51

[irishelf]

Luminescent, glowing, and otherworldly: green mandarin, neroli, honeydew, white amber, guava, freesia, white and green musks hovering over desert scrub, smashed wood, and the dry, biting scent of night air over the Groom Lake salt flats.

imp: YUM. the perfect light musk, floral, sweet citrusy blend. My wrist quivers in anticipation--what will pop out?!

Wet: dewy fruits, greenness, all rounded out by the light musks.

Dry: Best. Frimp. Ever. I still get plenty of melon and musk, though the citrus has mostly faded. I can see why people say it smells commercial, but I think it has better staying power and is a better blend than other random perfumes I've tried. It also has incredible throw on me.

Drier: The white musk is warming the scent more and more, as it usually does. I am in love.

Note: This dried down and turned brown on my skin. There's no itch or anything...just...brown. Weird! I'm still keeping it!

[impolight]

:::51:::

It is very not at all difficult to drift away on 51.

51 is an atmospheric, cerulean cloudburst of an aroma that quickly mesmerizes and quickly induces a fleeting sort of synthenesia.

51 is a bright-grey, springtime sky that is like a church choir reverbating off of a marble ampitheater.

51 is a strenuously blooming paradise that is kaleidescopic boquet of fluorescent candyfloss... Whether or not there is actually Narcissus and Water Lilies in this formula remains a mystery without benefit of the Lab's description handy, but this is a fragrance that permeates the entire being, converts it into pure energy and broadcasts it at an intergalactic frequency that makes angels weep.

51 is the laugh after the daffodil's autograph.

51 is the unsung fun of the young, unencumbered and outnumbering a dozen thunders and summer-sun wonders.

51 is an anti-gravity fragrance equally suited for Him or Her... 5 out of 5

[gingiemay]

This is very faint, green and dry. It does evoke a strange, dusty desert flat. I get green and white musks with the desert scrup and smashed wood. Very little of the other notes, perhaps a tinge of freesia. It's pretty but I can barely smell it after an hour's wearing.

[moosue]

Very commercial smelling in the imp. I'm not even sure what I smell.

 

On, wet: Melon is in there, for sure. Lots of greenery. Florals, the commercial kind (read: the headache inducing, nauseating kind for me). The feeling is juicy and green, but I don't think I can handle this one.

Even the whiffs I'm taking are giving me a headache and making my stomach turn. It's not an unpleasant scent (it's quite pretty, actually), it's just that I use BPAL because it's different from commercial blends, and this has a commercial blend feel, and is therefore making me ill.

 

Verdict: I need to get this off. Pity, because it smells lovely.

[ouch!]

Erm....this smells like a cross between "Alien" by Thierry Mugler & "Poison" by Dior. Not exactly..but extremely similar. (Am I allowed to say that??)

 

The melon is prominent and the citrus notes make it sparkle. Lovely. It does smell quiote fruity and green. I'm getting no wood really. It's like a concoction of stange fruit and I LOVE it.

 

Ther's an oddness to this scent that's very hard to describe, something mysterious that makes you keep smelling.

 

Winner for me.

[V294]

Ok I searched the whole thread and I can't find my review of this scent! I don't know how that is possible as 51 is pretty much my favorite Bpal. It's just so clean and sophisticated. I think the melons are more prominent on me, but I just absolutely love it. It's got a mysterious sort of sophistication to it. I suppose it might be more of a "commercial scent", but to me that's a pretty wide categorization. It's not total weird smell to have as a perfume (like say food smells, which aren't typical perfume scents), that's true, but I'd argue it's quite unique in it's own way .

[tawaen]

51 has a nice, light tartness to it. It's very green, and I can smell the melon and fruit, but it's not especially sweet which is very nice. However, this is not a very strong scent. I wore it for St. Patrick's Day as the "greenest" scent in my collection, and I couldn't even smell it on my wrist by the end of the day.

 

I suppose it smells clean and fresh. I can't really pick out the individual notes very well, they blend nicely.

[Xanon]

This is my new Spring scent. It's clean and green, but the melon balances it out very nicely. I was a little skeptical of the freesia, but it is not a dominant note for me. I do get the smashed wood lingering in the background. I really like this. It's what I had hopped that Tis the Voice of the Lobster would smell like.

 

I only wish it lasted longer.

[ModderRhu]

I don't like this anymore...smells way too perfumey!

Edited January 6, 2011 by ModderRhu

[hlemonds]

Definitely getting a big bottle of this one. I can't pick out any individual notes. I get a somewhat citrus-y, fresh green feeling, with a very soft, feminine floral aspect. I really like this, it lasts very well on me, doesn't turn soapy or give me a headache, and is just right for Spring/Summer. It reminds me of Prescriptives Calyx, which i haven't smelled in ages, but this is quite close to what i recall Calyx smelling like.

