Ogun

[lohengrin]

... Ogun’s ofrenda is heavy and dark cigar tobacco, gin and juniper, melon, chili pepper and a touch of honey.

In the imp: Melon and just a hint of juniper and chili pepper. No honey, alas, but pretty nice.

On skin, wet: Oh, ew. Juniper has started to take over. I can sort of detect the gin and tobacco, but apparently gin is one of BPAL's booze notes that does NOT work well on me. The chili pepper is just a tickle of heat in my nose.

On skin, dry: It smells like sitting in a dive bar, next to a guy wearing too much juniper-heavy cologne, basically.

After an hour: Pretty much the same as the drydown. It is really quite awful on me. x.x

[Gateau]

In the imp I Get the gin and juniper, but wet on skin it's strongly melon with a hint of honey and tobacco. The gin comes back in with a hint of something almost aquatic. I can't really smell the chili but I think I feel it, a warmth (not really a burn). The melon play scout and just leaves a fruitiness behind as the tobacco takes over. Overall it's a masculine sort of sweetness, sort of like those sugared, flavored cigars. A little cheap. Unusual, but not for me.

[sunlitgarden]

Imp: Melon with a bit of spice, primarily. This is the second scent in recent days to remind me of Seattle's Pike Place Market and its mix of smells (the first being Ae. Aegypti.)

 

On skin: Melon, both honey-sweet and with a teeny bit of spice. I am not detecting the tobacco or gin/juniper, except that the scent is somewhat "cool" and refreshing feeling. As it dries, it has that fizzy/effervescent note - I think this is supposed to be the gin/juniper though it reminds me more of some kind of soda. Actually, I think Ramune has a melon-flavor soda - if not, this could be it. Sweet, effervescent melon.

 

I think this is a nice summer scent. Doubt I'll be tracking down a bottle but I'll probably keep my imp.

[melrose]

This is horrible with my skin chemistry - smells like some sort of decaying non-human something. I suspect my skin really dislikes melon.

[WidgetAlley]

In the Imp: Melon so heavy and sweet it's almost nauseating. WAY too sharp a gin and a hint of spicy. Don't like it at all, despite liking all the listed notes.

 

Wet: Almost immediately loses the heavy, sick-making edge and turns into a watery honeydew and sweet honey with a heavy twist of dark tobacco underneath. There's a little juniper on the edge of it, making it smell like a very strange soap. The throw is honey, chili peppers and gin: very ceremonial, very strange, very fierce. Beeswax candles and tobacco smoke and juniper branches and lots of honey and fresh-cut fruit.

 

Dry: A powdery (that's the honey, I think) sweet melon with a huge waft of sweet-spicy tobacco and beeswax and juniper. Very very odd. Not unpleasant, just... different. It could be a good summer scent, but I will have to hang on to it and see how much I reach for it.

[BoneBone24]

Wet: Mon Dieu! I'm getting strong, fruity melon and nothing else.

 

Drydown: Melon brightened by a splash of gin and sweetened by a drizzle of honey. A touch of juniper softens things. Quite juicy and youthful.

 

Dry: Finally the tobacco joins in tempering the melon a bit. Still fruity melon but more complex and grounded now. Hazy melon with soft brownish undertones from the tobacco. A touch of honey and gin keep the melon bright. Tiny hints of cool juniper and spicy chili pepper add interest to the bottom layer. Lush, full-bodied, and tropical.

 

 

 

 

4 out of 10 bones

Edited July 11, 2013 by BoneBone24

[sth0]

Even though I am sick right now, I can smell this so strongly. What a beautiful melon scent! It is matured and deepened by the tobacco note and the slightest bit of juniper to it.

 

It remains a very fresh and light scent for awhile but doesn't last long on me.

Edited March 1, 2013 by sth0

[ccelaya]

Wet - Melon, very sweet melon.

 

Skin - Gin and Juniper, woodsy smell to it almost like christmas scent.

 

Dry - tobacco comes out with hints of juniper.

 

After 10 minutes the honey becomes sweeter. Fades quickly with my skin.

 

The tabacco and honey stay. Reminds me of the tv show "MadMen" for some reason. I feel like i need a glass of scotch.

 

Very masculine smell, a little too woodsy for me.

Edited April 25, 2013 by ccelaya

[Joyleaf_]

I wish I could like this. I received Ogun as a frimp with my last order and having promptly looked up the description, I thought we might be able to get along.

 

Boy was I wrong.

 

This blend smells like a drunken truck driver sitting in a bar on me.

It was boozy, smokey and smelt like BO.

 

I had to wash it off

[Xue_Bai]

Lab frimp!

 

So, I didn't expect to love this one, but...yeah.

