Gingerbread Poppet

[SoapyRN]

Warm, cozy gingerbread spiced with nutmeg, clove and cinnamon.

Aredhel said everything I wanted to say about this blend. I did not get any previous version and this was the first time I tried it. I think this would be excellent as a room blend and I hope that the family enjoys it as much as I do. Edited December 13, 2005 by Shollin

[Brienze]

2005 version

 

By now everyone knows that yep, this is pure gingerbread dough. Not too doughy on me... it doesn't smell like underbaked cookie; there's just enough dough that I can tell I'm sniffing gingerbread cookie, not just spices. It is not buttery on me, which is good, cause me and butter don't get along. (I run screaming from Jack and got Shill out of my house asap.)

 

The first time I tried this, it seemed very consistent from the initial wear through drydown, and lasted about 4 hrs. It's hard to give lots of detail because I was testing 3 other things at the time, so my arm was kinda busy, not to mention my nose!

 

I just went back to test this again all by itself, and got the weirdest reaction. I'm pre-mensutral right now, and while about half the time I smell the same gingerbread that I did initially, half the time it smells exactly like a woodburning tool smells when it's used on a piece of wood. It's not burnt plastic, or smoke from a fire; it's the specific smell of a woodburning/engraving tool. Which I happen to like (brings back memories, etc) but it's also just really weird.

 

I'm not sure how much I'll use this as a perfume when my chemistry is normal, but I think in addition to room scent, it would make a lovely hand lotion or soap. Something that you can enjoy the smell of when first used, but which doesn't tend to stay with you all day.

 

Rating: 4/5

[angharad]

(2005)

 

How does BPAL capture the scent of gingerbread cookie dough? And then make the scent bake into a fullblown cookie? I was absolutely in love with this for about 15 minutes. Then the cookie reverted to dough and mixed in some plastic. I couldn't smell any of the spices anymore. The scent of dough and plastic stayed with me for the rest of the day.

 

ETA: Wow, aging helped my Poppet so very much. After letting the bottle sit in the dark for 3 weeks, it's now a gorgeous, rich, almost caramely gingerbead, complete with spices and no raw dough or plastic scent at all. It's a very warm scent and makes me feel gooey inside. Love it! My only sadness now is that it only lasts for a couple hours before I have to reapply.

Edited January 9, 2006 by angharad

[hangingfire]

In the bottle: Gingerbread! Sugar, flour, ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg, clove, and molasses.

 

On, wet: Still smells like gingerbread. I have to hand it to the Lab; the baked goods stuff (this and Beaver Moon) really smells like baked goods.

 

Drydown: The sugar/flour/molasses notes fade off, leaving just the spices.

 

Very nice!

[blueroses]

In the bottle: whoa, not what I expected. I get a sugary, syrupy smell.

 

On: There's the gingerbread. It's sweet gingerbread that smells as if it's been soaking in syrup.

 

It's as if Shub-Niggurath and Sugar Skull mated.

[brownbear]

The '05 version is just like graham crackers! I've sniffed the '04 version before and it's more gingery and spicy than this version from what I remember. I think I might like this more if I layered it with Three Witches for more spice. It is still good though. I had this on one wrist and beaver moon on the other and I smelled a lot like lucky charms cereal.

[LdyKnight]

yummmm. this really does smell like gingerbread. Fresh baked, sweet, gingery goodness. A loverly warm smell. The doughy smell does fade faster than the spices, and it was completely gone after about 3 hours. Prompted "wow, you smell good!" comments from 2 out of 3 roommates, and I now have a friend who always comes into my room just to smell the air, as I have been keeping this in the oil burner for a couple of days.

[CLFilm]

GP '05 is heavenly. It smells precisely of baking/fresh out of the oven gingerbread cake and/or molasses cookies - spicy and homey without being too sweet. My only sadness is that it doesn't last longer. (I'm at the end of an eight hour work day and it's essentially gone.) A warm and cozy smell. I adore it. The first foody to work on me (in my admittedly limited experience).

