Ivanushka

[Honeygirl]

Soft, velvety fur and warm musk, brushed by forest woods and dusted by dry leaves.

Bottle: Powder

Wet: Powder and musk, it's a very clean and comforting scent.

Drydown: Smells very similar to my kid's baby powder, but it's not generic at all. I really like it, I think it will be great for bad days.
3.5 outta 5

[ravenfeathers]

in the bottle very soft and musky with a rich, pungent spiciness. a lot of reviewers said they smelled pickles in this and i can see where that's coming from, but it doesn't smell pickley to me at all. there's a certain sourness, but it's not unpleasant and is very perfume-y.

wet on skin the musk heats up and this is second cousin to hunter moon 07 with its rich, autumnal muskiness but without the headiness of wine.

dry on skin this remains a softer and slightly more wicked relative of hunter moon 07. it's dry and dark and sweet and cool and, yes, a little bit fuzzy. really.

[joseybird]

This is musky and woody, but completely unlike Buck Moon. The scent is dark and perfumey and "chilly," and wet and somewhat sweetly smokey.

[Czarina]

In the bottle: cucumber (not pickles!)

Wet: musk.

Drydown: Musk and dry leaves.

 

Really, quite haunting if you know the story.

[maribouquet]

Mmm, I think I like this. Powdery in feel, with a light sweetness and a yes, very forest-like without any leafy or dirt notes.

 

I would love this just for the sheer artistry, the story, and the precious deer on the label.

[dixiehellcat]

I get that slight hint of powder, which scared me because powdery and I hate each other; but mostly it's a lovely light musk that lasts like teh crazee.

Edited January 14, 2008 by dixiehellcat

[fountaingrl]

Oh this is SO GOOD. It is everything I had hoped for. I got it from my SwitchWitch FORTYTRICKS and I'll be using up every single last drop!

 

Wet in the bottle it smells very powdery and not terribly complex but the moment it hits skin it opens up. I get soft deep musk, not a murky musk but a very 'clean' one if that makes sense (not smut-type, or dark). Plus the powder is still there and there is a *feel* of fur. I am having a hard time describing how furn smells but this is CLEAN FUR. If you have ever smelled a clean cat's fur, while wearing good perfume? Somewhat like that.

 

On my skin this smells a lot like the perfume "Hiris" by Hermes, and it is amazing. Clean, fresh, powdery, lovely, and quietly comforting. LOVE.

 

(edited to correct that Hiris is Hermes, and not Guerelin, d'oh!)

Edited February 11, 2008 by fountaingrl

[tinyvulture]

There was a worrisome sourness to this blend when I first applied it, like pickles! But I gave it some time, and the sourness did indeed fade after a couple minutes. At this point, it smelled like soft fur dusted with baby powder. Then the warm musk came out, and it morphed into one of those wonderful “second skin” scents, the kind that works perfectly with your chemistry and smells like your own skin, only better. As I moved around and got my blood circulating, the scent seemed to “warm up” too, and I wanted to bury my nose in the powdery, furry warmth.

[4492]

Hmm. Ivanushka is lovely and warm and fluffy as a blend, being primarily a fur musk with the very barest of woods or leaves in the background.

 

It has a beautiful label and a beautiful story. However, it smells exactly the same to me as cocoa butter.

 

Sadly, I think this may be going in the swapbox.

[Pika]

Ooh, add me as a late-discovered lover of this scent! I considered buying it when it was available, but chickened out.

 

It's *soft*. That's the best way to describe it. Soft, and "fuzzy", and somehow sweet. Warming and comforting. I guess the dusty/leafy/woody scents are in there, well blended, grounding it a little, but the dominant scent is just soft, sweet, warmth. There is something in there as it dries that could be a bit powdery, but it's not in-your-face baby powder at least.

 

I have no better words to describe this, but it's lovely.

[Mamacat]

Fuzzy, soft, beautiful, powdery, musk. I can smell a hint of dill when I open the bottle but it's gone as soon as it hits my skin. Very gorgeous. Good throw and very long lasting.

[delicate_fangs]

Hmm! I really wasn't sure I liked this at first -- too much high-pitched musk or something -- but it's aging like a dream, and now it smells pretty good on me. The powderiness is not awful, but is soft and nice and not screechy like some powdery stuff gets on me. (Um, incoherent much? Yep, I am.) Anyhow, the whole scent is mellowing and coming together very nicely now, and is a soft musk with delicate woods and what seems like a hint of amber and sweetgrass.

 

It's sort of like a third cousin of Buck Moon or something.

 

Whatever it is, it's a keeper now.

[lucyintheSkywithDemons]

Oh boy,

this one is complicated...

