The World

[Nadirah]

I'll have to say that I did not like the World at all. At first it smelled of black Pepper with cinnamon and maybe sandalwood? Then it turned to Bug spray which then made me think of the world clouded in bug spray. I'm sorry, I'm just being truthful and I had high hopes for this one but my skin decided to morph it into Bug Spray

[brownbat]

At first: woody and fresh. Something herby or anisey in with the woods. After a bit: Cinnamon and other spices! A very sweet cinnamon that blends nicely with the woody notes. This is actually a pretty light woody/spice scent. Not light as in throw, but light as in not dark or oppressive. As it dies down it gets a bit soapier (maybe some floral doing this) but it is still pleasant.

[joseybird]

Woody and spicy and cinnamony! A teensy bit herbal too...I really really like this one and I would love to find a 5 ml decant!

[sarada]

I've been very curious about this one. This is the seventh Tarot oil I've tried!

 

In the vial this reminded me of Belladonna. A very dry, slightly bitter herbal smell, but very strong. It makes me think of sort of an olive green color...slightly musky, but definitely green. As soon as I apply it the spiciness comes out, which really surprised me despite the fact that I expected it from the reviews!

 

The cinnamony smell (is it like the one in Hamadryad? I can't remember...it's been awhile since I tried that one) doesn't exactly mesh well with the herbal smell to me but when I think of it in terms of my spice cabinet it all makes sense. Yes, this smells like my spice cabinet. All kinds of dusty dried herbs and spices! From around the whole world!

 

Very strong and long-lasting. It dries back down to the Belladonna-esque herbal smell. I like it but I'm not sure if it's me -- but of course I realize that the Tarot oils are as much for contemplation and meditation as they are for wear, so that makes sense! I'm very happy to have gotten a chance to try this!!

[feline.by.design]

You know, it's weird... I didn't get anything but something I determined to be cedar from The World. None of the cinnamon or green grass smells, just... cedar.

 

I like cedar, but not really by itself. I may pass this on, or I may keep it to boost some other fragrances I like that have the cedar note. It's not a bad fragrance, but it isn't something I'd wear often.

 

-doreen

[isyche]

first sniff: oh no, vetiver! I'd recognize your evilness anywhere. But I shall persevere.

 

on: woody/spicy/bitter. cinnamon and vetiver and sandalwood? it's reminding me a bit of Wolfsbane crossed with Hamadryad. appropriately foresty/earthy, but not my favorite thing.

 

The World isn't morphing on my skin; I just get a strong earthy cinnamon/vetiver mix that isn't really working for me. no aquatic or floral or fruit. ah well.

[slave1]

THE WORLD: Tarot Oil

 

On Bottle: Clean. Sandalwood and floral.

 

On Skin: A nice clean earthy scent… but not dirty. I smell some type of light flower or bloom. I also smell a sweet spice after about 10 minutes… cinnamon probably. Very interesting and complex.

[Witch's Dagger]

The World

 

This was a part of the Tarot swap - since I need to review all of them in a very short time, this will be a brief review.

 

In the vial:

Fresh breezes, water, cinnamon, and herbs. And as others have said there’s a sense of Everything in this, a sense of quiet peace in nature.

 

On me:

The herbs come out very strongly on me: parsley, sage, eucalyptus, rosemary . . . it’s a very green scent, but in a quiet, peaceful way. It reminds me of drinking green tea quietly, while meditating, though I’m not sure if there’s any green tea note in it. There’s definitely lavender, with it’s particular kind of spice, and eucalyptus or rosemary, with its gentle, yet medicinal sharpness. And now, yes, there’s some cinnamon, which I caught earlier in the vial. It’s a very “whole” scent. I could see using it as a Circle blend.

 

In 10 minutes:

It now has more of a sweetly spicy mintiness added to the core scent, which still seems very earthy and herbal. The cinnamon is definitely stronger than before, but it’s an earthy cinnamon.

 

Overall:

Very complex and lovely. Some of the other Tarot oils are more me, though. I could see using this as a circle blend, though, so I may get a bottle sometime in the future.

