Mr. Ibis

[tailoredshirt]

Papyrus, vanilla flower, Egyptian musk, African musk, aloe ferox, white sandalwood.

 

In the bottle, I smelled ink and parchment! On my skin, the "ink" dried into aloe. It smelled slightly soapy, but I am mostly thinking of an aloe-scented soap that I have. Mostly, it just smelled fresh and clean. I didn't really get any of the other notes, but I was slightly distracted and not really looking for them. I don't think I'll be getting a bottle, but I do love the unique combination of notes.

[voorishsign]

This oil has been intriguing me ever since I first read the description, but I never had the courage nor resources to buy bottles unsniffed till now I'm hugely excited about this!

 

In the bottle - so. Very. Beautiful! Yes, there's parchment, yes, there's musk and sandalwood, but it's so light and delicate without being girly.

 

On wet - For heaven's sake why did I not try this before seriously now, faint vanilla, musk and papyrus. Gorgeous gorgeous gorgeous.

 

Drydown - more musk, and the aloe comes through. A light, airy, dusty, fresh scent, perfectly well-behaved and beautiful. Love it! This is going on my top ten

[Dharklady]

In bottle: Aloe and musk
Wet: While it smells exactly the same as the in bottle smell…there is a dryiness that you can practically feel.
Dry: As it warms up the sandalwood emerges to tone the musk and there is just the hint of vanilla.
Notes: Once again this is a fantastic concept blend. Very fitting for the character.

[sarielswish]

In the vial, unf. That's all I need say. I'm in love. I'd forgotten how much I adore Egyptian musk until someone sent me this empty. Color, cream.

 

Wet on my skin, it's Egyptian musk and papyrus and sharp, clean aloe. I could *bathe* in this. As a matter of fact, if I had more, I would.

 

10-15 minute drydown - It's all beautiful Egyptian musk and reeds and that slightly sharp aloe and I love it.

 

1 hour drydown - No change, I still can't stop huffing my wrists. :-)

 

Note - this has an insanely long wear on me... 12 hours later, I can still smell it.

[KesHiro]

I bought this on a total whim, something I don't often do. I'd read numerous posts on Mr. Ibis, read through the reviews here, and thought, "What the heck, why not?" Sometimes impulses are a good thing.

 

In the bottle, I get soft green aloe. It's very refreshing and clean! Wet, it's the same, maybe with some musk. There are about twenty scary minutes where this turns into Elmer's glue; I don't know what note is causing this, but I'm glad I don't amp it and that it goes away. Further into the drydown, the papyrus note emerges. Dry, this is fresh paper (!) and aloe. I can't detect the vanilla flower, but I think it's there . . . something faintly sweet hangs around the edges of the fragrance.

 

This is a clean, fresh, skin close scent. It's perfect for those days where you want to wear something but don't want your perfume to attract too much attention. It's also good for those days where you want something light and refreshing. Glad I went with my whim and purchased this!

[Vega]

Sniffed: Clean and papery with the barest touch of sweetness.

 

On skin: Oh my, I love Mr. Ibis! he is a perfect balance of clear, papery cleanness (papyrus and aloe) lightly infused with a vanilla-like sweetness. The musks and sandalwood must be playing into this too, and the musks eventually show up after a while, although they remain in the background. Mr. Ibis falls in the sweet spot between the wet balsamic Mütter Museum Ü, and the very bland Philologus. It's light, clear, and quite discreet, with a dry aloofness of the scholarly, abstract kind. Perfectly fits the character in American Gods. Colour impression is buff, or parchment/ivory-white with the barest touch of skin-tone pink.

 

Verdict: Mr. Ibis is perfect (and bottle-worthy) in his simplicity and discreetness; in fact, not only do I enjoy wearing this scent, I would LOVE to smell paper scented with it! Between him and Dee, I have the spectrum of parchment/paper note covered. Huzzah!

[SophieCedar]

Wet: Egyptian musk, African musk, and papyrus, which smells similar to palm + grass to me. This is musky and meaty with a green wet note.

Drydown: holy morphing! This continues to get greener and more watery. I can barely smell the vanilla flower however the aloe takes over big time. Anyone wishing for a green clean natural smell (aka something similar to the feel of a green tea) should try this.

[Altaira]

Finally, a BPAL with Egyptian Musk that smells like Egyptian Musk!! Not to say this is a single note, there is a complexity here. More subtle and lighter than EM single notes I've worn. When wet there is the barest hint of a masculine cologne smell, but that fades quickly.

 

This is my favorite scent to wear in hot weather. It smells like clean, freshly showered skin.