 

(Mine came in an amber bottle too!)

[Julilla Regina]

When I first sniffed this in the bottle, I thought it was so similar to Sugar Skull that I felt a little disappointed. That feeling evaporated immediately when I put this on. It is spice and molasses and just pure yumminess. I never liked foodie scents before BPAL. I'm smitten with this, it's amazing. The only problem I have is that my skin just eats this up, so I have been slathering and sniffing and now I am so hungry for gingerbread, I think I'm going to go look up some recipes on the web.

 

Love this!

[Wench457]

Just like gingerbread (no, really?), and quite yummy smelling. As it happens though, I apparently don't want to smell like gingerbread, and I'm not much for oil burners, so it's off to swaps.

[PeshaRocha]

I am in love!

 

Wet: spices but with strange bitter overtones

 

Dry: Sumptuous, perfect ginger and spices with a hint of honey and cream. Makes me purr, sniff and purr some more. This is what heaven smells like!

 

I already ordered another 5ml, and I may order a third as well.

Edited December 15, 2005 by Pesha Rocha

[sophia_helix]

This year's version seems to have more sugar and molasses and less ginger and spices than last year's. That's fine -- I've got an imp of Shub and a bottle of Three Witches if I want spicy. This is just delicious and sweet, like my arm is a cookie, and very long-lasting. Still does that amazing "dough in the bottle, baked cookie on your arm" thing, and I appear to be one of the few people who really wants to wear this, instead of burning it! I like smelling yummy, what can I say.

[Cedar]

Verdict: This scent is the key to world peace, I think. Or I could just be lucky; my skin tends to handle foody scents well.

 

In the bottle: The cinnamon is quite sharp, and the nutmeg comes in just behind this, followed by the gingerbread and something almost buttery.

 

On me/drying: Well, not a whole lot of difference. It's a gingerbread cookie and I love love love it. (Food scents don't tend to change from the bottle on my skin.) It's very comforting and warm. My only complaint is that it doesn't have a lot of throw and it doesn't last as long as some others.

 

And now for a story: I'm a librarian, and one of my shelvers came over earlier to ask me a question about Twenty-One (the BPAL, not the game). I mentioned that my scent of the day was Gingerbread Poppet, and she said, "You know, when I was shelving cookbooks earlier I thought to myself, 'I must be crazy, because I swear I smell cake or cookies or something.'" Um, yeah, that'd be me

 

Apply after a bath in Lush Cinnamon Kisses bubble bath for maximum gingerbread happiness.

[lovelyza]

To paraphrase the Stones:

Brown Sugar, why do smell sooooooo gooooood?

 

Its very brown sugar in the overtones and then the spices kick in and its heaven in a bottle. I made some gingerbread recently and was amazed at how perfectly this oil captures the scent of baking cookies. I have a plug-in scentball oil diffuser (better than a burner because you can leave it on unsupervised!) and a few drops of this, and I've got baking cookies whenever I want them! I wouldnt' mind wearing this once in a while too, its very comforting.

[Neely]

In the bottle: Buttery gingerbread dough

 

Wet: Still buttery gingerbread fresh from the oven.

 

Dry down: Cinnamon, cinnamon, CINNAMON! Ok, cinnamon decides to mug me and beat me up with a potpourri ball, leaving me beaten and with a rash on my cleavage. Ok, note to self, no spicey perfumes between the "girls." Wrists were ok, so was the neck.

 

Conclusion: This just turned to cinnamon on me. I lose all the buttery goodness, the ginger, the cloves. On the up side, while I would have been one of the people who would like to have worn this one, I will gladly put it in an oil burner. It made my apartment smell lovely. My only fear is Three Witches will be amped to cinnamon by my chemistry.