[empi girl]

Huh, cinnamon, herbs, floral, water notes? They were in there? I'm jealous! What I got was dry woods, and I like woods, but still not what I was expecting. I waited, and it was remarkeably consistent. Dry wood, cedar, and perhaps a hint of earth (fitting). Not bad, but not what I wanted either. I swapped it away, and I hope they get all the notes I missed!

[mmcfa2]

peaceful and aromatic. There are so many scents inhere that I can sniff it 100 times and smell something different each time, but not in chaos, but leisure. I really love this!

 

ADDED Aug. 25:

 

I got an imp of this many months ago and was astounded then by the comforting smell. I also knew that an imp was no where near enough and I passed it on and made a note to myself. Well, my ten ml got here today and it's still the same fabulous scent I recall and I am in deep bliss! I wish I could even begin to describe it! I know there are many spices in it, and something like myrtle or eucalyptus and deep woods and a growl of amber maybe? There is something resinous that keeps it from being too metallic or spicy. This is the smells of my childhood all rolled into one bottle. I smell metal ( I too was a metal licker, go figure) I smell my grandfather's workshop, I smell spices, that are familiar to me, but a jumble of them like pepper, curry, cinamon, I smell the heat of the dryer in the basement on cold laundry days ( NO dryer sheet!). I smelll the backyard full of pine needles and laurel shrubs with the aviary down below me. The drydown is all resin and spice and suprisingly green. It stays with me quite a while. Hubby does not really care for this one, but then there are no associations with it for him. And btw I may sneak some on him as I think it would be lovely on a man, totally unisex I'm not sure I would call this a perfume smell at all, it is a scent journey and a blanket of love to wrap myself in.

 

This is the smell of the best of my childhood world and all I hope to offer my children. Milk Moon is my children's baby days, somnus is their sweet sleeping time, bloodlust ( or blood amber) is the adult me, New Orleans is my teen years in the southern summers.... and this is my childhood. Way more than anyone prolly wanted to read, but this is so evocative for me that I could write a book about what it brings forth.

[Savannah]

This is a beautiful scent-- quite complex, as everyone has said. If the cinnamon had stuck around longer, this would have been a definite keeper, but unfortunately it faded into the background. (That might be a good thing for some people!) What I was left with was something very lovely, beautifully balanced, but too... tame for me. I need more kick to my scents. And I think the very balance of it is befuddling me. I am like "Settle down and smell like one thing, dammit!"

 

This is a very sweet, gentle and well-balanced scent, and it's going to make some lucky swappee very happy.

[yeahbutnobut]

The World

 

In the imp: wow, this smell is earthy. Really earthy. It probably has patchouli and vetiver in it, maybe some cinnamon. It reminds me of various Lush products, including Blue Skies, Middle Earth, Skinny Dip, Wiccy Magic Muscles and even Tramp.

Wet on skin: this is a lovely, deep, grounded, earthy scent with a hint of green and a nice warmth. The green note is more apparent and there's even a little bit of floral or sweetness coming through.

Dry on skin: there's a gorgeous sweet note here that I recognise, but I can't name right now. It could be vanilla? Or even incense? Sandalwood maybe? Perhaps it is pine? It's annoying when I can't recognise the note, but this scent is amazing. There's everything here-spice, green, earth, flowers, sweetness, it's a lovely mix. The deep earthy note has toned down a lot though and the scent is softer.

After a while: I have a feeling that note is either pine or cedar, mingled with a soft floral almost like either violet or lavender, and some spices, and possibly sandalwood. There's something almost 'Skinny Dip' about this scent now!

After about 20 minutes, the wood note is strong. It's sandalwood, that's for sure. I think there's also cedar and cinnamon too, deepening and warming the scent.

After an hour or two, there's a lovely scent of vetiver left. There may also be some dark patchouli there as well.