[4807]

This smells so lovely in the bottle. Green and slightly fruity with a hint of freesia. On my skin, however, the freesia simply takes over. After about an hour the fruity flavor is almost gone and it is nothing but freesia with a tiny hint of musk. And after three hours the scent was completely absorbed my skin.

 

This imp is definitely being kept for occasional wear, but it doesn't warrant buying a full bottle.

[Kayah]

I think I'm in love...

 

51, to me, does not smell like the place it is named for.

It smells wonderfully fresh and light. It's somewhat ethereal - I do smell the freesia prominently in this blend which is awesome because it's one of my favorite notes. The melon and green crispness play wonderful accompaniments.

 

Just to think, I almost did not try this because I was scared off by the mention of mint in the note list... as a note, mint is so different from the taste. I've decided I don't mind it at all.

 

I could bathe in this!

 

 

[aquazoo]

Light and spacey. Ethereal. Everything pale and glowing in a scent. Fascinating.

 

[animalcule]

Smelled delicious in the imp, but I did not try it on because it shares a note with Serpents With Glittery Eyes and Forky Tongues that is a migraine trigger for me, and I got stabbing pains in my eyes as soon as I sniffed it. Green musk, I think.

 

Lovely fragrance (as was SWGEAFT). Oh well.

[angelicruin]

Green, light floral, and clean (borderline soapy). A refreshing scent in the summer heat.

[SophieCedar]

In imp, I smell something similar to the cologne mix they use in stuff like herbert west, lysander, wilde.. with some mandarin and honeydew.

Wet: neroli & green mandarin with the musk are amping on me(typical wet dominant notes)with an undernote of wood and melon. I guess the wood note mixed with freesia, citrus and musk is giving me the bpal fougere thought.

Drydown: Oooh this is where it's awesome. Waiting for the citrus to mellow is well worth it...Order: musks, slices of sweet melon, freesia, warm wood, and an echo of the citrus' former roar.

[Penance]

Origin:

 

Lagniappe from the Lab.

 

Preconceived notions:

 

I've been waffling over the idea of trying 51 for a long, long time, but I rarely order imps (because I don't usually use them) and wasn't sure enough about it to get a bottle unsniffed. So thank you Lab goblins for sending an imp my way!

 

This is one of those scents that has the potential to be really good on me or to go horribly, terribly wrong. It has death notes (freesia and neroli, especially neroli), unlikely-to-work notes (mandarin and night air, which turns to laundry detergent on me), iffy notes (guava and white musk) and good notes (honeydew, which I'm especially excited about since the smell makes me nostalgic, wood/scrub, green musk and amber). So this one's going to be a crapshoot.

 

First sniff:

 

Lovely! This is definitely not the sort of scent I normally wear (I tend toward the dark, heavy, gender neutral to masculine type of scents), but it's so pretty that I would have been drawn into trying it even if it hadn't already been on my radar. In the imp, I'm getting a pretty fruit (melon and soft guava), soft musk and light floral (not identifiable to me, but I'm not good with florals...I'm thinking it's the freesia, though, because it doesn't smell like neroli to me) scent.

 

Pale green and watery without being aquatic.

 

Wet on skin:

 

As soon as 51 hits my skin, the florals and white musk jump out and I get a strong, powdery but slightly sharp scent that's okay but not my style. The guava and honeydew are missing in action at this point and instead of the pale green scent I got in the imp, it's very much a powdery white scent (freesia and white musk). I'm not liking it at this point, but I never judge a scent until its dried thanks to my past experience with quick-change artists. We'll see how things pan out.

 

Dry down:

 

It literally only takes a few minutes for the powdery/sharp floral/musk scent of the wet stage to disappear and be replaced with a beautiful, slightly sweet honeydew, gentle musk and (very light) floral scent, very similar to the scent in the imp, but heavier on the honeydew, which makes me happy. Everything in here blends together beautifully to form an ethereal scent that's on the feminine side without being overpoweringly girly.

 

51 actually reminds me quite a bit of Blue Moon 2004. They don't really smell the same, but they have a similar feel for me, which is a happy surprise for me since I've always had an unexpected soft spot for Blue Moon '04.

 

The bottom line:

 

I wasn't entirely sure what to expect here, but I really like the way 51 smells on me. Everything here works together beautifully and while 51 doesn't really replace Blue Moon, it's similar enough to fill the same niche in my collection, which is good enough for me.

