Bayou

[kittycatpurr]

A lazy, warm deep green scent with a thick aquatic undertone: Spanish moss, evergreen and cypress with watery blue-green notes and an eddy of hothouse flowers and swamp blooms.

In the imp: Thick, sweet, overheated floral. Sad!! Those flowers are way past their sell-by date. I'm not getting any mossy fun.

And if Coldfire is right in calling out white ginger, that would explain a lot. Edited July 25, 2008 by kittycatpurr

[secretstars]

i got this as a free imp in my first ever order.

 

in the bottle this smelled cologne-y so i gave it to my boyfriend. he wore it a couple of times, it smells nice, a teensy bit soapy on him.

 

i was at his house one night and found it so i tried it on.

 

it smells like hot and sticky green things and a flower i can't make out. like being in a green house in the summer. but there's something else that makes it very sexy, like an earth scent, that makes me want to jump MY OWN BONES. :-P

 

my boyfriend has seemed unimpressed by this, though. i honestly don't think he notices that i'm wearing perfume most of the time, lmao, so YMMV. but yeah. sex in a bottle, for me.

[gingiemay]

Wet in imp - Aquatic notes and a fresh sweetness. The freshness is not too overwhelming. There are also some heavy blooms.

 

Wet on skin - The aquatic notes have taken over and there is a sweet/sour undercurrent.

 

Dry on skin - The aquatic notes are foremost, but the swam blooms have come up underneath in a pleasing way. Very light and fresh. Little wood or swampy smell.

[Delirium1009]

In bottle/imp: Thick, damp, and swampy with lots of waxy green plants and hanging moss.

 

Immediately on skin: This scent is an interesting mix between thick swampy plants and fresher evergreen ones. It’s a very damp and overgrown scent. There’s almost too many plant notes clashing in this: cologne-y moss, fruity flowers, waxy swamp plants, and biting pine. There’s a very cloying feel to this, and a sweetness as well.

 

After a little while: The thick sweetness this had at the beginning has faded and this is now more of a fruity greenery and evergreen scent. There’s an almost fresh, clean quality to the green notes of this now, plus a light fruity feel. The pine blends in and balances well with the other remaining notes.

 

Overall Impressions: I don’t know what it is about this scent, but it turns my stomach a little. I think it’s the way the notes in this clash. To my nose, everything in this blend doesn’t really go together; some of the scents seem to fight eachother and just don’t seem to be blending (mainly, the sweet flowery and fruity notes with the evergreen). This is a scent very fitting for the name though: overgrown, lush, and swampy. It’s not for me though.

[Yvaine]

In the bottle: A lovely sharp floral, very cologne-y. Not totally what I expected from the description.

 

At application: aquatic and floral, but with something deeper coming up. I like this a lot more now.

 

After wearing: It's become deep and full. I love this. The instant I went outside in the summer, it became a wet woody floral. I can see Spanish moss in trees and smell the water lapping at the cypress knees. It has shades of something I love in Anais Anais--ripe magnolia, maybe and wood. I love this. I want to sniff myself for days.

 

Overall: It's the perfect scent for a sweltering summer day. Evokes images of perspiration covering the surface of the skin, reclining on wrap around porches under lazily spinning ceiling fans, those summer moments when you see bodies moving in the heat and you know they should be moving together. Mmm.

[gchris]

In Vial: light and perfumey

 

Wet: This is stronger wet. Now I can smell the florals but is still perfumey. I do not get much in the way of aquatics from this.

[skepticism]

Can't give an accurate in-vial testimony because the label was stained with oil from a different imp. This smelled like New Orleans on me when wet, but with strong addition of lemon and something green and "fresh" (aquatic, maybe?). Am I smelling gardenia again?

 

Not much has changed when it dried, which I liked. It's still got that sour, strong, white floral kick it had when wet. This is going in the "I love this" list.

[plunderparlour]

on wet the aquatic and florals are jumping out.

dry mostly sweet flowers and the evergreen fighting one another. i'm going to have to test this again later.

[ReikoSazanami]

In imp: Very strong florals, the kind that cling around your head in a hazy cloud. There’s a hint of decay underneath; someone needs to make sure those plants are still alive.

 

Wet on skin: The same cloying floral notes…I hope that isn’t honeysuckle, it wreaks havoc with me. I feel like I’m in a funeral parlor with way too many flowers around.

 

Drydown: Nooooo, it IS honeysuckle. It’s all I can smell, no lovely trees or swamp or even Spanish moss! Even if it’s not exactly that, whatever is growing with the hothouse blooms is something like that and making my sinuses ache.

 

Overall: On the right person it could be lovely, but not on me. I was hoping for swamp and instead got a punch to the face of sickly flowers. This imp’s going into the “friends can test it, but keep it AWAY!” pile.

[rayvn1]

"Watery blue-green" you're not kidding around! This is crazy strong. I put a little on my arm and may have to wash some off. I love aquatics and that's what this boils down to on me - strong aquatic with a green, flowery combination. I like it but Thalassa the Galapagos Mermaid was this strong and made me unwell so I'm hoping Bayou doesn't follow that path straight to the swaps pile... Yup, had to wash it off - husband had a bad reaction to it also. I think Wiley's Swamp is more up my alley for aquatic with floral and recommend that for anyone else who thinks Bayou is a little too much of a good thing.

[vikitty]

This aquatic was recommended as being similar to Machu Picchu, but it's much too strong for me.

