The Sailor's Den

[euterpe414]

Orris, bay rum, palm, coconut meat, oak wood, tobacco, linen, blue lilac, and leather.

Wow, I can't believe I put off trying this one for so long! It's very smooth and elegant, like others have said. I get a lot of coconut (a light coconut, more akin to the kind in Obatala), rum and tobacco, but it's not at all like Elegba, which has similar notes. I think the wood and orris help keep this smooth. I really don't get any iris in this until the drydown (but really more like when it's fading than when it's just dry) when it lends a bit of sweetness. This is a lovely blend of which I will definitely get a bottle of, since my half imp isn't going to last very long!

[storme]

In the imp: hunh, very light - lots of linen with a little fresh watery coconut.

 

On me, wet: yup, all light linen and not a lot else. I expected this to be a darker, boozier scent.

 

On me, dry: hmm, that linen's dirtying up now - the tobacco and orris are creeping in and making this feel a bit ominous and grubby.

 

Verdict: Nah, this makes me feel like I need a shower. Blech.

[hkhm]

imp: linen and woods.

 

wet: wow! coconut, tobacco, leather... this is wonderful! somehow, this reminds me of ventriloquist's dummy (must be the woods).

but only if he put on some chaps and started smoking a cigar while sipping a pina colada.

 

dry: tobacco and leather with some well-worn woods scents.

[savage_rose]

This scent did strange, strange things to my skin. In the bottle it's surprisingly light. I can't smell the rum at all. On, I smell lilac, and something green and watery like celery. Er, maybe that's the palm? Not a bad scent, just not what I was expecting.

[akuaa]

i like this, but it's not something that i superlove and neeeed to get a bottle of. spicy, almost cinnamon-esque underneath. a much lighter scent on top -- floral? it's like a faded perfume. i know there's supposed to be some liquor in this, but i can't find it. it's intoxicating and lovely. i'd definitely wear this again. bottle would be questionable. adult and sultry. i like it. *reads review* i don't think pirate, nor rum. looking at the picture, i can definitely see in the scent a dark velvet chair in a bar with the perfume of a courtesan still lingering.

[zankoku_zen]

This one reminds me to a classier Plunder. Whereas Plunder was straight up spices, this has enough of a floral component to smell more like a perfume. It was also smokier (ahhhh tobacco), and the coconut didn't make a headlock for the spotlight.

 

Still, in my mind, it was a pretty masculine like scent. ARRR!

[jewelbug]

Imp: A kinda sweet cologne-y scent. That doesn't do it justice, i know, but I can't pick out a single note from the others.

 

Wet: I get a pear like sweetness out of this, oddly enough. Over a cologney perfume. There's a wee bit of coconut floating around, but really, I can't describe the scent well. Its a fairly light scent, but is musky/woodsy and spicy and tropical and even a little watery and. undeniably intriguing.

 

Dry: I like the description someone used for this as "faded perfume." I can see that. Dry, I do get more of a creamy palm/coconut combo with a hint of sweet leather, and its all over the "faded perfume" note.

 

Overall: Pretty, but not something I would feel the need to wear often, so I can pass up the bottle.

Edited September 17, 2008 by jewelbug

[greenranger]

When I first put this on, I sat for a minute, and then put the imp back in the "untested" box because I couldn't think of a thing to write about it.

 

It's been about an hour? I still can't pick out notes in it. It's a mostly smooth scent with a hint of sweetness and spicyness in its depths.

 

I don't know...It doesn't smell like a debauched pirate party pit...but more like how an elegant hotel might be scented...?

[femmefatale]

mmmm....I really like this. I can catch some of the coconut, rum, wood, and a very small hint of lilac in the background.

Unfortunately, my skin amps the orris so it tends to drown out most of the other notes eventually. I think I'll just have to wear this in a locket or better yet, slather it on hubby.

[rayvn1]

Dark, rich and very busy. A bit of coconut and spice with a dark brown base. Piratical Not much throw, but a very complex and interesting scent.

[Dark Alice]

Wet: This goes on clean...with the leather coming out.

 

Dry: My skin amps the lilac in this ALOT! The coconut sweetens this and the hint of spice leaves it with the right amount of complexity. I love it and I will gladly hold on to my imp when I am in the mood to try something extremely different!

 

ADDED 2/26/10:

 

Wet: My skin has turned this into Fresh Green Peppers mixed with hot red pepper juice.

 

Drydown. Green peppers and red hot peppers. How odd....

[devilot]

In the Vial: Something sharply plant-like, think I'll blame the blue lilac.

Wet: This is incredibly well-blended, even wet, I'm having a hard time discerning individual notes-- perhaps some dustiness/ powderiness from the orris (might be the coconut), clean (probably the linen), and a hint of wood and tobacco.

Drydown: Think the "darker" notes are coming forth a bit more now. I'm tempted to say I detect some bay rum and the leather.

Verdict: What a complex and amazingly well-blended perfume! I think that of all the BPAL I've had the luck of sniffing and testing, this is the most well-blended-- it's nearly impossible for me to pick the notes out of this one! I'm so glad I swapped for this decant as I htoroughly enjoy this whole experience. I'll be keeping this decant, but I'm not quite ready to make the plunge for a bottle.

[tailoredshirt]

I liked this a lot when I first put it on, and immediately thought I needed to add it to my bottle list for my next order. But now I'm not sure. When I first put it on, it was really nice - sweet and boozey, with some floral and maybe a hint of fruit and tobacco. I couldn't remember most of the notes, so I wasn't really able to pick out anything more specific.