[MaritzaCardona]

Floral and fruity. It's a nice scent but after a while it turns soapy and powdery on my skin like most floral notes. It reminded me a bit of commercial perfume but with a kick. Even though it's not for me I'd recommend this if you're into fruity, flowery, perfumy, fresh scents.

[Ramen]

I don't have enough sniffing experience to identify most of what I smell in 51, but it stays light and bright as it shifts from fruity and green when wet to a big ol' mystery dry. I really like it!

[Medievalmaniac]

I don't know who in the lab is in charge of choosing frimps for people, but whoever did it absolutely NAILED it when s/he sent me this one.

 

YUM. Yum, yum, yum - and it isn't really like the other ones I have been loving on, which expands my BPAL horizons and just makes me HAPPY!!!

 

Thank you, whoever packaged this order! Super satisfied customer!!!

[imaginepageant]

In the Vial: There is a smooth fruitiness to this, but it's blended so well together that I can't pick out the mandarin, honeydew, or guava individually. This is clean and crisp, which I usually don't like, but the wood note in the background is just enough to keep it grounded. My overall impression of this is shampoo - a little soapy, but perfumey at the same time.

 

Wet: It gets even soapier, then powdery on the drydown. I'm guessing this is the "scent of night air" because ozone notes usually do this on me. I'm losing all of the fruitiness, and the floral scent of the freesia is coming out. I am not getting the neroli at all, and that's one of the blends I can usually pick out right away; it's just not there.

 

Dry: A bit of the fruity sweetness has returned, and I think I'm finally getting the musk. This still smells mainly of shampoo, like I just stepped out of the shower.

 

An Hour Later: It's gotten a lot warmer and sweeter. It's no longer a still-dripping, fresh-out-of-the-shower smell; now it's dewy, musky, but still clean skin after playing outside in the sun for a few hours.

 

Overall: I like this a lot more than I usually like "clean" scents, and I think it'd be a beautiful summer scent. However, this just isn't the kind of scent I enjoy wearing, so it'll probably be rehomed to someone who can really appreciate it.

[rhetoricians]

Powdery, clean melon and fruity goodness. I can't stop huffing my wrist - unfortunately I put it on an hour ago and it seems to be already fading. Pity, because it would be an AMAZING summer scent.

[angelamaria]

In imp: this is fruity and sweet, a clean, bright, and citrusy blend. The notes are well blended together, I can't really pick one from another.

 

Wet on skin: the citrus notes come up first, but it's not overpowering--it's light and clean-smelling. It's slightly minty to my nose ("dry biting scent of night air"?), a white summer scent. As it stays longer on my skin, a sweeter scent is wafting up, softening the tartness of the citrus--looking back, it's likely the melon/honeydew and the white amber softening things up. It's almost foody.

 

Dry: this has turned into a sweet--melony, I suppose-- and faintly citrusy white blend. It's almost ethereal, and very promising. Every time I go whiff this, it's sligtly different: sometimes I get the sour citrus notes, and sometimes I get the melony and foody notes. It confuses my nose, but in a good way. Light throw.

 

Verdict: I will keep this, and order a bottle, but it's not yet that high on my list of must-have-nows--but it's beautiful enough and wearable enough for me to warrant a bottle.

[mxtine]

Being a grapefruit fan, I'm always looking for the HG grapefruit. I was finally frimped one of these! There are a lot of notes, some of which are florals which are guaranteed to turn into soapy powder. I'm hoping the amber and guava save the day.

 

Imp...soapy floral. Skin...soapy floral with tart white grapefruit. There's some sweetness from guava and warmth from amber, but I'm disappointed. Several minutes later, the amber and guava have stuck around and the grapefruit is turning into a more pink grapefruit. It's okay, not my favorite.

Edited June 22, 2011 by mxtine

[Helas]

51 gives me a feeling of deja-vu (deja-senti?) and smell-induced flashbacks to my adolescence. (From reading the reviews, I suppose that Alien may have been a trendy perfume at my high school.) It is not a conventional perfume by any means - honeydew melon, guava, and the ozone-like night air aren't exactly Chanel's favourite ingredients - but it does come across as more "perfumey" than most BPAL oils. If I didn't know any better, I would swear there is alcohol in here. I suspect the white musk, which is the dominant ingredient in 51 along with the melon, is what makes this scent so heady. I get a strong hot pink and fluorescent green visual impression as well as a clean vibe. 51 is definitely gender-neutral and would make a great aftershave for a quirky, geeky man. I enjoy it but find it a bit too heavy for summertime wear, which is surprising because I could have sworn melon and guava would make for a refreshing combo.

 

Four out of five stars.