 

I received my bottle 2 days ago and I decided to let it sit to settel down.

 

First sniff : Oh yeah, Pickles.. some like "Branston Pickles", that dark sweet-sour stuff I used to have in England.

But then...

 

dry : it made me cry... I mean, REALLY cry.

This smells like - oh well - baby deer... if Bambi would have had a scent, it would be Ivanushka.

 

It is really sweet, powdery - but not in a baby powder way on me , its vanilla-cream ( odd! ) and this soft, velvety warm and red-brown fur.. with white spots blinking between.

On me,

it stays close to the skin, like a fur-jacket ( I never had anything like a fur jacket.. ) and it makes me want to purr....

 

I tried it on my boyfriend - it has an AMAZING throw on him.

I just applied a tiny lil bit - and suddenly Ivanushka was ALL AROUND.

It had a soft, un-sweet vanilla scent on him, with some highlights and shadows in it... absolutely amazing...

 

This one is such a winner... I´m in love !!

[Scylla]

I got Ivanushka in a swap, hoping that it would be something like my beloved Buck Moon. Alas, my chemistry amps the wood note that is in it along with what I believe is myrrh and I smell like pencil shavings n' myrrh from application to drydown.

 

Bambi is gonna have to find a new home...

[jizatt]

This is my first BPAL to review - my 21st to try =)

 

 

When I first put this on I absolutely adored it. It reminds me (as I think someone else has said) of a more feminine Coyote, which I also happen to love. As it's drying, I smell more powder, but I still love it. It seems to go awfully soft on me though. I've only had it on 10 minutes, and I don't think I applied it all that lightly - but it seems to be fading. Maybe thats because I can't stop smelling my wrists though.... Theres also something very sweet to it - maybe thats the ambery note that other people were talking about - I almost thought it was a bit of vanilla.

 

So odd, one of my wrists smells far different from the other (one is the vanilla, the other is more fur)

 

I didn't figure me for an animal fragrance type of girl, but Coyote and now Ivanushka are changing my mind. I will most likely buy whatever else of this style I can find =)

[dansemacabre]

Initially, this reminds me of winter, bottled winter. Wet, it's soft and powdery trailed by a soft waft of green. It's very clean smelling, something like fresh out of a shower, familiar almost. The dry down, it's still very powdery, it doesn't really change much. I'd probably wear this scent to bed or somewhere where my perfume won't be offensive.

[dorothy humbird]

Mm, soft fur and deerskin. I definitely smell some of the tanned buckskin that I remember from my dad's hunting efforts when I was growing up.

 

The musk works, as expected, pretty beautifully on my skin, but this is not a strong, in-your-face scent at all. The throw is minimal, but I think for some purposes, like bedtime scents, this is perfect.

 

As this has been on my skin, the occasional whiffs I get of it remind me of Al-Azif for whatever reason - it has a similar light-golden feel, although this is softer and furrier, and without the sharpness I get from Al-Azif. The softness actually reminds me of how Dana O'Shee behaves on my skin, which is why I can see myself picking this for sleepytimes quite often.

 

Overall: I won't be tracking down a bottle, but I'm glad I have a decant on hand.

[zankoku_zen]

I do get the powdery/woody connotations of this but it still makes me think cocoa. It's like a musky Wulric minus the lavender in my head.

 

Soft, musky and somewhat earthy.

[juniperus]

bottle: mmmmmmmmmusky but light, delightfully so.

wet: I get an overlay of the leaves, now, and they are definitely dry (as opposed to damp).

dry: the woods are coming to the fore, not heavily evergreeny as I thought they might be, either. the warmth and not-quite-sweetness of the musk underlaying all is really grounding.

later: it's both mellow and complex (how do they do that?!), and it's just lovely, really. comforting and sexy (again, how do they do these things?!)

[Indigo78]

Straight from the bottle, I don't get the pickle note described by others. This one is kind of sourish in a familiar way, but not really pickle-y. More like vinegarette or something. The bottle scent is well, gross...but fortnately it completely morphs on the skin. At first it amps a high, acidic, almost salty musk that isn't the sexiest thing in the world. After ten minutes or so, it settles into a sweet, cozy, clean vanilla that makes me think of newborn kitties : :.

 

The Vanilla note is the same one as Black Opal, I think, with the Sweetgrass and Suede notes as smooth undercurrents on my skin.

 

This is really clingy with minimal throw. Even though I usually like stronger blends, Ivanushka is a definite exception. Really pretty.

[filigree_shadow]

This smells like a soft, meadowy musk to me. It's very nice, but quite soft. It wasn't very strong right when I put it on, and an hour later it was barely noticeable even right next to my nose. So although I like this scent, I think my skin eats it.