 

On me it's mostly mellon, sweetened and spiced by honey and chili powder. Honestly, it reminds me of summer snacks I had as a child in California. Behind that is tobacco, heavy but lightly sweet. Between is the gin, which adds a slight sharp note, with a touch of soap very close to the skin (as the Lab's straight juniper tends to do). It's very sweet, and lightly masculine...very much more unisex because it is so sweet! It also has a throw that reaches across the room...just a touch is enough of this.

 

It balances so many things and does so well. It would be my more go to masculine scent....but the reason I didn't want to even like it prevents that. I have a number of friends and family members who are allergic/sensitive to tobacco and this scent does bother them. It also has just enough of a boozy quality to make it inappropriate for work. So, the imp will be more than enough for me given how few times I'll be able to freely use it.

[quickdrawkiddo]

I have a special place in my heart for the weirder, less-popular BPAL scents so I really wanted to love this one. I knew I liked tobacco, juniper, and honey, so it seemed like a slam dunk. Unfortunately this one is really strong on the cantaloupe, which I've always disliked in real life precisely because of the smell. Lots of people are describing this as boozy and I can see where they're getting that. But to me it's more like very ripe cantaloupe plus sweet tobacco -- not so much boozy as heady, if that makes sense. The tobacco comes out more on the drydown -- it's still a sweet pipe tobacco and not a burnt ashy note. If the cantaloupe note stays in the background like it is now, I can see myself using up the imp.

[DiesMali]

In the imp: This smells nasty.

 

Wet on my skin: Cantaloupe and a very unappealing mix of other...stuff.

 

Dry: The cantaloupe is the only pleasant note in this, at least on my skin. A few of them work on me in other blends, but definitely not in this one. This is a very musty and unpleasant scent on me, and I think the honey note in this is the one that's smelled rancid on me in a couple other blends. Urgh. I'm debating on whether I should wash this off or wait another hour or two to see if it changes. Leaning toward the former, since it's already been on a while and hasn't improved at all.

[Veronica]

Wet, this is tooth-meltingly sweet melon and honey, in the same vein as Yemaya and Twinkle Twinkle Little Bat but SWEETER. As it dries it stays much the same, but a spiced note comes out. Not bad, but not for me.

[fundercat55]

If a slightly overripe honeydew melon came to life and was sitting next to you smoking a pipe and drinking some sort of honey drenched gin cocktail, this is what it would smell like. So, it's basically Dr Bunsen Honeydew distilled. It's interesting, but also bordering on unpleasant on my skin. I don't think my chemistry plays nicely with melon scents. They always seem to smell a little rotten on me. I got this as a Lab frimp, so no harm done. Oh well. Can't win 'em all.

[LizziesLuck]

Wet: Melon candy, which morphs into melon soda (is that a thing?) as something effervescent comes through. I thought I was going to hate this when it was all melon candy (I was expecting tobacco, somehow) but now that the gin has shown up (I love gin) and it's some kind of fun melon-gin spritzer, I am liking it a lot more.

 

Dry: The effervescence fades a bit, and the sticky sweet melon candy comes back to the front, making this smell more like melon pop rocks than a fun cocktail. I do enjoy it, it's a neat scent, I just have no desire to wear it.

[rachelos]

Smoky and melon, two things I've been craving in a scent lately. Looking forward to trying this one.

[dementia_divine]

In the imp: This reminds me of Twinkle, Twinkle Little Bat! I'm mostly getting the melon, gin, and juniper from the imp.

 

Wet: This is definitely the same melon found in Twinkle, Twinkle Little Bat. I think it's a honeydew melon, backed by the effervescent gin and juniper.

 

Dry: The melon note still reigns, and now I'm not sure if it is honeydew or cantaloupe, although it definitely reminded me of the former during the wet stage of the scent. The melon is now sweetened by the honey note, with the gin content to stay in the background. After a while, I get some tobacco mingling behind the honey and melon notes.

 

The honey gets stronger over time, and the melon ends up calming down. It becomes a honey-laden gin and melon scent accompanied by some smoky tobacco with just a hint of chili pepper in the background.

 

Verdict: I didn't expect this one to be so fruity and sweet for so long! It's like Twinkle, Twinkle Little Bat accidentally flew into a bar, and then had to roll around in some honey to recover. This is too fruity (and gin-y!) for me, but I'm glad that I got to try it.

[VetchVesper]

This was a frimp for me, and I never would have picked this one up on my own b/c I'm generally not a melon fan, but I've been pleasantly surprised by both this one and Yemaya, which are my two favorite Orishas. Ogun smells of very ripe honeydew mixed with a sticky smelling tobacco. I think i get some honey but more as an added sweetness to the melon than a true honey smell. This is sort of a candy smell with a savory twist for me at first, kind of like melon lucas candy, but as it dries down, it becomes more of a fruity incense. It has a good wear length, and I'll be enjoying this one for the summer.

Edited June 2, 2018 by VetchVesper