in their reviews; there was this fruity note I just couldn't identify until I read them.

This is a very fresh scent, and I think it is fairly gender neutral. It seems like something I'll turn to on those days when I need a little boost. To me it's energizing, and would be a good "first day of work" scent.

I like it!

Ancientgirl

[Inanna9]

This is very bright and fresh on me. A little grassy, defintiely aquatic, and I can smell it trying to go all dusty and wonky as aquatics are apt to do once they meet me. But it holds together well and is really lovely. Exactly what I'll reach for when I'm in the mood for something unisex and outdoors-ish. I'm very happy I've got another aquatic I can wear.

[Precis]

In the imp: It's saltwater! Awesome!

 

On, wet: The saltwater ran away! Not so awesome! There's a sickly sweet floral that might be lily mucking up the "lightless deep" impression. I'm also getting an ozone impression that's nice.

 

On, dry: Okay, the marine note is awesome on drydown and it almost reminds me of the aquarium but I don't like the other stuff interfering!

 

I'd probably call this a light, sweet, green, slightly herbal aquatic. It's a much more tolerable version of Lightning. With less floral involved, this would be an all time favorite, but as it is, I'm not feeling it.

[Luhtarian]

I'm not getting any of the green everyone else is! On me it's all bright, shrill blue, a very ozone-y aquatic. I don't really like it, it's very artificial-smelling ... too much ozone.

[Shollin]

My impsie beheaded itself in the mail, so I’m sort of trying this based on the scent of the little baggie my swapper sent it in, and swiping said baggie on my wrists.

 

First sniff: It’s very strongly aquatic, clear turquoise seawater. Much brighter than I expected.

 

Wearing: It gains some depth on my skin… now it does smell more like underwater than like the sparkling surface, but there’s still plenty of light. (Not that I’ve ever smelled underwater, y’know, because it’s hard to smell when you can’t breathe, but that’s the impression.)

[supremegoddessofall]

On me: A pretty vile aquatic. There's something moldy in here that isn't working for me.

[Ajila]

In the bottle - My nose says apples (which seems unlikely) sprinkled with salt water (which seems more likely)

 

Wet on me - Soap

 

Dry on me - Fresh and clean, but undeniably soapy

 

Overall - Mostly soap really, I don't know what else to say

[KassiK]

My first review:

 

Olokun

 

In the imp- It smells like tropical rain forrest water. No wait, clear crisp light blue water. No, what angels would swim in. No, what Ariel would smell like. No. What I would smell like!

 

on wet- much stronger on wet than in the imp. I only needed 3 swipes to get the power I wanted whereas I usually need 6 swipes.

 

drydown- Not disappointed at all. On me, it smells exactly the way it was in the imp.

 

This is definitely my favorite and beats out sea of glass for me by a long shot. I've never been more pleased with a BPAL scent, which is saying a lot. If you like fresh aquatics, definitely give this a try.

 

I'm going to get a big bottle of this no doubt.

[Electra]

Olokun is a gorgeous fresh, bright, happy marine scent. I adore it. It's the best hot weather scent I've come across from BPAL (very clean and shower-fresh, which is nice in muggy hot disgusting weather). I have to give the caveat that ocean/marine scents are my favorite scent family of all time and always have been, but this scent is amazing. It's one of the very few scents that I tried from the imp and ordered a 5 mL immediately.

 

I freaked out a bit when I got my 5 mL because it has a distinct melon scent to it which was not present in my imp. I put it on my skin - yep, melon. ACK. I was very sad. But the melon disappeared within about two minutes and from that point on it was the wonderful Olokun that I knew and loved.

 

Also, it's the only scent that I took on my post-bar exam European vacation (a week in Rome and a Mediterranean cruise with my best girlfriend this past August) and wore every day on that vacation, so it has very happy memories associated with it .

[maijasu]

Even though the description doesn't mention fruits, I get a distinctly fruity vibe from Olokun. It actually works quite nicely; it's clean and crisp-smelling, aquatic and fruity and fresh all at once. I will definitely need more of this before springtime.

[femmefatale]

I LOVE this one!

 

Started out a very sharp, strong (but nice) aquatic but as it dried down it began to morph into something a bit sweeter and fresher. A bit soapy but very lovely. I can see this being worn by either a male or female. I'm going to have to have hubby try it.

This is a definate keeper and I might just have to get a bottle!

Can't wait to see how it wears when the weather gets hot and sticky.

Edited January 22, 2007 by Femme_Fatale

[theseagrows]

this is a super-turbo-aquatic. in the beginning i think i smell some melon? then it fades into aquaticland. and gives me a headache. off to swaps.

[filigree_shadow]

Very aquatic and a little bit salty, but not too gloomy, I think. It's kind of sweet and peaceful. The sweetness seems to be coming from something that smells a little fruity, but I'm not sure what it is. Maybe lotus, because that tends to smell like bubblegum on me.

