Hamadryad

[tansil]

Nature spirits and protectors of the world's groves and forests that appear as breathtakingly beautiful women. Hamadryads are born into a tree that serves as both a home and an anchor for the creature's soul. They are sometimes tricksters, sometimes seducers, sometimes helpful and benign, but they are always fierce and furious protectors of the natural world. Seven dry woods with mossy lichen and a gentle breeze of forest flowers.

 

I wanted nature and woodsy and impish womanliness. Instead, this smells exactly like menthol cigarettes or BenGay. But floral. Like the fresh scent BenGay. It smells, actually, fine on me, it's not an overpowering or unattractive scent, I just don't think it's something I'd wear enought to keep it around. On the other hand, my sinuses are completely clean.

[pixievix]

I wanted to love this and when I sniffed it in the imp I thought I would--green, ferny woods shot through with spice & clear, sweet florals. On my skin, it morphed into a gorgeous juicy spice--fruit, nutmeg, clove, and cinnamon. Kind of in the ballpark of apple pie, but much, much more beautiful & less foody. Unfortunately, I'm not one for fruit in any form unless it's twisted beyond recognition, so lovely little Hamadryad will get to find another home.

[harmonyfb]

I didn't expect to like this one. I got it because the name appealed to me, but I haven't had much luck with BPAL's "dry wood" note. But this? Brill.

 

In the bottle it was a green, refreshing scent. Wet, it smelled sheer and green, a light fragrance with just the barest whisper of flowers.

 

Dry, it reminds me of a summer afternoon spent wandering in the woods. There's a pleasant, mossy undertone, but it's still light and beautiful. I'll be buying a 5ml of this, for sure.

[kourika]

I have to join the crowd getting pure, unadulterated wintergreen from this scent. I love the smell, but it really wasn't what I was looking for a woodsy scent.

 

I'll use the rest of the imp I have, but I don't think I'll be rushing out for a big bottle any time soon.

[gingersnapp]

MMMmmmm, this is soft and beautiful. The mosses are sweet and light, and the most dominant of the notes in the blend. There is a dry spiciness also, perhaps the woods.

 

This is just undescribably beautiful. Like standing in the middle of a quiet forest, with little beams of sunlight peaking through the tree tops. Utterly tranquil and gorgeous.

Edited January 17, 2006 by gingersnapp

[Heretic]

In the vial: Subtly fruity, but pleasant, which is odd for me, because I don't care for fruity smells.

 

On my wrist, wet: I was concerned about the cinnamon smell being overpowering (another scent I'm not crazy about unless it's in food), but there is a greater spicy note taking the spotlight, and the cinnamon accents it ever so slightly. That fruity smell is gone almost immediately and replaced with the faintest floral undertone. This is nice!

 

40 minutes later: Oh no. Here comes the cinnamon! I smell like a Hallmark store at Christmas time. Quel horreur!

 

Finally, an hour after application: I guess the cinnamon showed up in force to say goodbye. I was working on other things for a few minutes before heading to the bathroom to wash this off and I kept thinking "What's that wondeful smell?" My wrist is now glued to my nose. Hamadrayd has dried down to a complex, spicy floral mellowed with woody notes, gorgeous and worth the wait. This may be worthy of a 5 ml bottle.

 

ADDED Sept. 15:

 

This is actually my second post in this thread, my first being the review here. Based on the imp I reviewed, I ordered a bottle and passed the imp on to a friend who fell in love with it. When my bottle came, it smelled nothing like the blend in the imp. What I have now is a bottle of wintergreen oil. Ben-gay, Pepto-Bismal, Life-Savers, you name it. It is not what I thought I was ordering. I don't know what happened, but this isn't the same Hamadryad with woods, green floral, and cinnamon. If there is a component issue, it would be nice if that could be worked out, because I'd love to have the scent I fell in love with instead of this bottle of overbearing wintergreen that I will never use. This is truly the only time I've really been disappointed in something from the lab, and I never would have ordered it had I known it would not smell at all like my imp.

[SeaMonkey]

In the vial, it smells like baby asprin.

 

On my skin, I get a touch of the woods, but then........cinnamon? wtfbbq??? Its starting to itch on my wrists, but no welts, so I leave it on to see what happens..........It eventually dries to smelling like wintergreen?

 

It smells like I was chewing cinnamon gum, but then when the flavor went away, I popped some wintergreen gum.

[Caltha]

Hamadryad

I get cinnamon and cirtrus and a herbal freschness with an undertone of something bitter/dry/soapy. As it dries it turns to extremely dry cinnamon over a base of sweet, flowery, soapy generic perfume. Not natural at all and not my cup of tea.

