Van Van

[Guest]

A venerable voodoo blend, used for purification of the spirit and to amplify positive personal power.

From the Voodoo section,
Ok I did not like this one at first, right out of the bottle it reminded me of dead birds, as I put it on it turned to a musky Vanilla scent that Has become my favorite. Of ALL of the scents I do have, this one seems to last on me the longest. I put on very little too, and this stuff does what 'Lizabeth says it does!!

[Paintsnked]

Love this one! Not an over powering scent to me more of a natural fragrance. I seem to smell Sweet Grass which has long been a favorite of mine.

 

I feel calmer wearing it. Which makes it one of my "Tough Day" picks.

[dreamwalkblue]

I was trying to figure out *what* Van Van smelled like, and I think that Paintsnked is right - it smells like sweet grass! It smells a bit of baby powder mixed with a light, musky vanilla with grassy, herbal (but not green!) tones. It's a very nice, calmin everyday fragrance that I want to have a hand at all times. I will be getting a bottle of this once my sample is used up.

[shriekingviolet]

Initial Impression:

Fresh, clean and slightly fruity. Smells like a fruit flavored carbonated water. Like those clearly canadian drinks that used to be popular here.

 

After Wearing It:

While there was that familiar herby overtone that I usually smell with Beth's voodoo blend when it first hit my skin, this was also noticably sweeter than any other Voodoo blend I've tried. It was sweet and powdery, yet slightly bubbly, light and clean. After it dried down, it smelled light a pale version of Lush's Silky Underwear dusting powder. I like the scent lots on my skin, and it turned out to be excellent as a room scent. Very light, clean and comforting. Would be nonoffensive to most noses. It also was very helpful during my meditation session as I was concentrating of positive affirmations.

 

I found this scent to be very grounding, calming and good for instilling a serene yet confident attitude. I also tried layering this with Snake Oil (which I adore) to help promote a self-assured, upbeat attitude and it smelled fab. Powdery, but still sexy.

 

Final Thoughts:

I definitely have to get a bottle of this for banishing neative energies from my personal space as well as for calming and empowering purposes.

[twistygirl]

This is such a lovely, calming fragrance. Like ShriekingViolet said, it's got that familiar herbal-clean tone common to all the Voodoo Blends, but it definitely has a vanilla-y, powdery softness that makes it just fabulous. I haven't had it on long enough to find out if it will amplify my positive personal power, but I do feel surrounded by good energy since putting this on.

[malanna]

I like sweet grass, but unfortunately, I don't smell it with Van Van. More like powder and something green and bad. It's bitterness makes me think of chemical fertilizers (don't know if it smells like that, but it's so bitter it makes me think of it). I kept on waiting for it to improve and it did mellow a wee bit, with a bit more powder, but the powder is scented the same way.

[sigh]

Mmmmm-on me it stayed fresh, sweetgrass-y and a tad orangey ( ? not neroli, but more like Orange Juice tangy oranges) with a fabulous soft musky sweet undertone.

 

As a room (well, office really) scent it's very calming without being sleep inducing. Has made me feel centered and grounded before what will hopefully be a career altering meeting.

 

*must order 10ml*

 

edited to add: I'm a dork-it's Grapefruit not Orange. Either way, I love it.

 

 

Edited June 23, 2004 by sigh

[jj_j]

I've got ambergris and patchouli wafting off of me, with maybe a drop of heliotrope, sweetening this up as it warms. There's a hint of fruity floral in here, too - perhaps orchid? The patchouli really fades into the background in a couple of minutes, but it's an anchor for Van Van in all its stages of wear.

 

Not bad, but I don't think it's something I'd wear everyday; this is clean in a soft, new baby purity sort of way, and makes me feel like I've got a fresh start to the world around me.

