Severin

[charshark]

... Dry black teas, Earl Grey, and leather.

In the imp: Bergamot and Earl Grey
Wet: Bergamot tea with a hint of leather and a touch of lemon.
Dry: Tea with leather.
Overall: It faded away on me completely within 10 minutes, but while it was there, it was nice.

[Iceblink]

Huh--this smells spicy and foody and not particularly like tea (more like tea cakes!). I don't get any leather from Severin. This is something to wear on a cool day, for sure.

[milo]

On first sniff I thought this was a floral, and thought "Wow a floral that I like!" Checked the description and discovered that my nose is broke (again), and see that there is teas. No wonder I like this. Everything is blended so well, and after checking the notes that are in this, I sure do smell the Earl Gray. Sadly, it does not last very long on me, but it's nice while it lasts! Will definitely keep the imp.

[jencallisto]

In the imp: Light lemon tea.

Fresh on the skin: Lemon soap. A little sweet, a little lemongrassy, a lot soapy. Dishsoap more than bar soap. Quite gentle. Smells almost a little like dentist's office when I get really close to the wrist.

10 minutes later: I think I like the waft a little more than I like the central scent -- a bright, soft, clean lemon versus the bitterness that seeps in. Maybe I'm just suggestible, but I'm imagining bitter lemon oil getting massaged into smooth, stiff, sturdy black leather. I still wish I knew what was making it go all dishsoapy and dentist's office-y, though.

30 minutes later: Um. Wow. Sense memory has just taken me back, like, 18 years, to lying back in the reclining chair in my orthodontist's office, waiting for the next horribly painful thing he's going to do to my teeth. And, oh, being in those same sorts of chairs in my dentist's office in the same complex, only with the addition of the distinctly disturbing feeling of biting down on one of those gooshy fluoride treatments, hoping that it'll be done soon so that they take this stuff out of my mouth. Ahahaha. I mean, if you go by Little Shop of Horrors, dentists are basically sadists, so perhaps this is really just more accurate than I ever expected it to be. I mean, who would expect to ever have something that precisely replicated the scent of their childhood dentist's office? Ahahaha. I am not at all sure how I feel about this, as you can probably tell by the nervous laughter. But it is extremely interesting, in any case.

1 hour later: Huh. This has gone a lot softer, and lost quite a bit of its astringency. It's actually become a reasonably nice lemon-leather blend.

2 hours later: It appears to have stabilized to this soft lemon-leather. Not bad at all.

3 hours later: Though it's still basically lemon soap, however else I try to think of it.

4 hours later: We've faded down to vaguely lemony laundry.

6 hours later: Basically gone.

 

Verdict: Not so fond of the dentist office stage. The later lemon-leather and lemony laundry stages were all right, though. Not exciting, but reasonably nice. I had been really hoping for more (that is, any) Earl Grey with this. Alas.

 

One phrase: lemon dishsoap.

[Miss Lynx]

Got this as a frimp in a Lab order -- both tea and leather fall into the category of "not great, but not awful" on my skin as a general rule, so I wouldn't have ordered it on my own, but was willing to try it.

 

It's not bad -- the two dominant notes actually balance each other pretty nicely, the leather toning down the tartness of the tea note (which to me usually smells really acidic), and the tea lightening the leather a little so that it's less rank than it often is. Over top of of that there's the subtle presence of bergamot (the oil that's added to Earl Grey tea), adding a little bit of brightness.

 

It doesn't really grab me enough to want to keep it, but it's certainly not unpleasant -- a light, clean scent that either gender could wear even in a fairly conservative environment, slghtly reminiscent of Embalming Fluid that way.

 

Grade: B-

[isisonearth]

Imp: There is sort of a licorice like scent along with the black teas.

 

Wet: Softer on than I would have expected. The licorice smell is strong at first but it seems to mellow into leather.