[Ayln]

Spicy! So spicy that I thought I had gotten a mislabelled imp. Sadly, this turned from cinnamon to Red Hots to mossy woods on me, and it's not a scent I particularly like.

[fiddledragon]

Scent in bottle: Lots of wintergreen -- a real, green, herby smell rather than artificial sweet stuff, but it still reminds me of toothpaste and gum. There's a brush of wood and floral at the back, but it's mostly wintergreen. Not at all what I was expecting, but certainly refreshing.

 

Scent on me:

Wet -- the wintergreen is still strong, but not overpowering. There's more of a dark, earthy smell that's maybe the lichen, and the woody hardware-store smell is coming out more.

Dry -- the wood smell and green smells are now pretty well balanced. It's very subtle, more so than Lion, and I put more on. This is a spring glade sort of woods, not the deep forest. Nice, but I don't think I'd ever buy a bottle of it. The wintergreen is pretty strong which I'm not sure I like as a perfume. It's definitely natural wintergreen, but there's still the gum and bathroom product association that I can't really shake. There is the promise of dry woods and leaves at the back of it, but the wintergreen just grabs my sinuses and attacks them. I may try Yggdrasil to see if I like that one better; they seemed similar.

[maewitch]

This one was just WEIRD.

 

Toothpaste-mint when wet, which was actually not unpleasant though highly surprising. I was expecting something dry and somewhat spicy to begin with, and my skin tend to eat mint up within minutes.

 

And then...the oakmoss. There must be oakmoss in this, because I get that nausea-inducing powdered-acrid note that is on my personal hit list (along with ylang-ylang and lotus).

 

Definately a swap.

Edited January 28, 2006 by maewitch

[smallvoice]

In the imp: Fresh, light, green and a soft woodsy scent. Gorgeous. Crossing my fingers... my chemistry does odd things with cinnamon, it seems, and I've read a lot about that scent in this blend.

 

On me: My skin sucks this up like there's no tomorrow. It usually takes very little to satisfy me, but I added a lot more than I usually do... and it was worth it! The cinnamon made an appearance, but was tempered by the freshness. It's sort of a minty smell, but I'm not getting wintergreen so much. The woods then surface and now it's heavenly... like what being a hamadryad would smell like, I think. Mmm. I can't stop sniffing my wrist!

 

Later: It fades out, and the cinnamon is almost undetectable now. It's very soft after about an hour; maybe a little longer. Still lovely. Must have!

[Mary Mayhem]

This is smelling like.. that green rubbing alcohol. Not what I thought. And yeah, bengay, I can smell that too. Maybe it needs to be aged?

[Thaleia]

Frimp from the Lab!

 

In the vial, I get a very cold, minty scent, reminiscent of the oil of wintergreen that my mom used to put on me when I was younger and had a stomachache. I actually don't mind smelling like wintergreen. Because of that oil of wintergreen association from my childhood, it's actually very comforting, making me feel like everything's going to be okay.

 

The wintergreen gives way to a cold, sharp white floral that blends with the cold mint for a sharp, pale green scent. I'm imagining a clear stream going through woods in the first few days of spring, with a few white flowers along the banks on either side. I don't know that I'd wear this every day, but I'll certainly keep the imp. This'll be nice when I'm feeling ill and want something light, comforting, and not overpowering ... or I don't have to be ill, necessarily. I like this enough to wear on 'healthy' days too. 7/10.

[alicia_stardust]

I loved Hamadryad the first time I tried it.

 

In the vial: mostly cinnamon.

 

On my skin: cinnamon and below that, a menagerie of woods and green things and moss and other lovely things. It's a very nice combination. The cinnamon surprised me, but in a good way. I sniffed my wrist all while wearing it. It lasted a number of hours before fading.

 

The only part I'm confused about is that my first test was an imp that I bought from the lab in October. I liked it so much and then voila, I had a frimp in my lab order. The newer imp of Hamadryad has no cinnamon scent and reminds me exactly of pink pepto-bismol. I will be aging this to see if it starts to match my other imp.

 

On the imp I tested I gave this 4 out of 5 stars.

[mandragora]

Got this as a freebie from another forum member. At first sniff in the vial, this is woody and spicy with a slight hint of mint. On my skin it sweetens but keeps the spicy, woodsy notes in the background. As it dries, I can detect the cinnamon and nutmeg but it keeps morphing between the mint, wood and the cinnamon.

 

Very interesting scent. It's sweet but not girly and I love it. I see a big bottle in the future

[Hawke]

In the vial: Wow! Spearmint. There's *such* a strong spearmint note that I honestly can't smell anything else. Wasn't expecting that.