 

The throw is minimal: I can smell it easily, but other people have to be inches away to comment. It has a *very* long wear. If I put it on in the morning, I can still smell traces of it the next morning before I shower.

 

I really can't say enough nice things about Mr. Ibis.

[Penance]

Origin:

 

Tester from a lovely forumite.

 

Preconceived notions:

 

Mr. Ibis is one of those scents that fly under my radar for a long time and then suddenly jump out at me as something I want need to try. Like most scents that fall into that category, it's not the sort of scent that I normally wear, at least I'm guessing it's not, based on the notes. I tend toward heavy, dark scents and Mr. Ibis sounds like a light, clean sort of blend instead.

 

In terms of notes, the Egyptian and African musks sound good (although I'm not sure what either one smells like, exactly, I'm a big fan of musk scents these days) and so does the sandalwood. Aloe ferox I'm not sure of. If it smells anything like aloe vera, then I should like it quite a bit. Papyrus could go either way, too. The only note that has me worried is the vanilla flower since I don't do florals. I do love the smell of Lush's Celestial moisturizer, though, and it has vanilla and florals (dove orchid), so I'm hoping that Mr. Ibis will squeeze through the same loophole.

 

First sniff:

 

Clean, gentle musk with just the tiniest hint of sweetness. It reminds me of Oisin, but less powdery and without the herbs. I can see this being perfect for use in a work environment where you can't wear heavy, intense perfume. It's a light scent, but it has a pretty good throw, actually.

 

Wet on skin:

 

More complex than it was in the imp, but not by a lot. I'm still getting musk (light, similar to white but without the powder...it reminds me a bit of the musk in Ivanushka, but less fuzzy smelling somehow and cleaner...like if Ivanushka had just had a nice bath, maybe) and a faint hint of sweetness (the vanilla flower), but I'm also getting a very light touch of the aloe, which does remind me of aloe vera with it's pale, watery greenness.

 

Mr. Ibis smells clean to me. Not soapy, but just...neutral and fresh, maybe? It's definitely not my usual sort of scent (I love dirty patchouli, red musk, heavy incense and the like), but I really like it all the same.

 

Dry down:

 

The other notes start putting in an appearance as Mr. Ibis dries. I like how it unfolds on my skin, especially since I like all the intermediate stages in between the bottle scent and the drydown.

 

Once it dries, I get clean musk, a touch of pale green from the aloe, a light touch of sandalwood and a soft, subtle vanilla scent. The vanilla flower doesn't smell floral to me, really, which is a good thing. Instead, it's just an ethereal sweetness supporting the other notes. I get a bit of papyrus, too, which makes me think of The Lurid Library and it's old paper smell. In fact, on me, Mr. Ibis smells like a mixture of The Lurid Library and Ivanushka combined with a light touch of aloe and non-foody vanilla.

 

The bottom line:

 

I really like this! Yet another winner picked by my subconscious. Luckily, I've learned to trust those sudden impulses to try scents that should be no-goes, and it's paid off once again.

[TheFrenchWaffle]

Bottle: a non-foody vanilla scent with a whisper of musk and a shadow (get the pun? American Gods character...okay good, you got it. it was funny to me at least) of sandalwood.

 

Wet: Musk takes a leading man role with aloe as leading lady and sandalwood as a supporting character. Vanilla makes a few entrances, but mostly stays in the background.

 

Dry: Vanilla pokes its head in then ducks out while aloe and musk invite their buddies, papyrus and sandalwood over for fun and games. A very light and clean scent, like the smell of my room after spring cleaning and the windows have been opened to let in a nice cool refreshing breeze.

 

Final thoughts: I really love this scent. I wish the vanilla could stick around to play a bigger role however the overall scent is absolutely beautiful, comforting, and clean. A very light smell, I wish it could have a little more throw but I am in love with this scent 100%.

 

Edit: After about 30 min-1 hr the vanilla came back and sat in the corner while the aloe/aquatic notes stayed as the main attraction

Edited August 7, 2011 by TheFrenchWaffle

[ami226]

On the skin: Light, musky, almost clean/green scent. Very interesting! This one sicks very close to my skin. I find this quite lovely. Definitely not what I was expecting. This smells like a freshly showered body. I think I will need to try this one again!

 

-ETA-

 

Tried this one again recently!

 

This one is quite musky with a slight hint of dry sandalwood and vanilla.

 

I think it is a keeper!