 

Dry: The longer it sits the more pronounced the scent of leather becomes. The tea is more of a background scent. Occasionally I get a whiff of something herbal. There is almost a bit of a creamy feel as well...a little milk in the tea.

 

I would not have thought I would have like this...but I do.

[zomathesadist]

My experience with Severin was...baffling.

 

I LOVE tea notes. I LOVELOVELOVE BPAL's leather note.

 

I did NOT read the description/scent notes before applying.

 

...and really did NOT like this one.

 

I'm absolutely puzzled. It just smelled VERY sweet, and quite strong. Granted, I think I've had enough sweetness from the GIANT Thanksgiving dinner yesterday to last awhile, but still! At first it seriously turned my stomach.

 

After about 15 minutes it mellowed out, and the tooth aching sweetness went away, and it got better. I still didn't find it to be a very "me" scent. It smelled like something I would have worn in high school.

 

After about 45 minutes, then the tea note was strongly identifiable. But it's all I could really smell. My thought was, "I'll just stick to Dorian for my tea needs."

 

Now it's settled alot, and it's not as strong, not as sweet, but still not what I would have expected at all. And NO leather. none.

 

and then I looked up the scent description and realized that I ordered that imp months ago because I thought I would absolutely love it, I just forgot I had it until now.

 

so, in a nutshell: not what I would have expected. stupid skin.

 

I really think I'm going to have to try it again...maybe not on Black Friday!

[milica]

this is the one I was hopping it will be sooo good... and I'm so sad it wasn't. and not only that, it was terrible.

 

I looooove, loooove, bergamot and Earl Gray and black tea, leather is a hit or miss. wet on skin, I get just a bit of bergamot, lots of tea and a bit of leather, some kind of freshness. but after only 15 min, it goes from fresh to sweeeeeeeeet. nausiating sweet, something went very wrong. probably leather, my skin chemistry does not like it very much. only one leather scent was good to me, Crowley, but only because other scents are much stronger. and when leather goes wrong on me it tends to ruin the good parts of the scent, so that ghastly sweetnes was probably reaction of my skin. oh, well...

Edited November 30, 2008 by milica

[stefrand]

ITI: Sweet, lemony, leathery tea

 

Wet: Very lemony on me! Like lemon herbal tea/soap. The leather is picking up, drying it out a bit. Sweet lemon and lightness. I like it! I hope the soapiness goes away.

 

Dry: Smells like a lemony floral tea right now. I still like it quite a bit.

 

Drydown: Light and sweet, lemon and tea.

 

Final Thougts: I think this is delightful, but it is missing something...

 

Later: I ended up layering this over Dorian, and OMG it is awesome. Like a sexy Victorian tea party!

[MCS4096]

In the Imp: Very strong lemony bergamot over subtle black tea. Very crisp and light, and yummy!

 

Wet: ... amazing! Bright lemon and the cleanest, coolest leather. This isnt sweaty cowboy leather, this is playing with a riding crop after a polite tea party.

 

Dry: This is going to be an instant buy! It's gender neutral, and cooler than I usually like.. but it is so crisp and interesting-- as the leather note has pretty good throw on me, I'd like to have a good leather scent in my collection

[dronzeka]

This is indeed interesting!

 

I'd steered away from this because I'm not usually find of leather, but then people kept talking about it as a black tea scent....

 

It's crisp and gender-neutral (I think I'm duplicating the review above mine...), with a little sparkly bergamot and a smooth undercurrent which is probably the leather, but not what I think of when I hear "leather" as a note. I'm going to have to wear it a few times to figure out if I need more of it, because it's so unlike what I usually wear, but it's cool and sophisticated and clean.

 

(On the drydown, I get more of the leather - I kind of wish I'd get more tea, but it's definitely an intriguing scent!)

[unlaced]

In the bottle: all I smell is faint lemon. nothing else... really. The person who decanted this for me was kind enough to include the notes on the label and I'm getting no tea, or leather or anything else beside a faint lemony smell if i put my nose reeeeeally close to the imp and sniff.