[ankhfangirl72]

Hmm... mostly I get soap from this one. Woe. At first it's very aquatic and then the flowers come out. They're fairly overpowering and they seem the type to give me a headache if I wear too much. Then after a few minutes, soap

[shannahc]

On first application, this was very strongly aquatic. I loved the smell, but was afraid it would be way too much for me to wear anywhere but around the house. Thankfully, it calmed down after a few minutes into something more manageable. Upon dry down I'm smelling more of a white floral note, but the aquatic feel is sticking around. I really like this one, but I'm starting to feel a twinge behind my eye that usually signals a migraine, so I don't think this'll be a keeper.

[elinox]

First Sniff: Wet. It's very reminiscent of a mist covered swamp with hanging moss in the background.

 

Wet: This smells slightly sweet, with a hint of clean ozone to it. It definitely brings swamps to mind, just better smelling.

 

Dry: As it dried, it took on a sweet scent which was not unpleasant. I can smell a slight evergreen scent and it is a very soft flowery smell.

 

My Reaction: I liked this one and thought it was appropriately named. It had a heavy aquatic note to it which I enjoyed.

[taramarie]

On me, Bayou is the blue-green aquatic notes and what I guess are the swamp blooms. It's nice but not exactly what I was expecting.

[odalisque]

Overpowering aquatics with the barest whiff of heavy florals.

 

I really should know better than to try aquatics by now, no matter how interesting they sound. I couldn't leave it on long enough to let it dry down completely. Aquatics = no good on me. Ugh.

[madmmx]

I've been searching for a warm, humid, summer storm scent, and Bayou looked like it might fit the bill. In the imp it smells of huge, wet, dripping, blossoms. It goes on wet in a blast of floral, so much so that I had to take my allergy herbs. About 15 minutes into the drydown, the flowers back off a little, allowing the aquatic & moss notes to peek out. At that moment, Bayou smells exactly like floating in a Louisiana swamp on a sunny summer morning. Ahh, so relaxing! But then the flowers send water & moss crying home, and I go running for more allergy herbs. Alas, I really wanted Bayou to work! Hours after application, and a frantic scrubbing, the floral notes continued to waft and aggrivate my allergies

[jarvenpa]

Wait, I didn't review this??

And I don't now recall if I had an imp and was raving about it somewhere, maybe in the "what do you smell like?" thread or if Gypsy Rose Red just had an epiphany of goodness and delight and intuition...but a while back she very generously sent me a bottle of Bayou.

 

And I love it. (I guess I must like aquatics? You are in the presence of the most clueless nose in the forum: I am soooo easily amused, and everything is "oh, this is wonderful!". Except for the one that smelled like cat box on me, but...that was years back).

 

Bayou smells to me like flowers and darkness. It is strong, and it is sure, and it is very sensual. I've been wearing it a lot, and it suits cold days and sultry hot ones equally.

 

It's a huge bouquet of sweet white flowers, but not innocent flowers. Flowers that know something.

 

It's the perfume of a woman who knows a few things.

 

It's proud, and edgy. And did I mention strong?

 

Incredibly beautiful fragrance. A (vegan!) furcoat of fragrance. So lovely.

[Sweetie666]

In the imp this smelled very sweet to me...not earthy like I expected at all. Then I put it on and...it smelled the exact same. It wasn't till it dried that I fell in love. On me it fades to a very mossy aquatic scent. Not very earthy, but oh-so lovely!

[msbcozad]

Bayou

 

I am soooo not an aquatic scent person but I am a floral person. This oil is hitting me hard as the smell of late summer in the south. The air is too heavy for any kind of movement and all one can do is drape oneself across a porch swing. The flowers have passed their peak and are on their way to crisping in the sun.

 

And an hour later, it's full-on soap.

[veronicafranco]

frimp, thanks lab!

 

this says perfume even in the imp, and is pretty much WHOOO old lady lily perfume on me, from start to finish. i should say, if you like lily scents you'll find this very pretty - that's my personal bias.

[wintersmelody]

This is one of my favorite scents. I grew up in the country, literally right across from a bayou and this smells so reminiscent of that. It's like they bottled up that scent and stuck a label on. I love it now, living in the city, I can still catch a whiff of home when I get home sick. Which usually makes it somewhat better.

 

Anyway, it's very green, and mossy, and I guess you'd call it aquatic. Not really swampy which is good, as trust me, there's nothing quite like the smell of stagnant water in 100 degree summer heat. This blend is all the best of the bayou, and none of the funk.

[ouch!]

POW! Strong is the first thing I'm gonna say.

A little too strong for some people around me..oops!

 

This is along the same lines as Sea Of Glass, it's very heavy on the floral at first and I don't get any greenery. I had high hopes for this one but it's taken over by the floral at first....then BANG! The aquatic is waaaaaaaay heavy.

 

It's not a keeper for me, however, it there was more...moss, greeneery, swampness..possibly even a wood in here? It would have been much better. But my chemistry is amping the floral side and the aquatic doesn't smell good.

 

*is sad*

 

[frecklestars]

In the bottle & on my skin: smelled very moody and dark in the bottle, then turned to way too much sour dirt and rotting plants on my skin. It reminded me of New Orleans (or how I imagine New Orleans smells), with jazz festivals and summers that seem to stretch on forever and lots of lovely charmingly gothic cemeteries to explore.

 

Last thoughts: Overpowering, and it made me sad because I so wanted to like it. At least it was a free sample. It sounded pleasant enough, but my cursed skin just did not like it out of the bottle. I had to wash it off. There was some sort of lemony bitter smell that I didn't like.

Edited April 2, 2011 by frecklestars

[isisonearth]

Imp: Oooh honeysuckle and a blast of aquatics. It reminds me of a combination of New Orleans and Selkie.

 

Wet: Green and lush. Not as floral as I expected from the imp. I love the combination of moss and aquatics. I'm not getting any cypress which is good that usually turns a blend too masculine on me.

 

Dry: Much more subtle that I would have though. Warm and close and languid...this is a winner.