Verdict: if any scent could sum up the earth, both in the planetary and elemental sense, this one does. It's incredibly earthy and grounded, and yet has loads of other notes-there's a lovely deep warmth, and a nice sweetness and a hint of woody and green notes. It morphs a lot on the skin, when a scent like resins, woods and spices comes through, and it gets softer and mellows out nicely. it smells very soothing and balancing. Another wonderful tarot oil!

Edited June 24, 2005 by yeahbutnobut

[Brianne]

In the bottle:

Light, green, and a little bit crisp

 

On me:

I thought that Penance's review most closely resembled my own experience with this scent. I actually got this imp of The World because of all the mentions of cinnamon, and I was quite hoping that there was going to be more of it. I have tried this oil on 5 times now, and the cinnamon only popped up the FIRST time and has not been back since. Even that one time, it was gone within a couple minutes. Every single time I get eucalyptus though - a spicey green scent. I NEVER get floral or fruity, and if there is in fact lemon in this, it's not coming out on me.

 

Final note:

It's nice, and I will probably keep the imp because every once in a while I like a nice eucalyptus scent. This actually makes me think a lot of Hemlock, it's quite similar really. It's not quite what I was expecting, and it probably isn't the sort of thing I need a bottle for - but I do think my Mom is going to flip for this since spicey green is totally her thing. I do have to say though that this fades REALLY fast on me, usually after half an hour, I can't smell it anymore.

[tempete]

I don't get any cinnamon from The World, either. Initially, The World is earthy, with a pronounced vetiver note. As it dries down, some kind of mint or eucalyptus note appears, giving the impression of airiness. Conceptually, this scent is very intriguing but it didn't work so well on me as a perfume.

[OriginalWacky]

Bottle (Imp): Smooth and a bit creamy.

 

Just On: Smooth and just a hint creamy. Maybe some very light florals.

 

An hour or two later: Hmmm, smooth creamy soap. Not bad, all in all, but not something I'm going to jump on a huge bottle of.

 

Around 6 hours: I could live with smooth creamy soap. In a soap. This is okay, but not something I'd reach for a lot.

 

12 hours: It's left now.

 

Overall: This would make a great room scent, but isn't something I would wear.

 

After reading other reviews: Hmmm, another one that the connamon doesn't show up in when I put it on. Bummer, as I love cinnamon.

[emzebel]

Odd, I don't get any cinnamon from The World. I get something that I cannot identify that is very sharp and unpleasant on my skin, sadly. The World doesn't like me.

 

If folks are right about the sandalwood note, then I am willing to bet that is the culprit, because I've had trouble with that before. Unfortunately, I cannot wear it long enough to try to determine the notes.

[brownbear]

When wet this one is very earthy. It's earth with sandalwood and a tiny bit of cinnamon.

As it dried on my skin it smelled more and more like bitter almond. Not really sure what I'm going to do with this one. hmmm *shrug*

[Silvertree]

I can't believe I never reviewed any of the scents from the Tarot Circular Swap!

 

I just found my notebook with the descriptions and my thoughts, so I'll start in the middle with the scent that affected me in a very profound way-

The World.

 

The World is very earthy and comforting to me. In fact, it reminds me so much of my own mother. It's a very nostalgic fragrance for me- when you're really little your mom usually *is* your world (figuratively, as well as literally for the first 9 months of your existence!). A great deal of that nostalgia also stems from the simple fact that my mom was my guide and teacher to the natural world. Whenever I hike, canoe, garden, or simply spend time outdoors, I think of her. Wearing The World is like being 4 years old again, holding my mom's hand and going for a walk in the woods, listening to her talk about the trees and pointing out all the wild plants and animals. My mom is a huge influence in my life, and I admire her so much. At the the same time, she's so knowledgable and capable that I get a bit of an inferiority complex!

 

I'm not incredibly talented at picking out notes, but here are a few of the impressions I was left with from The World: oakmoss, cinnamon, sandalwood, and maybe a soft evergreen (not necessarily pine, maybe spruce or fir, something not quite as sharp as your usual evergreen). On me, it's very balanced between soft, spiced woods/resins and a green herbal, but the herbal part is slightly more grassy than medicinal.