 

Anyway, it didn't last very long at all. After about an hour, it had faded to a generic BPAL skin scent. It's the scent that I get when I open a package from swaps, or when I open my imp box to find something. It seems like a lot of scents dry down to that same BPAL scent, and this one does it too. I guess my skin chemistry just boils everything down the same way, or maybe I just need to branch out with the scents I try.

 

I'm going to keep my imp and try this a few more times to see if today was an off day, since my skin seems to be eating scents lately.

[SophieCedar]

My nose has a hard time capturing this one because I've been overloading it lately.. The notes are soft and well-blended (of course.. it's a salon scent). Having grown up in Boston and heard the stories of Scollay Sq, I believe this is pretty accurate for the time period it depicts. (Scollay sq was where all the sailors poured in, from the docks. The hill perched behind it was a red light district.. that hill is Beacon Hill, which is now one of the most expensive/luxuriant/well-to-do places to live in Boston... funny how things work.) Anyways...

 

Wet: orris and palm, right off, with oak wood, tobacco, and blue lilac. The lilac seems to twine with the palm, otherwise I think it would just get squashed by woods and booze. The coconut meat is elusive.

 

Drydown: More orris, palm and lilac with pronounced spices from the bay rum. The tobacco sticks around and linen is there as well, giving this a similar feel as Herr Drosselmeyer, but with an added layer of fresh green, spice, and floral. Very nice. I can't wait until my nose is in better shape, so I can fully smell this one.

[AmandaJacobsonSnyder]

I absolutely loved this in the imp. On the skin, I get the strongest throw from the leather, softened by coconut. Usually coconut and almond scents go to baby powder on me, but not this blend. I get the blue lilac or maybe the orris at the end, which reminds me of a Blue Iris perfume I bought at Monet's garden in Giverny and have never been able to find. Not a strong throw on this one at all (which is something I like in a perfume) but if I sniff close to my skin, it's a lot of Bay Rum and spice. My husband and I agree this smells like the record & head shop where I went to college. This scent is confident, smart and a little bit dirty, good for the silver-tongued and raven-haired woman, or the hipster dude. This is also a bit paradoxical ... maybe for wearing while you drink really good gin in your tie-dye shirt and sandals.

Edited January 3, 2011 by PrimitiveEarth

[Diva Urd]

In the vial: Coconut, leather and just a hint of lilac. Wow, this one's interesting!

 

On: This blooms on my skin. I still get all the notes I sniffed in the vial, but now they're mingling with bay rum and tobacco. Very interesting. Definitely unisex to my nose. I like it, but I don't know that I'd spring for a bottle (this might change if I find myself reaching for it more though).

 

Later: Slightly floral bay rum. Quite faint now, but I DID apply on the wrist and it may have rubbed off some. This IS nice, but I'm not in insta-love with it. The decant stays, though, and maybe I'll change my mind later.

[brilliantcat]

Boozy blooming lilac with a hint of coconut. Warms to a softly floral and leather with just a touch of coconut.

[milo]

I just bought a container of Lush's Big shampoo, and this is almost a dead ringer for it. I'm getting mostly cologne and orris, and it smells a bit soapy. Nice, and I feel fresh and clean wearing it, but it's not really my style.

[LiberAmoris]

The Sailor's Den is really lovely. It's a strong hit of orris and lilac and bay rum when wet, but it quickly becomes really balanced—a bit of coconut, a swatch of linen, a snap of leather. The tobacco, palm, and oak wood are also brought into the mix in such a way that they inform but don't overwhelm. The lilac is divine, there's just enough to soften the edges. I tested this on myself but will give my imp to my husband, on whom it will smell fantastic...I can tell already.

[Aviatrix]

This is much lighter than I expected based on the notes! It is a blast of rum and coconut at first, and as it dries down, more of the lilac comes out - I love lilac, so I was pleased! I am not getting much in the way of leather, sadly. I am not sure what the linen note is supposed to smell like, so I can't comment on that.

 

This feels a bit like a Lupercalia scent, actually. If you're into boozy and slightly tropical, this might be up your alley!

[porcelina]

sailor's den is initially super coconutty for me, with some nice bay rum in the background. i love bay rum and i wish it was more prominent here! as it sits it kind of starts to remind me of a more feminine calico jack. calico jane? haha. unfortunately for me, my skin apparently amps lilac like craaaaaazy and after a while that is all i get.

Edited May 11, 2017 by porcelina

[Cali]

Lord this is pretty from the get-go. A soft, masculine sweet cream. Throw some rum and sea-sprayed clothing in the mix and you got the sailors' den.

 

After a couple of minutes this becomes much less "clean" and there's tobacco, and get more aggressively masculine- that said, still very smooth. The rum fades a lot (aw) but the spices of it come out to play. The flowers fade a bit too!

Definately getting what akuaa, a few posts above, gets- though I do get some pirate-y vibes at the least. Maybe it's because I want it to be there.

 

I ...really do like it but the throw is not enough for me, it's barely there at all. And I already have Pirate moon and The sea rat, which both combined would remind me of this. Happy I got to try though, it's very interesting.

[donkehpoo]

Wet: Much lighter and cleaner smelling than I thought! The coconut, tobacco, and linen are mostly what I'm getting. It's quite nice!

 

Dry: The bay rum has come out in full force! The tobacco note is gone. There's still a clean linen smell, a little coconut, and just a hint of leather.

 

I much, much preferred the wet stage!