Voodoo Lily

[Ina Garten Davita]

Amorphallus, indeed. A breathtakingly exotic, wild, and grossly erotic spicy gold, purple-black, and burgundy lily.

 

The word "amorphallus" makes me giggle. I know, I'm 12.

 

At first Voodoo Lily reminds me of a lime jelly bean, but then it unfurls into a spicy gold and green floral confection. This scent is very fresh for spring, but it's also has a deep complexity that is leaving me flummoxed for an appropriate description. Voodoo Lily is indeed exotic and absolutely lovely.

[edenssixthday]

Voodoo Lily – In the vial, this smells like a creamy lily scent. However, as soon as it touches my skin, it becomes spicy and the scent loses its creaminess and becomes deep and heavy. It’s got a fresh-cut flower feel to it, as well. Despite its depth and spiciness, it’s very much a subtle skin scent on me. I don’t know if I like it or not. It doesn’t really jump out at me, yet its very pretty. I’ll have to give this one another try. The staying power is below average.

[morrigain]

Breathtakingly exotic sums this scent up pretty perfectly.

 

On wet, it's a very strong lily, but the lily softens as it dries and deepens into a warm honeyed, spicy scent. It reminds me of a humid summer night. I really adore Voodoo Lily; it really is very lovely and quite exotic.

Edited March 18, 2007 by morrigain

[Medici]

In the bottle: ZOMG LILIES AND SPICE! And... Cherry Coke? Right now, this is literally Voodoo (from the Voodoo Blends) meets Black Lily. Creamy, sweet, and spicy.

 

Wet: Holy mother of bejeesus that's incredible! I'll agree with the previous reviews in that it does smell like a freshly cut flower, but with a little snap of ginger spice and a bubblyness I wasn't expecting.

 

Drydown: That creamy lily base comes out as it warms, balanced by the sharper underside. This flower's got teeth, let me tell you. It gets progressively more sinister as it wears, showing it's other side (other head? Two-Headed Lily? Get it?! ) Yeah, I love it. It's much more than I was expecting, but as a Lab's-lily-note-lover, I am probably biased to begin with.

 

In summation - if you like lily, this isn't as straight up as you might expect. The note's predominant in the blend, but balanced nicely with a sharper side that makes this blend wholly unique. Truthfully, I haven't smelled anything like this from the Lab before, so I'm rather excited.

 

5/5 on Medici's Scale o' Lurve

[filigree_shadow]

I agree with previous reviewers -- definitely not straight-up lily. Lily is a very distinctive scent, and althought it's in there, it's not loud. I also agree with the person who said it's a "warm honeyed, spicy scent." There's a really interesting spice in this (although I don't know what it is) -- not hot, just spicy. There's also something that makes this smell smoother than lily usually does. Also, sometimes it seems very sweet, but on the very next sniff I don't smell that sweetness.

 

Interesting and unusual!

[slave1]

VOODOO LILY

 

In Bottle: Spicy… ick?

 

On Skin: I love Black Lily, it’s one of my favorite scents. I’m not sure what this is. It is completely spicy and wonky on me. It smells like dead fermented flowers mixed with spice and vinegar. What in the world???? I decide to give it a chance… and as it develops it becomes much prettier and loses the pungent ick. There we go, lilies yes, but mixed with something quite interesting that I can’t put my finger on, but voodoo spices seem like a good answer. It sweetnes up and actually becomes gorgeous. I just don’t know if I can wait every time I wear this for the scent to develop before I leave the house. Pretty, exotic and breathtaking though. Medium throw and average wearlength.

[QueenFae]

Ooooh, this one's cool. It's a very enticing evil lily scent with a sharp, herbal, yet spicy warm background. It's very complex on me, and each sniff smells different. Sometimes I smell lily, sometimes cinnamon spices, sometimes cherry coke! This is indeed rather hard to describe, and definitely one that everyone should try. Very lovely in it's uniqueness.

