Allison Gross

[funkmoppet]

Witch-herbs, crushed golden flowers, and a man-made-dragon’s surly musk lightened by the scent of the blossoms and unearthly incense that clings to the Faerie Queen’s hair. Dragon’s blood musk, ambergris, sunflower, chrysanthemum, muguet, and rue, with gingered lily, moonflower, bluebell, peony, nightwort, and white rose.

Oh, Allison, I didn't buy you when the lunacy went live because I read "Dragon's Blood" and feared you would just not work on my skin.

I apologise!

I love this. LOVE it. I adore me some herbal greens, and this is like sticking my head in a thick cluster of wonderful forest greenery. It seems to morph the second it hits my skin as the gorgeous creamy musks rise up through the herbal joy. And it just seems to keep wafting, morphing, going back to herbal, back to musk, dancing around in a curious spellbinding dance.

Thank god my fetish for all things of Celtic theme got the better of me, or I wouldn't have caved in and nabbed an unloved bottle. Now I think I may need a backup.

She'll sit with Selkie in the "awesome Scottish blends" corner of my hoard box.

Edited to include Lab description. Edited September 17, 2007 by quantum spice

[CrazyPretzel]

It seems completely impossible to pick out individual notes in this one -- I don't recognise most of them and the final result is so well-blended.

 

In a nutshell, I found this one to be just transcendantly beautiful. I'm gushing. I adored it though. Allison Gross goes on very herbal, but sweet at the same time, and deliciously musky. Now that I look back at the components, I think I could detect the ambergris in there; it was a little bit oceanic.

 

As it dries my skin makes it a bit sweeter and brings out a spiciness to it as well. I never get dragon's blood very strongly.

 

Just amazing. *sigh*

[LadyBug]

This is a thick, dark, warm scent that was a little strong for my nose. It smells like a perfume that an older gypsy woman would wear. I don't have much else to say because it was too much for my nose to handle so I didn't try it on. It seems like it would last a long time though. I am swapping my imp and if anyone is ever curious about this one I would say to try an imp first.

Edited August 7, 2007 by Shollin

[supremegoddessofall]

In bottle: Adult woman's sexy perfume. Florals, but deeper.

 

On me: Musky dark florals. Pretty good.

[Delirium1009]

In bottle: Very herbal and clean. The lily is very strong.

 

immediately on skin: The scent is very green and herbal. The lily or another similar floral adds a clean quality to it. It smells a bit like dryer sheets.

 

After a few minutes: This has turned into a very crisp, clean scent. The only individual note I can pick out is the lily… It’s a bit powdery and strong.

 

Later on: This has faded into a generic lily scent with some light green notes. It’s nice, but unremarkable to my nose unfortunately.

[robozwil]

I can't find the floral anywhere in this one. Green, green and more green. It's a field that stretches as far as the eye can see. I keep waiting for some flowers to pop up but they don't. I think this is the way I smell after I come in from doing the yardwork. It's not distasteful, just not for me

[alicia_stardust]

I am so baffled by Allison Gross. I have read every review here and none of them match my experience with the scent.

 

In the bottle I get a beautiful crushed green scent: herbs and grass and smooshed stems. It's gorgeous!!

 

As the scent dries on my skin I get... a bitter and dry sort of green scent with a smattering of sharp, perfumey, almost generic florals. I have doggedly tested this scent three times to see if I could get a better result than that, but sadly my skin chemistry hates it.

 

I adore the smell of this in the bottle, though, so perhaps this is a scent-locket sort of scent. For anyone that loves green and/or herbal scents: try this! I think you'll love it.

[yeahbutnobut]

Allison Gross

 

In the imp: a green, grassy, bitter, dandelion-y scent like One to Tie, but with more floral notes. Could potentially turn soapy.

Wet on skin: the oil isn't red, despite containing dragon's blood. That's a good sign. The scent becomes a dewy, herbal, slightly soapy but not as bitter scent now.

Dry on skin: hmm, interesting. Now it smells like a bundle of dried flowers mixed with a bouquet of fresh ones. I can't recognise the notes but I definitely smell lily, chrysanthemum, muguet, bluebell and maybe rose. The sad thing is that the whole thing smells suspiciously like potpourri to me. It's almost an 'old lady floral' with a green note that I'm really not crazy about, reminding me of the green-floral-dragon's blood scent of the Great Red Dragon in the Salon. And it still has the potential to turn to soap.

After a while: the soapy aspect of the scent seems to fade but the potpourri scent and bitter greenness doesn't. There's now a hint of something sharply sour, and almost dusty, to this-dusty as in, a bunch of wilted flowers in an old house that hasn't been cleaned for years. It smells stuffy now. I don't get any musk here, just old fashioned and bitter wilted flowers. It gets more and more stuffy and old as time passes, it reminds me of a non-BPAL (maybe Madini?) perfume that changed into the mother of all granny-florals and I had to scrub it off. This is getting dangerously close to that stage.

Eventually I did scrub off the old, acrid floral scent, and it's very rarely that I scrub off BPAL.