 

It doesn't smell like grass, though. More like cooking spices (parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyme?). It's clean and fresh, at times a tiny bit peppery; at times it reminds me a little of eucalyptus, but there's none of the menthol-whiff or coldness that I associate with that plant. It's a warm green, like walking through the forest on a sunny spring day- but there are fresh breezes in the forest to keep it from being stuffy. There might be some amber in there, or patchouli, as I keep getting whiffs of something very familiar, but I'm not quite sure.

 

It's earthy and grounded without being heavy- it's actually rather airy and light, but also strong and comforting. There might be some florals in there, very subtly, as it gets a bit sweeter as it dries down, but it stays green and spicy, not powdery. It reminds me of Hamadryad and Yggdrasil, but isn't either.

 

Basically, it doesn't smell like pine or dirt, or even the woods, per se. It really just is The World, how it was supposed to smell and how it was meant to feel. I'm aware that I'm not explaining myself very well, but this is such a strong reaction and the feelings I'm having are so personal that it's difficult to translate them into language someone outside my own head might be able to understand.

[quimerula]

Wet I get earthy notes, and as it dries down I can smell resins in this perfume.

It goes softer without loosing throw.

 

Nice perfume for "The World", it really suits the tarot card.

[Shollin]

First sniff: Contrasts. A light green scent… dusted with cinnamon. It’s fresh and airy and yet somehow still reminds me of church.

 

Wearing: There’s definite cinnamon in here, but I can only smell it if I sniff my wrists directly. It went decidedly resinous over the course of the evening, in a less-than-pleasant way.

[grrrlennyl]

at first: i can't really pick any notes out of this. there are a lot of different scents, but they aren't chaotic or competing with each other.

on: very, very green, but warm, too.

10 minutes later: this is so much spicier than when i put it on. very interesting.

2.5 hours later: still warm, but more earthy.

4.5 hours later: as expected, this is very faint now.

overall: this is nice, but not something i'd wear as perfume. i'll be using it more for meditative purposes.

[Blood onmy hands]

The World might be my favorite Tarot Oil yet. It starts off a mouthwateringly good blend of cinnamon and sandalwood. Woodsy, sweet and spicy.

 

Next a bit of menthol eucalyptus and foresty pine or juniper comes out. There's also some fruity citrus like lemon in the background. And it smells sort of aquatic. Still there's definitely cinnamon and sandalwood here. I think that I might be smelling some beloved patchouli as well.

 

All of that mixed together, one would think, would be disgusting... yet it's not. It's like being outside in the summer, in a fruit orchard, next to a pine forest, after it has rained. The World .

 

Warm spiced earth is the main thing that I get from this. But there are so many other things going on here as well. One second it's fruity, then aquatic, then green, then floral. It's primarily earthy though, and I love that.

[Avery]

This one has something in it that just does not agree with me. It's the musty earthy smell that is akin to the reaction I have to vetiver, but not as strong... I don't know maybe there's just *less* vetiver and it's mingling with moss? Whatever it is, this is not what I want to smell like. To me it's not fresh, not uplifting, but smells rather acrid, along the lines of bad body odor, or "that smell" that certain old people have. Whaver it is, it doesn't agree with my chemistry. Off to swaps!

Edited October 12, 2005 by Avery

[k00kaburra]

In bottle: Smells like a nutshell. Warm, wooden, that dry nutty fragrance.

 

On me: The odd bottle-smell must've been the sandalwood; on the skin it is all cinnamon and spiciness. It is calming, grounding, slightly 'dirty'...overall it's not much of a perfume fragrance, but it is a pleasant smell.

[aidenraine]

Apparently the World is made up of Necco wafers!

I used to live around the corner from the Necco factory and this smells just like a fresh pack of them. I can't get past that.

 

I do smell some cinnamon and powder in there, but this is still a bit damp.

 

As this dries down I smell something musky and still a bit of floral-powderiness that's not very far from Necco Wafer.

 

Alas, I can't stop associating this with little discs of vaguely fruity candy.