[TooMuchTemptation]

I didn’t get Ivanushka when it first came out, but after I read the reviews that compared it to my beloved Buck Moon, I had to try some. I was able to score a decant of it.

 

In the vial, it smells soapy and a tinge sour. I’m getting the pickle-ish vinegar smell that other reviewers mention. The gentle soapiness is the kind I associate with white musk. It reminds me of the white musk I smell in Black Pearl. It’s not bad, but it’s not killing me with beauty at this stage either.

 

Wet on my skin, I get a clean powdery smell right off the bat, and a smidge of the pickle smell, but not enough for it to be an overpowering note. As it dries, it gets more powdery. Not like baby powder, but dry, slightly musky and dusty, not unlike, dare I say it, clean fur. It’s not the actual smell of fur, but it’s very evocative of it. Like a fur coat stored in a chest with sachets. Clean, freshly bathed, freshly powdered are all things that spring to mind as I sniff.

 

Dry on my skin, this sweetens a bit, and gets a hint of spiciness. It’s this sweet spiciness that makes me think of Buck Moon, though it doesn’t smell exactly like it. Something about the musk I think. It's a bit like white musk, but a little more golden. But instead of the rich warm skin scent that Buck Moon evokes, this is very freshly scrubbed, just this side of soapy. There's a bit of dry grass, and I think I’m getting the dry leaves now too. The dried leaves smell can often turn potpourri or candle-ish on my skin, but whatever makes this scent so clean holds that in check. There may also be a hint of something pine-y. I can’t outright say I smell pine, just something that prickles my nose the same way pine does.

 

Later, this scent retains the clean, sweet spicy muskiness that is reminiscent of, but not the same as Buck Moon, along with a strong dusty dry leaf pile scent. It’s quite lovely and very evocative of autumn to me. It remains sweet on my skin, but not food sweet, just musky-sweet. That feeling of fur or soft suede in my nose recurs from time to time, and it’s very pleasant. It smells like an idealized version of the outdoors to me.

 

In the end, I have to say that it definitely reminds me of Buck Moon, but it has a bit too much powdery freshness to match its feel and the mood that makes me choose to wear Buck Moon. Buck Moon is a deer snuggling into its winter bedding place, and Ivanushka is a shy, fey doe that has been spooked and is springing through the woods and fields.

Edited October 16, 2008 by TooMuchTemptation

[Juushika]

In the vial: Not much of anything, perhaps the lightest touch of golden musk.

 

On me: Perfection. Velvety fur and warm musk in a pale golden shade. A bit sweet, quite warm, very comforting. It's animalistic yet clean and dry, more like short fur than pungent musk glands. It has a similar feel and texture to Velvet—powdery in the best sense. Sometimes when wearing it I can make out a touch of the forest setting, the memory of dry leaves—but it's delicate velvety dun musk for the most part, and that's enough for me.

 

Verdict: Ivanushka is one of my favorite scents, and I've had it in heavy rotation since it was released. (Ironically, that's why I've never reviewed it—I find my favorites the hardest to review, because it's difficult to describe just how much I love them.) Beautiful, velvety, animalistic yet clean, warm and comforting—this is a stunning pure blond/golden musk, and, simply stated, I could not love it more.

[crebbsgirl]

I don't get a pickle note here at all. This is soft and furry. A light musk. This wears very close to the skin for me, and lends just a faint sweet smelling musk. It's very cozy, and makes me want to cuddle up with someone warm. I was having a pretty crap day earlier, and this turned it all around. Wearing it, I feel relaxed and contented.

[dreadpiraterustypants2]

Foggy, fawn label art-looks quiet and soft.

Lots of hopes on this one, perhaps a good fall into winter transition scent. Last time I fell over for musk, so here goes-

 

in the bottle- mmm, most certainly a warm soft musk . A creamy musk perhaps? No dominant leafy/woodsy smell- but I could envision dry leaves a bit.

 

wet- Quite a comforting musk, which is perhaps fur-yes? Warmth to cuddle into.The message whispers it's time for hibernation, settle down into a nest of dry leaves.(the forest scent wraps around the musk cozily. I can see why this is so popular- there aren't any strong opinions in this scent. I searched for pickles, but in vain. I'm a pickler 'meself, and was quite curious to see if it would be a special spice I could pick out...Yes, this seems like it would survive close quarters in an elevator with perfume haters!

drydown- This lasts a surprisingly long while considering the gentleness of the scent. It retains more of the fur than the forest.

verdict- I'm quite merry with scoring a bottle of this lovely stuff. It will accompany a good cuppa after a long chilly day for quite sometime- heartwarming.