 

On my wrist: oooh there's the leather peeking out a tiny bit. It's not De Sade smoke-and-leather it's lighter... and very faint. I can only smell it if I put my nose right on my skin and huff.

 

And 5 minutes after I put it on it's vanished. I think this could have been a great scent. I liked the sound of all the notes... but alas. My skin ate it.

[kjirstiben]

Straight out of the imp, the oil smells soft and lemony, almost like a textile--linen, perhaps. There's some associated soapiness, too, and during the drydown it continues to amp until…

 

Oh! It's tea--a clean, dry smell, and leather. Mostly leather, come to think of it, and a little tea. This scent wants to disappear on my skin.

 

At 2 hours it's very close to disappearing--from that point on all that I can smell is the barest hint of a scent when my nose is applied directly to my wrist.

 

Severin has definitely furthered my suspicion that tea doesn't like my skin chemistry… though thankfully this time it chose to disappear instead of morphing into something foul…

 

Recaplet: Tea, then leather and tea, then nothing--and quickly!

My rating: 2 out of 5 (Meh.)

Color Impression: Milk-diluted tea brown.

[tajana]

The first thing I get out of this is a whole lot of lemony bergamot. That initial wallop dies down enough to reveal some of that strong black tea. It really does smell a lot like a cup of Earl Grey. Since my skin has a tendency to sweeten a lot of things up, the bergamot ends up coming off as almost like lemon drops sometimes, which isn't bad, since that reduces the potential austerity of this scent. After a while on my wrist a hint of leather comes out. Not as much as I'd hope for, but definitely enough to add some character. This holds on for surpisingly long (a lot of tea scents tend to fade away quickly on me). Quite simple, but would be great for summer.

 

Actually, after having tested Dorian so recently (that one was almost all vanilla all the time) I'm predicting that Severin layered with Dorian would be just the thing to get the perfect black tea scent I've been questing for...

[WidgetAlley]

Imp: Tea. Earl Grey mixed with other strong black teas. Am I hallucinating or did I catch a touch of jasmine, like maybe a jasmine green? It's kind of sweet, but nice. The leather will go weird on me, because leather always does.

 

Wet: Bergamot and tea and a faint hint of that weird slick-vanilla smell I get with leather. And jasmine. I'd swear there's the tiniest drop of jasmine in here. That "wrong" leather note just keeps getting louder, unfortunately. I think it might end up ruining this for me but we'll see.

 

Dry: Alas, only a faint hint of bergamot and tea is left. This one DOES go by quick.

[angelicruin]

Sniffing the bottle, I get lemon and leather.

 

Once applied to my skin though, I swear I smell anise. This strongly resembles licorice on me with a hint of lemon.

 

It's one of my favorite scents to blend with Snake Oil.

[Coldfire]

 

 

 

 

Imp: TEA! Tea squee!

Wet on Me: Loving the tea scents. No leather yet

Drying Down: Lovely tea with faint leather undertones.

Refined and understated but quietly waiting

Dry: This makes me feel like I’m having tea with

Saetan Daemon SaDiablo from the Blood Jewels series of books. T

his is a comfort scent. I could curl up with this, a soft blanket, a good book,

some Ocean Machine and tea on a rainy day. TO KEEP!

 

[awesomeoverlord]

I was surprised at how fresh this turned out to be...The earl grey is really prominent initially, but my skin tends to eat up tea like no one's business. The tea holds on for dear life but eventually succumbs to this weird almost sour citrusy thing which may be the remnants of the earl grey. The sourness disappears eventually, at which point it's really lovely and fresh with just the slightest hint of leather...and then it's gone. Sad. I really wish it lasted longer.