[gaai]

Well......on me, this is an exotic, spicy and very sexy lily scent......I don't have anything else to add to that, really.......mind you, it's *not* a simple blend. It's complex, but exotic, spicy and sexy pretty much covers how I feel about it.

 

It helps that I love lily and Lily loves me, so......yeah....this is good!

[supremegoddessofall]

Rich opium-like florals. I like it quite a bit.

[emzebel]

Mmm. Rich creamy lily, crossed with sensual cloven spices - almost like lilies meet Voodoo Queen, except that I don't need to get a room. I am quite taken with this.

[Blood onmy hands]

Voodoo Lily doesn't smell right to me, sort of mismatched and screeching. There's a very perfumey, sharp, chemical floral dappled with a not-so-sweet spice, and a honeyed something. I keep thinking of honeyed raisins.

Over time the loud floral gets louder. It's like department store floral mixed with cheap hairspray on me. The strange and unidentifiable spiciness just makes it more unbearable to my nose.

This doesn't smell like lily on me so much as it smells like a mishmash of bad things that I can't really make sense of. It's floral in the way cheap floral perfumes are to me. Sharp and chemical.

 

ETA:

Got a more recent bottle of this as a swap freebie and it doesn't smell much like it did originally. Now it's sort of like a sweet, slightly smoky, tropical floral (pikaki?) with a bright fruitiness (smelled like orange on me at first) and swirls of sweet, honeyed spices. Still doesn't remind me of lily, but doesn't have the sharp white floral that it did before.

I'm not sure if this is a new formulation of Voodoo Lily or if I just got another mislabeled lab bottle. Both seem to be happening a lot lately...

Edited March 22, 2012 by Little Bird

[euterpe414]

I usually like lily scents (so far the only one that doesn't work is Tiger Lily) and this is no exception. It's, like others have said, a very complex scent. I can't pick out individual notes (other than lily, haha) but it seems like there may be a bit of juicy orange in here- it has a very ripe, sweet feel similar to Lucy Westenra. There is also a bit of spice in here all well, most likely clove. As it dries it gets spicier and loses some of its 'juicyness'.

 

This is a gorgeous scent and a great addition to the GC. I will definitely wear this one in the spring and summer.

 

[Emma2403]

In the bottle: very strong and indeed exotic lily.

 

On my skin: heavy lilies, nearly cloying. It's a beautiful lily scent but I couldn't imagine wearing this for a whole day. I'd end up with a migraine.

 

After a couple of hours: lily still but with lots more spices. It makes it even less to my liking.

 

Verdict: no (but I never liked any scent with lots of lilies anyway).

[LiberAmoris]

I love lilies but almost none of my fave BPALs have lily as a prominent note. But I quite enjoy Voodoo Lily. Go figure.

 

It reminds me a smidge of this perfume I had when I was in grad school that was orange and lavender, with lily thrown in. So perhaps I'm responding more to the scent memory than anything else. But it works for me. I'll definitely keep the imp and enjoy it!

[PilotKitten]

Honeyed, perfumey lilies smothered in a spicy something and with a background of something slightly sharp and smoky. This isn't the soft sweetness that I like from lily fragrances. This is bold and sharp and overpowering. I'll have to pass along my imp of Voodoo Lily.

[Miss Lynx]

I'm really not sure why I ordered this one, given that florals rarely work on me. I guess it was partly the name, partly the fact that my skin doesn't seem to amp lilies as drastically as it does most other florals, and partly the fact that some of the reviews made it sound like it wasn't as heavily florals as all that.

 

And, in fact, for a floral it's relatively non-evil. There's no mistaking that it is a floral, but it has a somewhat appealling dark undertone, and doesn't really morph into Screaming Floral Death the way most of them do. Not really getting all the warm and spicy that others are, though. Still, it's kind of almost not bad for a floral...

 

Or was, up until the point when it started giving me a headache, and I had to scrub it off. Oh well.

