Tears

[jj_j]

The distillate of grief and loss. A clean, cathartic fragrance.

Full of contradictions, like crying because you're so mad you can't help it. Crisp, green, watery, and underlying camphor. Not a plant scent, though.

I like this one - and it gets lots of interested comments. A stress relieving scent for me, à propos of the name ...

[viciousviolet]

This is a poignant aquatic blend, and the name is profoundly appropriate. It has a tangible sadness to it, like memories of lost love and regret.

[minouska]

This was very sweet and clear on me. I couldn't place any notes, they blended pretty well. I liked it, but it did bring me down a little.

[littleblu]

Right, my 1st review....

 

This makes me think of a big empty room, rain hanging in the air...there's a certian sense of loneliness. I can't pick out any notes at all here, it's dried quite powdery and sophisticated and the overall feeling is calming and comforting, a bit like after a really good cry.

 

On a really personal note, as soon as I opened the bottle it reminded me of my mother and grandmother, not that either of them smells like this (what I can recall). I had a very difficult relationship with my mother and I haven't seen her (or my grandmother) for coming up to 20 years now. I don't think about her very often, but today I can't get her out of my mind...

 

I think that it's a gorgeous scent - but am still trying to figure out if it's me..

[MissAnthropy]

I was drawn to this scent with the hopes it would actually be the OPPOSITE of anything sad or depressing. Knowing Beth and her talent, I figured this was going to be an enlightening scent, and... I was right.

 

 

First whiff:

Clean, indeed. VERY clean. Fresh. But as far as it being connected to "grief and loss", I disagree. This is a renewl, and rebirth kind of scent to me. And I LOVE that it's fresh and clean, but not too crisp.

 

On me:

Much lighter. Still very fresh, but now in a more 'clean comfort' kind of way. Very much reminds me of the scent that seems to linger from this little celtic shop here in town. In fact, it has a very 'Irish Perfume' scent to me.

 

 

-Leslie

[hypothermya]

For my first order of imps, I'd gotten a vial of Tempest, and was a bit dissapointed that it didn't have that crisp "right before the rain" scent that I was hoping for. On the advice of lorajc, I decided to give Tears a try.

 

In the Bottle

 

This definitely has a marine smell to it, but the individual elements are impossible to pin down! I smell a bit of salt, and a bit of pungent herbs, but mostly just a watery feel to it. It smells almost like someone has stepped into an empty room with wooden floors that is filled with the scent of fresh rain, and just lit up a bound up package of cleansing herbs. The saltly notes remind me of the sea.

 

 

Wearing It

 

The saltiness picks up when the scent is first applied to my skin, and it's almost a turn off, because it reminds me of salt flats and of marshes... There's this gorgeous clean water smell underneath the salt as the scent is drying on my skin, and I love that. I keep trying to ignore the salt just in order to savor the clean water smell.

 

As it dries, the smells blend a bit more... I've been smelling my wrists for a full minute now, unable to figure out what this reminds me of. I want to say it smells like hay that's just been rained on, but that doesn't seem right. It's the herbal smell that's really throwing me off. It isn't hay, and it isn't any herb I recognize straight away... But it smells lovely. Almost like cedar if it were less wood like and more grassy. And the aquatic notes make this wonderful! It makes my nose tingle, in a good (non-allergenic) way.

 

 

This isn't an uplifting scent, but I don't think it's a depressing scent either. It's the sort of scent that captures the clarity of spirit that you feel right after a good long bout of crying; that sort of feeling that the universe stretches forever, and you're not feeling good or bad, but sort of enlightened.

 

I'm not sure if this is a scent that I'll wear regularly, but I'm definitely keeping it around. It makes me feel nostalgic for a place I've never been, and I could almost cry with longing just smelling it. Definitely something that I'll be hanging on to.