 

Wet: Or maybe it's birch. Whatever it is, it's sharp and startling.

 

And then the rest of my review pretty much consists of ... wow, how bizarre. This *must* be a case of a mislabeled batch, because some of us are *clearly* getting something very different than the rest of you are.

 

Maybe it *is* Envy, as has been noted. I haven't smelled Envy before, so I can't say.

 

I don't *mind* the spearmint/wintergreen, really. It's actually kind of nice. And it does dry down to a pretty, soft against-the-skin floral. But it's definitely mint and not cinnamon.

 

Edited: I actually do have an imp of Envy I forgot about, and I sniffed it. Nope, wrong kind of mint. This is not an Envy mixup, I don't think.

Edited February 2, 2006 by Hawke

[darkitysnark]

Hamadryad

 

(from my Autumn Switch Witch kmasden!)

 

 

maewitch is spot on: this is WEIRD. I will note before my bizarre journey into What-the-Heckland that even when the blends and my skin do not get along, the blends are spectacular in their failure.

 

I have been breaking out of my "in the bottle/wet/drydown/later" review stages lately, but I have to go back to "in the bottle" for this one because the scent was so overpoweringly evocative of Nekko Conversation Hearts. I could almost taste the sweet, chalky, vaguely flavored (is it fruit? what is it?) essence of that nostalgic candy in my mouth when I smelled this in the imp.

 

Immediately after application I got a physcial WHOOSH sensation (all York Peppermint Patty like) and was hit HARD with that mystery wintergreen note.

 

Since then she's been fading very quickly on my wrists. She's now a soft, somewhat floral, mostly soapy scent. Very light, airly, clean, and just not me.

 

But wow. What a ride!

[septima_pica]

Alright, glad to see that it wasn't just me...I got a smell as if I'd been simultaneously chewing one piece of wintergreen and one piece of cinnamon gum. Certainly not unpleasant, but I sure don't want to smell like that. Sounds like it's a question of body chemistry, though, so hopefully the new owner will appreciate this blend more than I can...

[bellis]

I was really really weirded out by this until I read the rest of the reviews. My skin chemistry is apparently in the "wintergreen" camp. I do not want to smell like a Life Savers wintergreen mint, although it does bring back memories of crunching them in closets with the lights off so we could see the sparks.

[sihaya09]

I've already reviewed Hamadryad. On me, it was spicy, but not foodie-- like a cinnamon stick or cassia, over a bed of soft wispy greenness.

 

I'd previously gotten a mislabeled imp that was quite clearly The Hesperides, with its bright, juicy green apple scent (and reading these reviews, I can see who else did, too!).

 

My most recent order had a freebie of Hamadryad in it. I too got wintergreen and a soft, mallow-y note like rootbeer. It dried down to Pepto Bismol.

 

 

Will the real Hamadryad please stand up? I'm thinking it's the first, which I loved, but I'm hesitant to order a bottle until these batches get back to normal!

[fiddlehead]

I tried this a few months ago and got nothing but Wintergreen. Nose-hurty levels of Wintergreen. OMG that's Ben Gay Wintergreen! I came over to read the reviews to see what others got and was relieved to find I wasn't completely off my rocker. Today, I got up the nerve to try it again. Still Wintergreen. After 20 minutes...Wintergreen. Okay okay!! I get it! No woodsy cinnamon for me

[tinyvulture]

on first sniff this is quite minty and cool – is there eucalyptus in it? as it mellows, I smell dark, dank wood and some gentle spices, maybe nutmeg? no flowers at all for the first five minutes, then all of a sudden they appear. they're pretty and light, a happy and feminine contrast to the more masculine (in my opinion) herbal/woodsy notes. but there’s no clashing – it all comes together nicely. maybe a little bit too “menthol” for frequent use, however.

[Clare-Dragonfly]

In the bottle: Licorice and pine. Kind of overwhelming and sharp.

 

On me: Even more licorice. Not a fan.

 

Twenty minutes later: Though there’s barely a smell now, it’s more woodsy and pleasing.

 

A few hours later: Just a faint perfume smell clinging to my wrists. This scent was a disappointment, though I might try it again later.

[Diana]

I'm another that got wintergreen!

On application, it's minty, cool, sweet.
As it dries, the wintergreen note softens, and there is an undercurrant of fresh air. I have no idea what these notes are but it's it's like a soft breeze of vaguely floral notes, cool and clean smelling.

I really like it, wintergreen & all. And FWIW, I tried very hard to recall what this reminded me, so I looked up at my wall o' perfume, and there it was. This is almost exactly like Dior Hypnotic Poison on me. Hot.