Edited June 26, 2004 by jj_j

[janelle_hell]

On me,this is a deep,dark vanilla bean scent,with a hint of lemongrass,sweetgrass,and various other herbs that i can't seem to pick out. This is more Snake Oil than Snake Oil (if that makes any sense...). i have absolutely *adored* all the Lab's voodoo blends that i've tried,so much that i will never again purchase that fake,chemical-scented crap that is sold as 'authentic'.

[Ina Garten Davita]

First Impression: I smell the lemon first off. A little bit scared now. With the exception of Delirium and Zephyr...lemon + my skin =

 

Second Impression: Yay! Another lemon scent I *can* wear. This isn't fruity lemon or Pledge lemon. This is rich, buttery, vanilla-lemon like the sweet batter of a moist lemon butter cake with loads of best quality vanilla.

 

Final Analysis: This smells oh-so-good on me. I can't stop smelling it. It's a very comforting and happy smell.

[Nadirah]

This is the most wonderful of all the Voodoo blends I have tried. It is the strongest oil blend I've found too, I only put on the tiniest drop and it LASTS! If I put too much it is way overpowering. I don't know what it is this reminds me of (sounds silly doesnt it?) I am just taken aback by it. Not for everyone I'm sure, its almost vanilla but not quite, its very hard to explain, you'll have to feel it full force for yourself, get that imp!!! Try it out!! This is the voodoo blend of voodoo blends!

[Summerpixy]

I put this on before I slept and the sweetness lulled me into a deep and dreamless sleep. I awoke more refreshed than I have in the past few weeks. Hopefully this is a good sign toward more much-needed renewal.

 

A sweet blend, slightly spicy in the bottle but on the skin it changes into that green sweetness all the other posters are describing. A very good blend!

[octopusgrrl]

In the bottle: softly herbal.

 

Wet: vanilla with a hint of lemongrass.

 

Dry: a gentle spicy vanilla.

 

Verdict: this has such a lovely scent and I'm tempted to get a 5ml bottle so I can wear it every day.

[xoe]

I had a really rough day. Negative energy up the wazoo!

 

I took a bath and poured in about half an imp's worth of VanVan and it really helped! It smelled delightful, but it really helped clean out the negative energy.

 

I may need a big bottle of this.

[hypothermya]

First Impression

 

Smells like sweet grass and vanilla. The lightest hint of smoke and spice beneath it.

 

Wearing It

 

Uh oh. Seems like I've found that mystery ingredient again...the one that turns good smelling perfumes to powder on my skin. And this is amazingly strong smelling too! My boyfriend just asked me from across the room whether I was wearing baby powder... Not so good. Plus I only applied just the tiniest bit, and it was *strong*!

 

 

Well, I was planning on wearing this more often if I liked it, because more amplification of my personal power would be nice... BUT there's nothing that makes me more irritable than smelling like baby powder, so I guess that'll counteract anything positive that I would get from using this. Oh well.

[summer]

This is musty and sweet and smells so very . . . animal. By that I mean it has some quality that smells like skin or pheromones or something -- and the scent develops on my skin the longer I wear it. If I do yoga or anything similarly strenuous, the fragrance blooms and develops even more. It's a very warm, comforting, sweet but not foody, round scent with soft edges that is very calming and brings me a real sense of "everything is good."

 

It's lovely with a drop of Regan, and absolutely eyes-rolling-back otherworldly with a drop of Namaste.

 

[ChupaChup]

This is the prettiest of the Voodoo blends I have tried so far. From the other reviews, I was expecting a sweet grass kind of smell, but to me it is a more mowed and slightly rotting grass smell. It's the same note I detected in Red Devil that doesn't agree with me, I think it might be vetiver. However, the vanilla sweetness in Van Van more than compensates for that note and the soft powdery drydown is wonderful. I got this for a friend of mine who is going through some hard times, we put it in her oil burner and just talked, it was very soothing. She also loves it on her skin and puts some on her crystals after she has cleaned them and charges them in the sun. So far, things have been going a lot better for her

[JazzieCazzie]

IN THE BOTTLE: Lemon sugar cookies!