 

edit: okay, I lied -- this makes my nose tingle is a very allergenic sort of way. At first I wasn't having any issues, but after about 10-15 mins, I've started sneezing and coughing; my throat is itching (both inside and out -- and i didn't even apply any on my neck!), and my nose is running, and as much as I adore the way this scent makes me feel, there's no way I'm going to be able to keep it around. Sad, really.

Edited May 25, 2004 by hypothermya

[amberbella]

This is the first BPAL scent that I've tried that reminds me of the scent of the ocean as I drive through Santa Monica each morning. It has that misty, sweet, morning ocean air smell. I have a slight headache and I'm hoping that this scent isn't what's causing it cause I think it would make a fantastic room scent.

[friendthegirl]

This smells very clean to me, almost like soap. I also get the kind of green, aquatic notes as others have mentioned.

 

Overall, I don't really think it's me and aquatic and green scents just don't seem to like me.

[isyche]

As everyone else has said, Tears is salty, green water for me, kind of like seawater when smelled up close.

This water isn't pure and clear, but the salt and herbal notes have a clarifying effect, like crying does. It's not sweet, unlike some of the other watery blends, which I like....actually, the more I smell it, the more it appeals to me. I might have to get more.

[Tesseljoan]

Clean, fresh, salty, green... these are the things that come to mind when trying on Tears. These tears are a lot more serene and calm than mine usually are, and it makes for a very calming scent.

[Lorencita]

I really liked tears, it is very clean, soft & comforting. I wore it tonight and I was in a good mood after putting it on for some reason. It seems like it could be for an everyday scent, but for me... there are too many BPAL scents to just be linked to only one. I am lovingly addicted!

[Northernminx]

This was beautiful for the first few minutes, a salty, watery, clean scent that was at once wistful but ever-present.

 

I hate my chemistry however. As this dried down, it softened and soaped out and I am now left smelling a bit like a downy dryer sheet.

 

A true pity as this initial phase of this was gorgeous.

[xoe]

A bit soapy, but definitely the smell of tears. Smells like I just had a really good cry. (But, while I was doing the dishes.)

[Mandarin]

In the bottle Tears smells green and clean and fresh. If it were a color it would be the hue of a *good* aquamarine, that perfect, pure, deep blue with just the faintest hint of green. Not turquoise, but darker, and transparent, an endless falling-into scent and color.

 

On my skin it softens a bit, and it's gentler. This smells *supple*..(odd, yes, I know. But true.) Like some voices, which seem to move seamlessly up and down the scale. If it were music it would be Gregorian chant, that moment in "Puer Nobilis," when all the men's voices are blending together and folding against one another like a long, shimmering piece of silk. Tears is the smell of making up, of having cried yourself into shuddery exhaustion, and then tipping up your face to accept the making-up kiss from your lover like a blessing, tasting salt upon your mouth.

 

Unfortunately my skin drinks this up and the scent fades fast, but it's so clean and unsweet that it's worth carrying around an imp just to top it up now and then.

[Falathwen]

On me, when wet, this scent exactly matched a favorite ‘ocean’ scented candle. I have saved that candle for years unburned because I loved the scent so much. It is a morning smell rather than salt march or beach for me - though I would adore a scent that captured those as well. This is more like a scent on the wind which has blown in off both ocean and fields…I definitely catch the saltiness and grassy herb notes that others have mentioned. It stays true and is moderately long lasting on me about two hours.

Falathwen

[omly]

Oh how I wish I knew what was in this! I put off reviewing Tears, because I got this genius level logical loop going on. What does this smell like? Cathartic. No really what are some of the smells.... cathartic. So I have no idea. Sorry this isn't a particularly helpful review.

 

This is aquatic and a little salty, but not so much of an off shore breeze or salt marsh as that dense fog coming in from the water (um in my case the Atlantic). It is mostly just wet but with the barest hint of salt. I grew up by the ocean and have never lived more than a mile away from salt water. This smells like home on a level that goes beyond mere olafactory experience.