Verdict: pardon the pun, but this is just gross on me. It's a musty, soapy, harsh and really unpleasant green-floral on me. It's alright when it's just dry, a mix of flowers, but these flowers then wilt and start to smell really stuffy and potpourri like. And not good potpourri either. There's a greenness to it which I'm not crazy about, it's over-green, and very soapy, almost like washing up liquid. This greenness fights against a mix of floral notes which, sadly, despite containing some notes which potentially could have been wonderful (rose, moonflower, sunflower) merged into something really old-fashioned smelling. Not a pleasant 'vintage' scent but something really reminiscent of a perfume/air freshener of an old lady who never dusts her house and never removes those bouquets of dead flowers. It smells sour and wilted, faded and choking in dust. I had to wash it off because it didn't smell like real flowers at the end, but like artificial floral room fragrance. Not my thing I'm afraid.

Emoticon rating:

Is it a keeper? no, it smells too potpourri-soapy for me.

If you like this, try: The Great Red Dragon and the Woman Cloaked with the Sun, Chrysanthemum Moon, Dragon's Eye, Poisson D'Avril, Nosferatu, One to Tie Two to Win

[angelfish323]

Wet, this was very green and very herbal. Musky, with the slightest touch of floral, but not of the good kind on me. If anything, it's the dreaded rose note coming out and turning to playdough and plastic. Herbal plastic? Not terribly thrilling.

 

However, as it dries, the green/herbal became more subdued. I started to get the faintest hint of floral. Probably the chrysanthemum. Becomes prettier, but still not quite sure it's something I'd wear.

 

15-20 minutes later, I definitely get the peony! I love peony - like the floral note in Budding Moon or Peony Moon, but greener. It's much lighter, much prettier, with any green/herbal notes holding it up lightly in the background.

 

This morphed quite a lot on me. I'm still not quite sure I love it, but it went from "eh" to "ooooh, maybe" in a matter of 20 minutes. Not much throw, stayed close to my skin.

[edenssixthday]

Allison Gross - This opens up with the scent of pungent and wet grass. I'm surprised by this based on the scent description. As it dries down, the grassiness disappears and it becomes more of a very light musky-floral. It strikes me as pretty, yet non-descript. It doesn't seem much different than most commercial fragrances. It is mostly a skin scent on me and fades quickly.

[storme]

In the imp: lots and lots of green, rich herbs and grassy aquatics.

 

On me, wet: grassy green herbs and water with some soft florals bubbling around.

 

On me, dry: sharp, crisp, sappy greenery. This is like carnation stuck in the wet phase, with a few herbs behind it.

 

Verdict: Mrm, I think I prefer my carnations to do that spicy transformation they do. Ah well.

[steelxrose]

Allison Gross - I bought this from e-bay on a whim. Normally I don't do herbal scents, but I really do like this one. It's very green - not herbal, but pine. And rather musky. It truly does remind me of Christmas time. I didn't find any florals in this one when applied to my skin.

 

It doesn't have much throw either, but I hadn't applied a lot.

 

Paired with Carnal, I'm ready for the holiday season!

[Wildbriar]

Allison Gross reminds me of my herb garden at the end of summer, when things are blooming and going to seed.

 

In the bottle, and on me wet it is very green and herbaceous, like fresh-cut herb stems. On drydown it becomes softly floral with the herbal note to the back to ground it and keep it from screaming "FLOWERS". I love this scent, it is fresh and light on me, but grounded with an earthiness that I'm guessing comes from the musk. A perfect summer fragrance, but it does seem to attract bees.

[Miss Lynx]

I didn't initially order any of this, not even a decant, because it looked far too floral for my liking. But when a friend brought hers over among some other scents for me to try, I succumbed to temptation, because it didn't really smell as fearsomely sweet in the bottle as I'd thought it would.

 

And really... It's not too bad. Not my kind of scent exactly, but it's much less fiercely floral than I would have thought. There's a dry herbal edge to it, and an underlying muskiness, that keep it a bit grounded, so that it doesn't turn into Screaming Floral Death. And it definitely seems to fit well for its inspiration -- there's a decidedly witchy feel to it.

 

Still not one I'd be inclined to track down more of, but nothing like the floral hell I'd expected.

 

Grade: C+/B-

[Browneyes]

(thank you delicate_fangs!)

 

Short review: herbal, sweet floral

 

In depth: This is very smoothly blended, and I find it hard to pick out the individual notes. It's a bouquet of all sorts of flowers and herbs, with a splash of something quasi-aquatic, and a pale musky base. It's quite sweet and feminine, without being overpowering or cheap-smelling. Hm. Pleasant. I don't get any Dragon's blood.

Not my usual kind of thing, but nice.

[Vampy]

Oh dear. I didn't really have high hopes for this one to begin with, considering the floral-heavy listed notes; florals are always iffy on me. But as soon as I opened the vial, I smelled rose, and I knew it wasn't going to work. Not that it smelled bad in the vial, mind - it smelled quite pretty, green and glittering, but when I smell rose I know my skin's not going to like it.