 

12/24/05~ Ok, I had to come back and give more on this. I see others have done so, so I think I am not making a BPAL feaux paux (darn, did I spell that right?) . As I was putting some in the oil burner I got some on my fingers, so I put it on the wrists (not the cleavage, I still have a nasty long welt there from this). This time, the buttery smell did not immediately disappear, and the cinnamon amped up, but toned down and became more blended. So, now I am torn about ordering this, or Hearth. Waiting on an imp I ordered for comparison.

 

I also wanted to edit this and say to anyone interested in this, you should try it, don't let my stupid chemistry turn you off!

 

Rating 1-5 on my skin, a 4.

Edited January 11, 2006 by atropos

[SeaMonkey]

Last years Gingerbread Poppet quickly turned all cinnamon, then went on to smell like Hobby Lobby, and food scents in general don't work on me. so i was really in no hurry to try this.

 

This is good!

 

It smells the same on my skin as it does in the vial, and I'm getting a nice brown sugar vibe. A nice creamy brown sugar. I LOVE brown sugar.

 

Very pretty blend!

[WidgetAlley]

I got this one as a present for my mum, but I had to test it, didn't I? To make sure it wasn't.... defective. Yes. Defective. Vitally important, this testing business. Not at all because it smelled so good even with the cap still on. Oh no.

 

In the bottle: Holy Jeebus. It's gingerbread dough. I can smell molasses, cinnamon and other assorted spices, brown sugar... it smells round and squishy-damp and absolutely delicious. Oh man. I really want some gingerbread dough to nibble. I've never smelled anything quite so delicious in perfume form.

 

Wet: A burst of the spices comes forward initially, with the molasses and sugar fading into the background. Mmmmmmm..... this is baking gingerbread now, in the not-quite-ready-to-eat-but-not-dough-either stage. You know. When you're pulling the oven open every two minutes to see if you can maul it yet, and you're drooling so much you need a canoe just to-- oh Gods, oh Gods, what's that way back there, please tell me it isn't plastic, oh Gods... *prays as never woman has prayed before* Oh. Whew. No. It's just a very smooth, round sweetness that reminded me of plastic for a minute, but that's gone now. Hmm. It's not as strong as before, either. But still. Yummmmmm.

 

Dry: It smells "done" now, like the biggest, most tempting slice of moist gingerbread drizzled with molasses. You know, for a gingerbread perfume, this is surprisingly subtle on me-- it screamed at first, but it's calmed down to a nice conversational tone of delicious sugar and spice. I'm surprised, actually: all the other reviews seem to be saying, "Whoo baby, this stuff is powerful!" Maybe my nose is a little dead today, and I know my skin's extra dry (damn winter!)... but whatever it is, I put this in the "Perfect amount of throw!" category. It really is a dead ringer for gingerbread, too.

 

May the cinnamon-sensitive beware, though: I had to be careful not to bury my nose directly into my arm while sniffing this (which was difficult, let me tell you)... the ole schnoz is a little chapped from the cold walk I took earlier, and the cinnamon oil, even after drying on my wrists, was making it sting. Rather a lot.

 

Verdict: You know what I have a strange urge to do? Slather my stuffed animals in this. Imagine if my Grateful Dead bear smelled like gingerbread... I'd use it on me, too, particularly in winter. In fact, I kinda hope Mum hates this one!

[girlmadasbirds]

2005 version

 

this smells like cinnamon potpourri on me!

[jasper17]

Ahhh. Straight up gingerbread from start to finish, with a wee bit of cinnamon and sugar dusted over the top. Very yummy.

[Lit Chick]

C is for Cookie, that's good enough for me....

C is for Cookie, that's good enough for me,

C is for Cookie, that's good enough for me!

OOOOH, Cookie Cookie Cookie starts with C!

[/Cookie Monster]

 

Ahem.

 

I am not usually a sweet and foodie kind of gal. Ickers.

But this? AWESOME.

Sweet, yes. But not syrupy. Spicy? Yes - but not burny.

It's utterly delicious, and smells just like the gingerbread I've been baking.

 

After an hour or so, it's a little more mellow. Delicious!!!!