[sylvanusurban]

In bottle: The usual chaotic strong smell, plus something lemony

 

On me, wet: Floral soap

 

On me, drying: Still floral soap. I might be able to smell the barest hint of the leather note described in the title, but on the other hand I may just be imagining it. The floral smell develops during the drydown, and becomes pretty pleasant. I can’t smell tea in this at all, nor citrus – I guess the lemon in the bottle disappeared on my skin. This is saddening, since I like citrus smells; I hope it doesn’t happen with every citrusy scent I try.

 

I do not get a “depraved sadomasochistic relationship” vibe from this scent!

 

Verdict: This was inoffensive but underwhelming. To the swaps with it.

 

Later: Oh, interesting! I figured this had finished its run, but suddenly my wrist smells different again. A more mature, more assertive scent has arrived on the scene. It’s a seductive, not-too-girly floral, wound through with a breath of leather that makes it more sophisticated. Nice. I don’t know if it’s enough to make me want to keep it around, but it is nice.

 

[mazikeen]

I bought a full bottle unsniffed for the name alone. As a Snape fangirl and a Velvet Underground fan, I knew I needed a bottle just for collection's sake. Plus, when you tell me I can't have something anymore, I naturally want it even more.

 

Wet: LEMONHEADS. The candy. It's exactly that sort of lemon smell. Not cleaning supplies or dryer sheets, not tea or fresh fruit. Definitely not leather. A heady, sugary lemon. Not what I was hoping for, but yummy nonetheless.

 

Dry: *poof* Gone. If I really try, I can barely make out a more "adult" tea-ish scent.

 

Zero throw when dry, almost zero wearlength. This is the scent equivalent of Fruit Stripe gum. If the first stage lasted longer, or the second stage was a thousand times stronger, this would be a winner. Alas. I'll keep the bottle for geeky reasons, and use it when I need a quick pick-me-up, or for fleeting moods.

[Ondine]

Thank you to the labbie whose name I do not know who found two bottles of Severin for me to purchase at Convergence!

 

Severin is what I wanted Dorian to be: Sweet, light tea. I don't get the leather in this really at all. Just sweet tea, but not like Southern sweet tea, more like you put a lot of sugar in your cup of hot brewed tea then let it cool down.

 

Very little lasting strength on me but it's pretty enough to look past that and re-apply!

[Lyrical]

In vial: I get nearly all lemon from this! I guess it's tea served with lemon. No leather yet, but I think I tend to amp that note, so I'm sure it will show up later.

 

Wet on skin: yupp - there's the leather! With lots of freshly sliced lemon and some black tea. Mostly lemon, though, and it's a really nice lemon too! Actually, it's Lift lemon tea - the sweet instant stuff.

 

Dry on skin: I do like Beth's tea scents! The freshness of the lemon and the lovely tea note is just rounded off by a touch of leather in the background. Why oh why can't the men I know smell like this?

[kunoichi]

This is a spicy, dark orange scent in the vial. On my skin, however, a rather unusual and quite strong lemon appears out of nowhere. Thankfully it fades quickly into the background, behind a spicy leather. After a few hours even the leather scent fades and almost vanishes.

 

[topazphoenix]

This is a very light lemon tea scent. I agree with the reviewer who said it reminded her of lemonheads. And then..the leather shows up, unexpectedly. Faintly, wistfully. Overall, this is a very wistful scent. Dorian hits you over the head with his smutty vanilla tea musky goodness...but Severin is shy, awkward, with big eyes and a full mouth that seems to tremble slightly whenever you look at him. Severin is a dreamer. God. I would love to smell this on a guy.

[voodoocatwoman]

It's probably a good thing that this was discontinued before I had a chance to try it...

 

Severin is lovely. It starts out very lemony but settles into that Earl Grey perfume-y kind of scent. I hated Earl Grey for the longest time and then one day, it suddenly tasted like heaven. That's what Severin smells like. It's warm and soft. My only problem with it is that it fades far too quickly. 2 hours later, I can still detect it on my wrist, but not by much.