 

It is so deliciously mouth-watering that I apply double-daub to wrists and one to each crook of my arm!

 

WET: If someone put lemon extract into snickerdoodles, this is what they'd smell like. Yummy, tangy baked goodness.

 

DRYDOWN: The lemon/tanginess evaporates pretty quickly and morphs into the baby powder smell others have noted here ... and 9 times out of 10 I would say YUCK (I hate the smell of baby powder) ... but in this case it works beautifully and I can't stop sniffing myself. The other notes offset the cloying sweetness I normally associate with the baby powder.

 

Unless this changes drastically in the next few hours, which I don't anticipate, this is DEFINITELY a keeper and goes on the January big-bottle list as well. Yum!

 

REVISITED AND RE-REVIEWED IN APRIL 2013:

 

Up to the Vs in my journey through my BPAL collection and am double-dipping today. The timing is fortuitous because, though I'm not generally a big fan of any fruity or citrus scents (other than pink grapefruit and fig), my two "lemony" scents came up together so they complement each other on opposing arms -- Van Van and Val Sans Retour.

 

My Van Van is an imp I purchased during an impapalooza spree from the Lab earlier this year.

 

IN THE IMP: Sweet sugar cookies with lemon peel.

 

Dabbed on wrist and in crook of arm.

 

WET: Much like my first time through, I get the "LEMONY SNICKERDOODLES" vibe but this time I think I'm closer to being able to figure out some of the notes (and the Lab is probably laughing at me if I'm wrong on all of them). Definitely some lemon, probably more like lemongrass because of its sweetness.

 

DRYDOWN: If my nose is anymore sophisticated than it was in 2004, here is what I'm coming up with ... lemongrass, possibly cinnamon, and I am PRETTY sure there is myrrh in here. That is one note that seems to have a pretty recognizable drydown on me, especially in the crook of my arm ... that sweet, powdery scent. Sometimes it gets wonky but not so much in this case. However, I truly would be shocked if it's not myrrh.

 

OVERALL: I really, really love this but probably wouldn't get a big bottle. More like stocking imps. It's foody to me without being in-your-face foody, and if someone was looking for sweet lemon scents OR sugar cookie scents, I wouldn't hesitate to suggest it because it's not something they'd think of by reading the description.

 

On a scale of 1-5, a good 4.

Edited April 21, 2013 by JazzieCazzie

[Lina]

In the bottle: This smells deep and strong. I smell the patchouli.

 

On me wet: STRONG! I smell the sweetness but I am not sure what it is. The herbal smells are the strongest for me.

 

After dry down: I Van Van. It is everything I would not look for in a scent (I tend to like florals) that is surprising and good. It is calming and powerful. I wear this on days I want calm confidence and I am certain Van Van is very resposible. I am so certain I got a 5mL with my Samhain order.

 

Thank you Beth and all the folks at the lab. I smell yummy because of you!

[etherealchild]

In The Bottle Something is bristling my nose ::sniff:: the way a strong citrus does, but this isn't a true citrus ::sniff:: and a green vanilla intermingling

 

Wet It is warming up immediately...... anise or almonds and vanilla in the foreground, still something slightly antiseptic in the mix. Reminds me of a slightly citrus Pinesol... It's a strange blend when wet..... almost seems like the notes are curdling together...

 

Drydown AHAA! It's lemongrass that has my sniffer perplexed. Hmmmm...... I feel like the vanilla and lemongrass are trying to quietly push one another out of the spotlight. There is that same smokey note that is in Snake Oil emerging...... I mean literally smokey......

 

Two Hours Later The lemongrass has faded away, and it's mostly just vanilla now. Smells really, really similar to Snake Oil, just more intense and minus the sexiness..... Kinda giving me a headache to be perfectly honest. It's really strong.