Edited February 4, 2012 by Catseyes

[Balame]

In the Imp: Technically I tested this last night, with overwhelmingly good results... but here's my follow-up review. First off, was this the musk I smelled in Othello? Because I remember that as being the first not-horribly-cloying musk I've ever experienced, and the musk here reminds me of it. Okay, Arabian versus Egyptian and African. So I suppose not. But anyway, I think these musks are fantastic. Cats above me hit the nail on the head in saying it's like a freshly showered body. It's clean, fresh, and delicate, and yet somehow familiar and makes you want to cuddle up against it. From the imp, it's very light and soft "skin" with a whisper of vanilla.

 

Wet: Ugh, how do I describe Mr. Ibis? I feel that this one is really a scent that needs to be experienced. I, at least, have never smelled anything else like it. At first you almost feel like it's clean linen - not the kind washed with harsh chemicals in the laundry, but water-washed, air-dried loveliness. How is that pleasant, you ask? It just is. And behind that, there's a distinctly human freshness. Like clean skin with aloe slathered on it. There's technically hardly a scent from that sort of scenario at all, and yet it's there and amazing.

 

Dry: When this dries, it does dry. In a fantastic display of morphing, it remains largely the same, yet the tail note goes a bit dusty. I am not saying a funky dust, I'm saying a perfectly crisp book that somehow got a bit of debris on it that has just been wiped away. As a book nerd, I adore the smell of new books, and yeah. This gets it. How cool is that? Yet that sexy "clean human" quality is still present as well. How is a clean human sexy? Well, let me describe my experience last night a bit more. I put on Mr. Ibis and find my nose is suddenly magnetized to my wrist. After a good ten minutes of scent consumption, I suddenly get the undeniable urge to write a sexually charged (but not blatantly so, more tension than smut) short story about a scribe and a dancer set in ancient Egypt in a palace. I give this to my hubby, who is speaking with me over the computer at the time, AS I'm writing it. After I finish, we are both. Well. "Engaged." Uber yumminess follows.

 

Verdict: Best thing I've smelled in a while, and apparently it has the added benefits of curing writer's block, soothing the mind, and making hubby and I naughty (as if we needed any additional help). Uh, win!

[ajodasso]

This may be one of the only scents where I can catch almost all of the notes, both in bottle and on skin, minus the papyrus.

 

It doesn't last very long, which is a shame, but I like it enough to keep it!

[Mechanical Death]

I believe I reviewed this briefly before, but not on me. This one belongs to my fiancé.

 

I woke up feeling pretty tired and somewhat ill. My stomach hadn't been feeling 100% and I got little sleep. I could feel a migraine brewing too. I wanted something light, perhaps aquatic with a greentea tone. No such luck with my collection, but then I spotted this. Almost fit the bill, though in different ways.

 

The aquatic aloe with the lemony sandalwood created the perfect soothing background. It's very clean smelling on me as well. Not overly soapy but just fresh. The paper scent is outstanding and comes out in the dry down. It's not quite as heavy as lurid library, but is there. Like fresh hand made paper. I definitely catch vanilla, but it's light and sweet. I really enjoy the vanilla flower in this. It's still flowery-- it has a whiff of white floral, but not overpowering.

 

A nice blend. Very neutral. Not sweet, but not musky and rugged. Clean and bright. My new favorite sick days scent.

[theredkilt]

I get papyrus and little traces of musk, but in the end i'm left with a sourish papyrus smell. not my cup of tea, sadly.

[tharsei-thanate]

Wow, this is much much softer than I thought it'd be based off the notes. Soft and smooth and comforting, like a silk blanket. The scent itself is a gentle blend of aloe and vanilla flower and light musk on my skin, very fresh and clean and a tad sweet. I'm very surprised, I really quite love this! I think I might have to upgrade from an imp to a bottle. (:

[mymymai]

ITI: It's smells faintly floral with tones of aloe and vanilla. I'm not sure what to make of it yet.

 

Wet: It's somewhat wet smelling (in a slightly aquatic sense) from the aloe, while something smells a bit both dry and floral, which I think is the papyrus. I'm having difficulty smelling much else. It reminds me of summertime in Largo, Florida.

 

Dry: It's overtly floral while still reminding me a bit of some antibacterial cool melon and aloe sanitizing hand wash I have in the bathroom.

[MCS4096]

YESSSSS I have been wanting a good BPAL Egyptian musk for ages and here it is! It's like dewy skin with a hint of dry grasses and a touch of sweetness. Will test a few more time to be sure but this is probably going to be a bottle purchase.

[HighlyBell7]

In Bottle: Light, powdery, sweet men’s musk.

Wet: Smells like really good men’s cologne. Myrrh? Green musk? Something sharp and aquatic?

Dry: This smells like a man that wears a button-up shirt to work and pants that have been ironed. No jean here. His desk is always clean. He reads old books – maybe has an old copy of Proust’s “Guermantes Way” on a table next to his reading chair. Yes, he has a reading chair. But he doesn’t smoke in it. It’s only for reading. He uses satin bookmarks.