 

Underlying the salty aquaticness there is this green almost sharp herbal smell, not in an unpleasant sharp way, but in a clear, cutting and cleansing way. It is this unidentified component that makes me repeatedly stupidly mutter "carthartic" over and over again. I don't know what is in this, but it is beautiful and (being the little water sign that I am) I could see this perhaps becoming a signature scent.

[Shollin]

First sniff: Tears immediately reminded me of an outdoor memory that fled as soon as I tried to pin it down. It’s fresh and green, with an initial burst of salt that yields to cool wetness.

 

Wearing: The aura is raindrops or waterfall mist, but the salt is very apparent if I sniff my wrists. I really, really like it – I do wish it hung around longer, but I’m used to the fresh scents wandering off fairly quickly.

[Penance]

This was part of my very first BPAL order and I thought I'd love it, but I've since learned aquatics are not my friend.

 

First sniff:

 

Aquatic but almost sweet at the same time. I was expecting something salty like...well, like tears, but I got something that smelled vaguely like slightly salty water mixed with some sort of sweet syrup. It's an odd combination and not at all what I expected. Maybe my nose is out of whack, since no one else seems to have gotten this, but I'm just calling it as I see it...or, in this case, smell it.

 

Wet on skin:

 

This reminds me of Bayou only without the floral notes. It's aquatic and vaguely salty but almost floral at the same time. The sweetness seems to have disappeared leaving me with a pure aquatic note. I'm having a somewhat unsettling reaction to this one and I'm not sure why. It's not that it reminds me of anything troubling, it just makes me feel a little uncomfortable for no apparent reason.

 

Dry down:

 

Pretty much the same as wet. It reminds me of the smell of dried tears on my cheeks after I've been crying and I really don't feel comfortable wearing it. It's not because it brings back bad memories, it just makes me feel a little creeped out for some reason. I wanted to like this, but apparently it doesn't like me.

 

The bottom line:

 

Another aquatic scent that doesn't get along with me. This one really made me feel uncomfortable and a little creeped out, so I'm going to get rid of it.

[helarctos]

I just got my first taste of Tears from an eBayer, and now that I've experienced it, I'm really sad that it's been discontinued.

 

On me it does smell aquatic, but not ocean-y, and not green. It has a warm floral undertone that grounds the scent and recalls the mourner to the living world.

 

This would be in the running for my signature scent if it weren't discontinued.

[FireInCairo]

Oh gosh- I will really miss this one. I shall have to use my bottle of this sparingly. It's a very pure- clean scent. There is a faint lemon scent here. Very comforting blend...

[velvet]

i have the grief and loss of this being discontiuned (thought it would sound funny and ironic - sorry lol)

i really like this one

its already made my top 10.. .and i feel very lucky to get two impies of it

it really does feel like salty very slightly warm tears falling down a face

but its not depressing at all its warm and sweet

though slightly cool and distant.

i enjoy it muchly

[stardreamer]

Honestly, there's not a lot to say. It's aquatic; nothing jumps out at me; it's not significantly different from Storm IMO. R. thinks it smells "soapy" -- I'm beginning to think that's his reaction to any kind of aquatic note. I think I like Tempest better anyhow, so another one for the swap pile.

[rainbow]

Salty and melancholy, this is a salty acquatic witha burst of what smells like peppermint, and a floral I can't place. I think there's possibly some lemon in here too. I actually prefer this as a "clean laundry" scent to Dirty, which is much more floral and less clean on me.

 

This is indeed clean and cathartic. Good for hot summer days.

[Gin]

This is cold and aquatic, but with an earthy note that aquatics like Sea of Glass lack. Tears is cold rain on your umbrella as you stand at the gravesite. I've been in a highly emotional state lately, which may be affecting my feelings toward this particular oil, but smelling it chills me to the bone like I've been out in the freezing rain. At the same time, it reminds me of the cleansing spring rain and the new life it brings. This is an amazing blend.

[shelldoo]

this is so light, incredibly so, very white, aquatic, definitely a comfort scent