[LadyWilde]

I never, ever, ever get foodie scents. Just the idea of walking around smelling like cookies or candies or nuts makes me nauseous. I also generally don't buy bottles unsniffed (and therefore don't usually buy LEs), so what motivated me to order Gingerbread Poppet is a complete and utter mystery to me.

 

But boy was my intuition dead-on with this one! I don't think I can add anything that someone else hasn't said, but this really does smell exactly like gingerbread. It morphs throughout the day from sweet to doughy to spicy and finally settles into a doughy-sweet-spicy perfect scent that lasts for hours. It's a very comforting, homey scent, and I'm sure it would be lovely in an oil burner, as many others have mentioned.

 

Also, I can't help wondering what this would smell like on a guy. I think I would like very much to snuggle up to someone who smells like gingerbread.

[ChupaChup]

I'm so disappointed, Gingerbread Poppet 2005 is nothing like previous incarnations. From the reviews so far, I was sure it was similar so I went ahead and swapped for a bottle. Then I tried it, the 2005 version on one arm and the 2004 on the other. First off, the new version has a funny, synthetic smelling note to it, almost musky and it just doesn't seem to fit with a foody scent like this. I think it's an attempt to make the new version more doughy but it reads fake Yankee Candle on me. And secondly, the new version is only about one quarter as strong as the old version, the old version is a wonderful explosion of strong, hot spices - clove, ginger, cinnamon and the new version is wimpy in comparison and fades away in half an hour.

 

I guess BPAL is like wine, when you find a vintage year you like you need to hoard it. I wish I had done that with both Gingerbread Poppet and Sugar Cookie from last year .

[Voleuse]

On first application, this is spicy gingerbread. It's not quite baked on first application, but over time, this becomes the exact replica of fresh gingerbread cookies. Yum!

 

Sadly, this fades very quickly on me, but it's delicious while it's still present.

[yeahbutnobut]

Gingerbread Poppet

 

In the imp: like last year's, this is pure gingerbread dough-spicy, sweet and slightly buttery. Mmmm.

Wet on skin: this is delicious! The ginger note gets a tad stronger…

Dry on skin: this is really nice, but unlike last year's, there's a note there that smells a bit dark and, dare I say, a bit burnt? It's not so much a dough scent now, but more of a baked gingerbread scent, and it's slightly smoky like it's been cooked in a wood-fired oven (like the kind you cook Italian pizzas in!) as opposed to your standard electric oven. At times it smells a bit burnt, at others, it smells more like wood smoke, and I also get a hint of treacle in here, a traditional gingerbread made with fresh stem ginger, treacle and spices, cooked in the traditional way.

After a while: what the? Now it smells like gingerbread and smoky leather! It seems the burnt note has turned something vaguely leathery or smoky on me, a bit reminiscent of one of the notes in Herr Dross…a very unexpected reaction!

Verdict: in the imp, this is so promising…on the skin, it's also quite nice, but not the deliciousness that was the 04 version. There's a note here that makes it smell a bit, well, burnt. Like burnt gingerbread, or gingerbread with hints of charcoal-like it's been cooked in a traditional oven, the old fashioned way. This burnt scent then turns to something a bit like smoky leather. That does let the scent down a bit-a shame really because I love the spicy sweet scent I get, the scent of moist gingerbread made with chunks of stem ginger, treacle and syrup, and spices. If it wasn't for that burnt scent, I would be in love, but I much prefer the 04 version.

[kitkat]

I'm a sucker for foodie scents and this one is no exception. It's nice in the bottle, but when I wear it I too get the smoky note. For me that's a plus because it smells *exactly* like the gingerbread my grandmother made in the old oven on cold winter mornings when I was a kid. Beth, since you've clearly found my grandmother's long-lost gingerbread recipe, can you send me a copy? Please?

 

The other thing I really like about it is that different notes come out randomly after it dries. One minute the cinnamon is at the front, the next the ginger, then the molasses... It keeps it really interesting.