Hamadryad

[purrbox]

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.

 

wint o green life savers/ ben gay.

i hadn't read the reviews before trying it (it was a frimp with another order), but i had read the description from the lab, and the wintergreen smell was so completely different than the description, and such an assault to my nose that i wondered if i'd somehow gotten a mislabeled imp. evidently i had not, since many people have written the same thing.

vile and evil.

dry woods? unless they were cured in a ben gay factory, i can't smell them. this cements in my mind the fact that this much mint has no place in perfume.

that is all.

------

ETA: it retains the ben gay smell when it's on my skin, not just in the imp. yick.

[Tess]

I know this is dearly loved by many, many people, so I thought I'd take a stab at it and see what's what.

 

In the vial - Wintergreen gum? Um... what?

 

Wet - Yup, wintergreen with just the slightly touch of cinnamin. This is odd.

 

Drying - I have the distinct feeling that there is supposed to be just a TOUCH of wintergreen and that my skin has grabbed hold of it like crazy. Because that's almost all of what I'm getting and I'm getting it super strong. You know, it smells exactly like Pepto-Bismol...

 

Dry (15 minutes) - Well, the florals are out. Kinda. It's FAINT, incredibly faint. Barely around at all.

 

Overall - Either my nose is screwed up or my body chemistry is. Either way, passing on this.

[t_for_tau]

Oh dear GOD, get it OFF me. *throws a queeny strop*

 

This is the first bpal I have tried that I have actually *hated*. If I'd been at home rather than stuck in a car, I'd have washed it off about ten minutes after drydown.

 

In the imp, it smelled lovely - a slightly sharp, woody and for some reason almost apple-y fragrance. On, it turned straight to the antiseptic from HELL. It smells *exactly* like the stuff they used to put on skinned knees in the playground when I was five. Is this the wintergreen everyone's talking about? Whatever it is, it HATES me and wants me DEAD.

 

Off to swaps with it!

[ghosttown]

This was one of my first imps. I smelled it and felt fairly indifferent about it and tossed it back into the pile. Months later I rediscovered it and completely fell in love. It's so warm and pretty. I don't smell any wintergreen. I smell cinammon and spices, baking ginger snaps, mixed with pine trees. A truly glorious combination and completely unique. I really want a 5ml of this but I'm scared I'll get a mint version. It could also be that this scent needs 5 or 6 months to mellow into its full potential.

[catrinella]

Imp: Spicy with a bit of green, but a dry-green if that makes sense, not a lush vegetal green.

 

Wet: Cinnamon and nutmeg, with the almost bitter dusty edge of cinnamon bark that I got in Bengal.

 

Drydown: It's sweetening up a bit - still quite spicy and woody but with some florals coming in (light/white floral, nothing heavy). There's also a distinct whiff of Golden Delicious apple, an echo of Hesperides without being too sweet.

 

1 hour: Very quiet and woody. It changes between cinnamon and a drier wood, but it's basically a second-skin scent now.

 

3 hours: Faded.

 

Verdict: Keeper. Although there are heavy and sweet elements, Hamadryad stayed dry and crisp, and not overwhelming or foody in any way. It's a complicated unusual scent that I really like, even with the early fade.

[midnight_aeval]

Hello Certs Wintergreen Mints.

 

What the heck? Was my imp tampered with?

 

LOL Really, this is the extent of my review since this is all I smell. Will update if it changes on the drydown.

[theseagrows]

at first this smells like a dry minty smell, once it fades it turns into a sweet floral, not sure what flowers these are, as picking out notes isn't always my strong point. however, i don't get any of the cinnamon that it seems some people have gotten. in the dry stage it's a very sweet floral and perfumey.

[Taniwha]

Hm, I'm not getting the wintergreen so many others did. To this nose, Hamadryad is a lovely cup of Lapsang Souchong tea that got stirred with a twig. Warm, smoky and woody. It's really lovely, and as I wear it a little longer, I get the teensiest hint of cinnamon, but nothing overpowering.

 

Wow, I reeeaaaallllly like this.

[Miseraya]

I'm afraid I may have gotten a mislabeled bottle, as my review matches neither the lab description or any of the reviews I have read, but maybe my nose is just off. Anyhow, take my review with a grain of salt, just in case it is a mislabel.

 

In the imp: Doublemint gum? I get a lot of something minty and hints of something else.