 

Grade: C

[CiCi]

Voodoo Lily is exactly what I have been looking for-deep, rich, exotic, sensual, and makes me feel oh, so good! It has the very deep, deep spicy scent of the lily that you would find in a thick tropical jungle. There are also light touches of vanilla and a sweet fruitiness in the background.

This is a gorgeous scent that gets better the longer you wear it.

[juniperus]

bottle: floral, but spicy and light

wet: very spicy

dry: very rich, spicy and warm, an almost foody floral

later: very light, spicy, and florally...pretty

[Phaedra]

I got an imp of this in a recent swap. Wet this is a sweet floral, mixed with citrus and a foody note like butter or cake. When first on there's a burst of fresh flowers and grapefruit along with the butteriness. There's a spicyness in the background. After a few hours, this becomes a soft, creamy floral with just a hint of spice. The grapefruit and buttery notes are gone. This has a sexy and sophisticated feeling to it. Nice but I probably won't wear it that much.

[sookster]

straight sniff from imp is almost a limey spice...hmm

 

once applied a super spicy floral that is just fantastic!!

 

this lasts a good long time on me and i adore the uniqueness of the scent!

 

great job kebechet!!

[yeahbutnobut]

Voodoo Lily

 

In the imp: a dark, slightly medicinal-boozy, spiced lily. the spices are reminiscent of the 'voodoo spices' from the voodoo blends and possibly the TALs too.

Wet on skin: hmm, interesting. I smell grapefruit in here (wtf? I got grapefruit in 13 '07 as well…maybe one of those voodoo spices smells like it) as well as spicy, exotic lilies.

Dry on skin: mmm, this one's intriguing. I have a cold so my review may not be reliable, and I seem to be getting hints of medicinal 'throat pastille' fruit notes, like mentholated blackcurrant. But this does fade. I smell spicy grapefruit and creamy floral notes…in fact, this smells just like 13 (April 07) with the chocolate/cocoa notes replaced by lilies! It's that same mix of hot, magical spices, the same grapefruit-like tang (I wonder if that's caused by grains of paradise?), the same dry, exotic feel, but less sweet and chocolaty, and more floral. I think there's definitely some cardamom in here as well.

After a while: the hints of 13 seem to fade away and oddly, the scent becomes more fruity. It still has the cardamom-like peppery spice, but it's not turning into that wonderful 'desert bazaar' scent I got in 13, there's something almost lemony in this scent but it's a medicinal lemon/berry which reminds me of Strepsils or Lemsip. Of course, that could just be my cold influencing things but it's a little bit bitter smelling now. I also smell more of the lily, which reminds me of Black Lily but not as rich or sweet. it has the same cold, metallic feel that fresh BL has (aged BL is richer and more floral). And I think I smell something underneath that I've noticed in a lot of voodoo-linked scents…vetiver.

The scent becomes a really weird medicinal fruity-floral, reminiscent of cough syrup and sore throat remedies, with a greenish-herbal scent underneath which feels almost mossy but not quite, it makes me think of the green scum found on ponds. I'm sure there's vetiver here as well. The spices are gone now. This smells strange on me, almost like dish soap meets flowers. The drydown gains a bit more of a pleasant flowery edge but it still smells odd.

But then it fades away fast. Hardly anything is left after a few hours. Maybe there isn't vetiver in here-usually vetiver lasts for an eternity on me…unless it's a lighter vetiver.

Verdict: this one was bizarre on me. Ok, my nose isn't working properly so that might be why, but I don't think I like this much. At first I thought that the name really fitted the scent, as it was lily mixed with spices that I've encountered in voodoo themed scents or ritual blends. It felt charged and potent and full of magickal spices. At one point, hot, bitter and grapefruit like spices and herbs surrounded the lily in a sparkling haze of spellbinding fragrance…I thought this was the lovechild of 13 and Black Lily. It seemed really promising…but then it turned into a very strange, bitter medicinal scent. It reminded me of a sort throat remedy or a Lemsip, that odd menthol blackcurrant and lemon scent. The floral note, still reminiscent of Black Lily, was there but being overshadowed by these medicinal fruit like notes, and the spices that came before had gone. The drydown reminded me of soft floral perfume with washing up liquid. Not my thing I'm afraid. It had potential but my skin chemistry messed it up. I think I'll pass this one on-Black Lily (aged) is my favourite lily scent so far.