Later: Amazing!!! I love it!!! Lightly powdery, still a clean cologne with sweet musk.

Even Later: Dries to a light musk... eventually.

Edited September 13, 2015 by HighlyBell7

[Casablanca]

Mr. Ibis smells to me at first mostly like wet, pulpy papyrus, which seems to be one of those smells I thought I wouldn't know until I smelled it, and then thought, "Well yes. That seems like how papyrus would smell..."

Under the papyrus, I catch aloe, soft musk and an even softer vanilla, like a vanilla thing buried under a cushion. The blend doesn't last long on me and the sandalwood only colors things a bit without ever really asserting itself. The blend smells tan. Very neutral.

I'm not an addict of this one but it's different from anything else I have. It reminds me a little of the tanned hides note in Hunter.

[LizziesLuck]

Wet: Light and clean. Smells like laundry. Not a fan of that smell. The musk is coming out a bit, making this a bit more pleasant to my nose. Very much a skin scent. If you like those "clean skin" type smells, I imagine you would really enjoy this. The musk is keeping me from wanting to wash it off, but it's still not really a "me" sort of scent.

 

 

Dry: Very faint. I'm just left with a faint "clean" smell, like skin freshly washed with white bar soap. It's quite pleasant, actually, just not for me.

[ramblingrambler]

Oh. Mr. Ibis, you're so fresh, so light, so clean!

 

I put this on and feel like a little kid---but I'm transported into a body not my own, and a life so full of joy at the open sky and sprawling earth begging to be adventured. I am sometimes this person, but my adult life has overtaken the exquisite youthfulness so present in this scent that I ache for days past. It's slightly nostalgic, in a Kierkegaardian way.

 

Yes, wearing this, I feel like a boy on the cusp of puberty, probably torn between wanting to explore his sexuality and to explore the physical world that lies at his feet. And, simultaneously, I feel like an old man, looking back on his days past, wishing he hadn't wasted them on all the fanciful (and very wrong) ideas he had as a youth.

 

In the bottle, it's soft and powdery, and on skin, it retains much of the same feel, but there's a masculinity to it that wouldn't fit a fully floral blend. I believe it might be the hint of... sandalwood?... mixed with musk that makes it lean this way. It's a sweet, soft pre-pubescent/pubescent boy fragrance---a deodorant, yes, indeed!---that says "I'm cautious but ready for the world." Beautiful. Just beautiful.

 

I'm giving this to my partner to see if he likes it, as it may be too soft for me. I think in his more introverted and singular moments, he would be taken with this future-nostalgia the fragrance elicits.

[galahad]

In the Vial:

Slightly herbal and water-fresh

On the Skin:

The musk and sandalwood are primarily evident with a soft vanilla note to keep the scent a little smoother. I do get a dry paper and ink vibe from this. I would almost swear there was some vetiver in here.

On the Drydown:

This is a soft and gentle scent but it becomes very dry, dusty and astringent on the drydown. Every time I write it off as a non-bottle purchase I get a waft which I really like. Uncertain.

[lexyOZ]

Wet: A really clean smelling, gentle aquatic. Parchment, aloe and fresh, gentle breezes. If it does veer a teeny bit close to laundry powder, it would be the classiest, fancy laundry powder you've ever smelled.

Dry: Really did not expect such a musky dry down. The African musk and sandalwood is super prominent.

This is such a delightfully clever scent which to me, mimics the cycles of the Nile. We have the aquatic opening (the flood) and the bone dry, musky finish (when the waters recede and the desert takes over). Absolutely fitting for Mr Ibis.

Not only is it clever, but so wearable. It's fresh, soft, gentle and welcoming, with an undertone of secret ritual spices. Really lovely.

[lookingglass]

Why...in the world...did I wait 10 years (?!) to try this scent?!

 

One of my first perfumes was street vendor Egyptian Musk oil. It was thick, golden, clean, and sweet, and became impossible to find. I sniff EM oil in health food stores now and it's often so light I can hardly smell it, with either plasticy or bready notes, and no longevity. So sad.

 

But! I can smell my old friend clearly in this blend, along with a dusty sweet, bookish note, and some cool watery notes that I don't find too soapy, surprisingly. It reminds me of getting showered and dressed in high school: sometimes I would use my grandmother's Chantilly dusting power before putting on my Egyptian Musk and red lipstick, grabbing my stack of books before heading out the door.

 

I don't find it particularly masculine, either. It's an instant favorite of mine...soothing, clean, familiar...Thank you, BPAL. I really needed Mr. Ibis. <3