 

On the wrist, wet: Minty, very minty. I've got it! It smells like this pink round tablet candy that my Papa used to eat. I can't remember what it was called, I want to say Canadian Mints, but I think that must be wrong. Anyhow they were very strong mints.

 

On the wrist, dry: Staying with the strong mint candy smell, without wavering, not morphing at all to my nose.

 

Final Analysis: I never really liked the candy (though I ate it, because Papa did ) and I don't really enjoy smelling like it either. This would be great for mint lovers, however or anyone who needs a strong refreshing scent to perk them up or focus their mind. Off to the swaps.

[kwelge]

Imp: Hrrrm? Is that cinnamon? Doesn't smell like it, smells like... wintergreen? Time to read the reviews and make sure I'm not losing my mind.

 

Wet: MENTHOL! Now with tremendous throw! My sinuses are certainly clear now. Clearly, I'm in the wintergreen crowd. So... batch problem? Or skin chemistry problem?

 

Dry: The tremendous menthol throw is gone after 30 min to 1 hour, so I don't smell like the Halls super-strong mentholated cough drops Dad used to use. Now it's a subtle mint plus floral, I think, and a little warmer than the cool menthol blast stage. This part is ok - actually pretty. I think I'm getting some woods/moss in the background.

 

Verdict: The second stage is interesting, but I don't think it's worth the menthol blast to my sinuses. I'd only use this when sick, so it's going to swaps.

[Toby]

I was not expecting this one AT ALL, and would not have tried it had the Lab not sent it to me as a frimp. In the imp, it smells a lot like sharp peppermint gum -- Dentyne Ice, or something of the sort. I quite like it, actually, but then, I like super-flavoured gum. However, the scent is slowly being replaced by something sweeter, almost fruitier... and then it disappears from my skin completely. But it is beautiful, and I have clearly been sniffing the wrong trees, because this is amazing and may require a bottle.

[jesvet]

This was my very first "Oh bleccch!" BPAL moment. The description is so lovely and so unrelated to what I got from the imp.

 

In the imp: Big Red gum, all cinnamon. Not a big cinnamon fan.

 

Wet: cinnamon, with mint making an appearance. Things are going from bad to worse.

 

Dry: Cinnamon is gone, only to be replaced with menthol fumes and plastic. Nary a wood or floral to be found. Apparently the poor hamadryad's forest was razed to make way for a ben gay factory.

Edited September 21, 2006 by jesvet

[UberAlice]

This was actually the first BPAL scent I tried, as I received the imp off of eBay. I really loved the description and grew up in a very rural area surrounded by forests. I was gearing myself up for a lovely nostalgia trip with this one.

Oh, my, not in the least.

 

In the imp: Maybe I got some of the strangely proportioned batch that everyone else is describing, because I got very, very strong mint, quite a lot of the lovely Ben-Gay smell, and a tiny bit of dry moss/lichen scent.

 

Wet: Yep, that's mint. Still. And there's a little floral peeking out, but not enough to stop the burning in my nostrils....

 

Dry (2 hours): Mint has faded a little but now it just smells chemical. This is not pleasant on my skin.

 

I washed it off with alcohol soon after because it gave me a headache.

 

For someone with different skin chemistry I'm sure this will be lovely, but I immediately swapped it on the LJ BPAL community after getting it off my skin.

Edited September 26, 2006 by UberAlice

[QueenFae]

It's funny, I sniffed this one years ago when I first got into BPAL, but did not remember it smelling like this at all. It's so much spicier than I remember. There is definitely a cinnamon/red spice note on top. I can detect the woodsy underneath notes too, though, and I'm not getting as much mint as other people have. I would classify this as a red/brown scent and a spicy herbal. Very interesting blend, not right for me, but lovely just the same.

[steffanina]

Hamadryad-

 

In Bottle: Kind of...aged perfume. Like the kind that's gone to seed.

 

Wet: Mmm, something like cinnamon wood. I smelled a box made of cinnamon wood once.

 

Dry: I like this cinnamon wood smell! It's warming. It's not mixed with anything that sends me through the roof, but it's a pleasant scent, and I'll keep it.

 

Overall: I like.

[severina]

All I'm getting from this (in the bottle, wet on my skin, and hours later) is wintergreen. I like wintergreen, but not that much! I could see myself wearing this maybe on my way to chop down a Christmas tree, but that's about the only time. This is also the only BPAL scent I've sampled that husband's response to was, "Thats...interesting."