Emoticon rating:

Is it a keeper? no.

If you like this, try: Black Lily, Cobra Lily, 13 (Apr 07), #20 Love Oil

[alicia_stardust]

This is a scent that I wanted to try but that wasn't at the top of my list. I happened to get it as a frimp and WOW! It's so very different from anything I have tried. It is not a straight up floral and there aren't any notes in there that distinctly remind me of another scent.

 

In the imp: Something exotic, almost juicy, and only a bare hint of floral.

 

On my skin: Immediately this ends up as a very spicy (not spices, like cinnamon but spices like... juicy carnation or something similar) and very sultry, dusky, dark, creamy exotic flower. It is very intoxicating and sexy. I wish I could pinpoint what else is in this because it seems to mock me for not being able to figure it out. I'm so close, I know it!

 

After a while: This one sort of stays true and doesn't continue to morph as time passes. It gradually lightens until it's gone. For me it lasted about 3 or more hours on my skin before it had faded to a light scent memory.

[jasmine]

For a moment, this smelled like root beer on the wand. I still have something like root beer underneath the rest of the scent -- a noteable sassafras tang. Mostly, it’s a broad, warm scent that I can barely recognize as a floral at first. Given a moment, it remembers its floral nature and blossoms into something pale and white above the speckled brown-and-crimson base. This is strange, but I’m not quite complaining.

 

It smells wild and warm and spicy and sassafrassy. If I didn’t know it was lily, I wouldn’t recognize it -- there’s just a mist of faint lily floating above the rest. But it’s good.

 

I can do this scent. This is a calm, coiled scent with a lazy smile. It fits female better than male, but it’s not feminine as such. It’s sexy, but it doesn’t care if you don’t care. I like the vibe it gives me.

 

Later on, it goes a bit perfumey and alcohol-tinged, which is sad, but it doesn’t become unpleasant -- it just loses that appealing sultry quality. On the whole, I like this.

[forspecial_plate]

After reading the other reviews, I want to try this again....except I already knew I wanted to wear it again!

 

Voodoo Lily smelled toasty and spicy to me, with some floral sweetness. It reminded me somewhat of the lab's Dragon's Blood, with toasty spices. Way back when this was introduced, someone mentioned that they smelled it or a prototype at the lab, and it reminded them of Djinn (if I remember correctly)*. I knew right then I had to try it, but after a while it sort of fell off my radar. I happened upon a frimp of it, and I have to say I really like it! I can see the comparison to Djinn a little bit, although this is sweeter and obviously more floral than that scent. My experience with lily is that it reminds me of bubble gum a little bit. This lily scent has the least amount of 'bubble gum' of any other lily I've tried from the lab (I think I've tried Black Lily and Cobra Lily). It's there, but just in little flashes, very brief, few and far between.

 

I just like it! There is some powder that comes in, far into the dry stage. This could keep me from wearing it a lot but I'll definitely try it again.

 

*Edit: Come to think of it, I think it was Devil's Claw that someone compared to Djinn, not Voodoo Lily. I have an imp of Devil's Claw on the way so I'll try it and see.

Edited June 29, 2007 by Forspecial Plate

[The_Merf]

In the imp: I can definitely see why this is called a spicy floral, as it is certainly one of the more exotic floral notes (doesn't smell like a lily at all to me!), but in terms of color, it strikes me as green-gold, as I pick up that edge, not the warmer and muddier red-purple.

 

Wet: This goes on spicy, but clean (the green-gold) at first--I'm worried about this one's staying power on my skin.

 

Drydown and wear: This scent does become a bit redder as it dries, but it gets less spicy as well. The people who have described this as tart like a citrus seem to be spot on with their description. As I feared though, this one does not have a lot of staying power on me.