 

I tried it anyway. And within 10 or 15 minutes, yep, there's the old lady rose soap. At least it wasn't amped up to suffocating levels, which rose usually does on my skin - it stayed fairly light and non-invasive, so I remained blessedly headache free. The Curse of the Rose was merciful, this time.

Edited September 16, 2007 by Vampy

[slave1]

ALLISON GROSS

 

In Bottle: Florals and dirt

 

On Skin: This is an earthy scent… dark and smoky… but also brightened by florals. The rose amps on me and it is quite sour and sharp. The musk is pretty and along with the incense keep this from being a pure floral scent. I barely smell the Dragons Blood, it offers just a slight sweetness. This scent is quite fairy like, but more like a fairy in the forest who has been playing in the dirt and tunnels surrounding the base of trees. Not a sparkly cutesy fairy…. The scent is actually very very light and it fades on me quickly. As far as florals go, it’s quite pretty on me, not overwhelming or too perfumey. Very much a magical forest scent and I’m happy I got to try it. Light throw and short wearlength.

[Hayet]

Initially in the bottle I smelled that rotten "florist's freezer" stink that turned me off of Privilege...herbal, almost like celery. Then I dabbed a bit on me. That herbal celery business flirted with me for a few minutes, then vanished completely into an UTTERLY GORGEOUS floral musk. I can't identify notes to save my life, but this makes me think of a feminine version of Oisin. Or Irish Spring. Ethereal and green and lovely.

 

Hmm. Maybe I should give privilege a chance, then...

[Lunaratu]

At first this is so overwhelmingly herbal/floral that I’m strongly reminded of my experience with the newest Blue Moon—i.e. not good. However, it softens a tiny bit upon initial dry-down and becomes sweeter and a tiny bit more powdery. While it’s still extremely herbal on me it’s not the pungent, sharp, awful herbal that can tend to happen on my skin. It’s smells like I walked into an herbalists shop in which plants are growing and hanging to dry all around, veritably surrounded by it. This is definitely how I think the character would smell or perhaps even Kaye from “Tithe” (yes I read ya books, what can I say)—human but magical and beautiful in a way that isn’t mortal. What’s really interesting is that this smells quite good pressed next to my other wrist which has Leo on it—the two definitely smell yummy together. I will certainly be holding onto my bottle to see how it ages.

Rating: 3.5/5

[porcelina]

in the bottle allison gross smells exactly like roadhouse to me... the same dark, heady, heavily green floral. on my skin it is more herbal and fresh-smelling. when it dries down it's unfortunately very light and faint, because that's when i start to get the dragon's blood musk note and it's wonderful. it's so green and fresh and sparkly and full of adorable flowers... it's like a fairy tale meadow. i just wish it lasted more than a minute on me.

[tinyvulture]

a sharp herbal blend with florals. i’m not familiar with most of these floral notes, so i can’t really pick out individual notes. the combination, however, feels warm and summery. the dragon’s blood musk is lovely and spicy, although not extremely strong. i like the surprising bitterness of the various herbs – it makes this scent more interesting than your typical floral blend.

[bryghtrose]

I love the Steeleye Span version of Allison Gross, so I definitely wanted to try some.

 

Wet: This is a strong, watery musk. It reminds me of lily pads or a stagnant, standing pool of water in the summer.

 

Dry: A sharp, salty lavender floral (which is odd, because lavender isn't one of the notes) that has a lot of throw.

[arabella]

First Impression: Herby floral.

 

Dries down to: The herbs soften a bit while the floral blend becomes more complex.

 

Additional Comments: This is one of the nicer floral blends. It's not "in your face" or sweet and cloying. The musk is a bed for the flowers to rest on while the incense is a soft, wispy cover. This particular combination of flowers works really well as a whole without any one of them taking the spotlight. I can't pinpoint any one of them even after reading the components. On me, however, it is a bit too shortlived - fading away after only a couple of hours. If I had to use only one adjective for this blend it would be "ethereal".

 

Lasted: 1-2 hours.

 

Rating: 3.5 out of 5

[etienne]

I got a decant of this as a frimp in a swap and I'm glad I did because based on the notes, I might not have chosen this for myself. This is one of those oils that reminds me why I love BPAL so much - there is such complexity in this scent, something I never experience with 'big name' perfumes.

 

I'm usually not a big fan of herbal scents so I wasn't sure about this when I first tried it. The herbs are really strong when wet and on drydown. However, after a while on my skin the florals and light sweetness come out more and the herbs are not as strong and bitter anymore. It has a late summer/early autumn night feel to it.

 

I tend to think of several of the lunacies as night time scents and similarly with this one I think it will become something to wear to bed every now and then. I will definitely keep my decant.

 

ETA: A month or so later I came across a bottle for sale and had to have it. This is so different from my usual favourites but I love this!

Edited March 9, 2008 by etienne

[bombus]

I wanted something fresh and spring like today and Allison did the trick. It is very herbal but in a light new herb way. I do get some of the flowers but it is mostly about the herbs. It is a clean and bright scent, I need to wear this one more often.