 

This is more of my husband's kind of scent, so I've given the imp to him. He likes R'Lyeh and Cthulhu, too -- this is the same sort of scent as those. I like this one, and I'll be happy if he wears this.

[zankoku_zen]

In the imp: Aquatic

 

On Skin: Immediately, it's a fruity aquatic. Smells a bit like melon. It's quite tasty.

 

After a while, it starts to morph and gets a tad bit more salty.

 

On Drydown: Soapy undertones. Smells fresh, clean and aquatic still.

 

Verdict: Definitely an aquatic. I'm sad about the soapy undertones though. Olokun is lord of the sea on a bright, sunny summer day in Brazil. Lots of white sand, hot sun and ripe fruits. Bright and cheery.

[lapillus]

In bottle: light green, with a rounded sweetness in the middle a bit of something more spicy in back.

 

Wet: green retreats, floral spiciness moves forward, strongly sweet and a sharper citrus shows up (sigh.)

 

Dry: sweet moves back to something manageable leaving green spiciness (rather than a spicy greenness) that makes my nose tingle when I put it to my wrist. The spiciness seems to fade a distance from wrist (which is good) and the sweetness is more noticeable. A warmer scent than I’d expected (sweet seems to go warm on me, or maybe it's just the citrus going away). I really like the green but I think I’d like it better without the nose-tingling floral bits bits or quite as much citrus.

 

Later: retreats to a faint dark green by about 4-5 hrs

 

Summary: Not as purely liquid a scent as I’d hoped, but pleasant.

[grifyn_whiffs]

Light, green and slightly sweet (not foody sweet, but floral sweet). A very rich, wet smell in the imp.

 

I sniff again, and it's soap. That generic "clean" scent that soap goes for, anyway. Think Coast or Irish Spring.

 

The soap phase dies down a bit, thankfully! I don't know if I get "the glorious unknowable gloom of the ocean floor" (to me, that's Undertow!), but it does go to a nice, clean aquatic.

 

I'm going to try this one again in the summer, during beach weather, and see if I'm not feeling more kindly toward it.

 

ETA: I gave this one a second sniff, now that it's summertime and I take to the water, and -- sure enough! -- it's more refreshing than I remember it being. I'm so moody!

Edited March 28, 2007 by Grifyn

[CiCi]

Olokun smells like a bright summer day after you just mowed the lawn and the sprinklers are on. You can smell the fresh cut grass combined with the clean smell of the water. I swear I could get a little fruit in there somewhere too-Melon maybe? This really was a surprise scent and very light and refreshing.

[Lari]

I am intrigued. This is quite blue-green, it starts dark but then lightens with wear... there's definitely salt there, and plants, and something sweet. It almost seems like what going to the aquarium should smell like in late May.

 

I'm not sure how much I like it as a perfume, but I think it would be pretty awesome for scenting a bubble bath or an after-swim shampoo.

[dixiehellcat]

I see several other people called this a 'surprise scent'--same for me! I got it as part of an imp 'enabler' pack *g* and never expected to like it as much as I do! I'm looking forward to wearing it a lot this summer. Very light, crisp, refreshing. If it's ocean it's more like sea spray on me, very brisk & cool feeling.

[crazyredhead17]

In the Imp: A Juicy Saltwater scent.

 

And the juicy refers to an unknown fruit of some sort.

 

Wet, the juicy fruit comes out more (I see others mention smelling melon, and as soon as I read that I was all eureka!) When it's fresh wet, it's a wet, juicy melon.

 

As it dries, the saltwater comes out more, but the melon is still there, keeping this a bright, sparkling scent.

 

I think this will be a great spring and summer scent for when I don't want to wear minty scents. It's so fresh and perky and clean.

[CrazyPretzel]

In the bottle this smelled frankly somewhat offensive to me (it was a frimp from the lab; I sampled it without having read the description.) I seriously would have guessed this was a voodoo oil. It's similar to the scents from the voodoo section of the catalogue -- on application, I get the same faint unpleasant note, civet or something, that fades within a minute or two. It's also like the voodoo oils in that it's STRONG as hell; this morning I got a tiny drop of it on my thumb from opening the imp and wiped it off on my elbow, and I've been smelling it constantly, all day (overwhelming poor Voodoo Lily, which was the one I intended to wear!) Now that it's dried it does smell like a standard-issue sea-breeze scent (more the turquoise sunlit bit of the ocean than the gloomy depths).

 

And I swear that for the first hour or so it reminded me of bananas. Don't ask.

[nightchild80]

In the Imp (wet): This imp is full to the brim! Had a little trouble opening it without spilling. Its sweetness is like fresh cut grass after the rain.

 

On facial cotton (dry): The sweetness is filling out and is refreshing, which I think may be pear or maybe lily. Green comes to mind without hesitation, but there's no gloom.

 

On me: My skin is bringing forth the salt in the scent, giving it the ocean aquatic overtone. But the sweetness still carries through. Far less aquatic than Tempest.