 

Verdict Didn't really care for this one too much...... ehhhh.....

[Penance]

Origin:

 

I got this as part of my prize for winning etherealchild's Blue Moon contest.

 

First sniff:

 

I'm not sure exactly what I'm smelling here. It's familiar, but I can't put my finger on it. It's citrusy...kind of like orange slices with the pith still on them, but it's also somewhat sweet (is that vanilla, maybe?) and almost resiny smelling (maybe amber?). I haven't read anyone's reviews for this one, so I can't use anyone else's impressions as guidelines. Guess I'll have to puzzle this one out myself.

 

Wet on skin:

 

I swear there's amber in this because it immediately morphs into sour milk on my skin and there's only a few notes that do that on me (amber being one of them, and the only one I know of that smells similar to something in Van Van). The strange citrus note is still there, too, but it's drowned out by the evil sour milk smell. I don't think I'm going to be able to test the voodoo properties of this one because I just can't tolerate my skin's response to it.

 

Dry down:

 

Underneath the sour milk smell (which is lightening somewhat), I get a tiny hint of what amber normally smells like on other people and a lot of powder. I'm thinking there might be sweetgrass or something similar in this, too. I'm not sure exactly what's in Van Van for sure and certain, but my body chemistry is wreaking havoc with something in this. I would have loved to have really tested this one, but it's not to be, apparently. I've been striking out a lot with oils lately and Van Van was particularly disappointing to me because I really wanted to try it out.

 

The bottom line:

 

My skin apparently hates Van Van for some reason. I'm not sure if there's amber in this or not, but my skin is behaving as if there were. I'm going to be passing this one on to someone else in the spirit that it was given to me. Hopefully someone else can put it to good use.

[omly]

There is something I am not crazy about in this (pathchouli?) but there is not a lot of it. After dry down it calms down a little bit. I did not get a lot of citrus. The lemonyness is a sweet dusty one that is not overwhelmingly lemon. I actually like lemon a lot though and wish there were more. Van Van develops a really nice creamy quality, but I not really crazy about it otherwise. Strangely I just can't put my finger on why though...

[Northernminx]

Erg...gods I hate my chemistry. Light and herbal in the vial I was hopeful of this one. However it turns into instant baby powder on my skin, not subtle, not pretty, just chokingly cloyingly powedery sweet. There was a wierd peach-vanilla undertone to the powder which I wish had been the actual scent but something in this one didn't like me. Sad sad sad

[Faerykin]

Van Van

 

Swiped across wrists and along collarbone.

 

Initial Wet (8-8:30am): Lemon … surrounded by something thicker. I’m not sure what that something is, but I like It. I’m going to have to check the Forums in an attempt to narrow it down. One of the things that makes me leery when it comes to the Voodoo Blends is that the ingredients aren’t listed. I like to know what I’m putting on.

 

Initial Dry (8:30-10am): That thicker ingredient is becoming powdery. Not headache-inducing as of yet, but I’m not a very big fan of smelling like powder. The lemon is still there, and it is difficult to pick out anything else. Still not completely unpleasant.

 

For once, thankfully, the powder scent went away before it became too overwhelming. Now it is back to the predominant lemon with an underlying thickness that I am still unable to identify, but I am really liking. *sighs* This is a happy, feel-good scent. I can see myself wearing it often – especially if it helps banish depression.

 

Throughout the Day (10am-on): The lemon scent completely fades as this wavers on the edge of trying to turn powdery again. But, it doesn’t quite fall. I still like it, and for the most part, it has kept me in good spirits. I believe I’ll keep the imp for times when I need that little pick-me-up.

[surf-tormented]

Cherry cough drops. Then creamy cherry cough drops. I can't remember if it was Juju or Horn of Plenty, but one of those smelled exactly like this one.

 

I like cherry cough drops but don't want to smell like one. I haven't had success with the Voodoo Oils line either as far as intent...maybe they just aren't for me.