 

I really wanted to like this; the description sounded so lovely!

[Meechy]

This was my first imp! And... from reading the latest reviews, I don't feel as awkward about it since all I'm really getting thus far is an intense wintergreen/mint smell. I thought maybe I was missing something, but apparently not!

 

I was initially interested in Hamadryad from the reviews on the first few pages of the thread (I love warm smells, especially cinnamon! and trees? love!), but what I've currently got on is nothing at all like what was described.

 

In the imp, it was an almost sickeningly wintergreen/mint smell mixed with... cheap perfume? It was a little overpowering. Pretty much the same thing wet on my skin, but after drying, the wintergreen/mint smell is starting to mellow a bit. A bit nicer than the initial sniff from the imp, but still nothing like what I had expected from the older reviews.

[PilotKitten]

This smells like medicinal woods. It has an astringent quality like you find in band-aid adhesive and medicines. There also may be eucalyptus in this... or a mint. It smells almost spearminty after awhile, with a back wood tone to it. I love the spearmint, but this blend is just too much for me to ever wear. After the drydown I'm getting a hint of perhaps a cardamom? Wow... maybe I'm changing my mind on this one, it's such a morpher. That first medicinal note is a hurdle to get over, but this morphed version is pretty durn nice.

[mmmitchell]

I had almost exactly the same experience as Meechy:

 

I read some of the initial reviews for this oil, and ordered an imp way back when in January with my very first order of imps.....when I initially tried it I thought I was crazy.....my sniffer must be WAYWAY off. I was NOT getting any of the lovely notes (woods, spices, light florals) that other reviewers were getting.

 

In the imp, on me wet and on me dry I have one word.....Wint O Green lifesavers.

 

I have now read more reviews and know I'm not alone, but that doesn't mean I don't mourn the lovely notes I WISH I could sniff on me.

 

[Ilex]

I love warm woods and spice smells, especially nutmeg. Hence I was horrified by Hamadryad, which seems to be nothing but menthol and eucalyptus. It reminded me of the odor of my grandmother- ben-gay over powder. The floral popped out a bit more as I wore it, but it was basically awful. My husband couldn't believe the name, he exclaimed "Hamadryad!? No way!" And I have to concur. It has staying power; I'll give it that, as it stuck around for hours even after I tried scrubbing it off.

[themerrybaker]

My Hamadryad is an aged imp.

 

At first, it's the slightly oily smell of hardwood - I could picture myself as a wooden mermaid on a ship's prow.

 

After about 15 minutes, a very light spicy floral develops. I'm not sure if it's minty or cinnamon and it does not change the overall "wood" impression.

 

On me, there isn't much throw.

 

I may actually keep this imp and use it to scent miscellaneous wooden boxes. It would be fabulous for that.

[mtlaise]

I tend to do well with woody smells, but not too grat with flowers, so I unsure how this one will work for me...

 

Wet, this smells familiar. What is that? I KNOW I know this scent... Wintergreen BreathSavers! As this dries, it softens beautifully to a very soft scent - a soft mint is still the main note I'm picking up, but I'm feeling more of the woondyness come out... Later, I get a VERY mild hint of the forext flowers that are mentioned.

 

I wasn't sure about this when I first put it on, but within 10 minutes, I knew it was a keeper... Not sure it's an everyday scent for me, but it feels energizing without being overpowering, and is very pretty. I'll definitely replace the imp when this one's done.

[supremegoddessofall]

Very herbal. I actually mostly get spearmint out of this, which is odd because it's not a listed note - maybe that's the lichen? I sort of get a woodsy feel, but no florals at all.

[lady_pandora]

Hamadryad, on me, smells like licking stamps.

 

Over the course of an hour, it morphs from stamp glue to spearmint gum.

 

My friend's bottle of this smells delightfully autumnal and not at all like stamp glue. The verdict: Age it and see what happens.

[White Falcon]

This scent reminds me of a true encounter I had (with witnesses)

We were in a park and we came upon a lone, huge old tree in a clearing, at least 200 years old appeared to be dying. I put my hands on it and began sending Reiki energy into it and spoke softly to it. About a minute into this, the scent of cinnamon came wafting around us. It lasted about 3 minutes and then dissipated. Everyone smelled it. From what I have read and learned it was the spirit of the tree thanking me.

It was kind of sad but poignant moment.

That is what this fragrance reminds me of. I think BPAL really knew background about the name of this scent. Good job.