Ashlultum

[Ina Garten Davita]

Ashlultum~

Babylonian musk, vanilla tea, tonka, tobacco, coconut, hyssop, and lilac.

The scent has completely captured the character depicted in the story/artwork while simultaneously being one of the most "me" perfumes I have ever had the pleasure of wearing. Beth's abilities never cease to amaze.

In the bottle~a hit of herbaceous hyssop followed by sweet lilac, rich coconut and warm tonka. Love at first sniff!

On my skin~I never imagined that coconut and lilac could smell this fabulous together, truly sublime. The sweet and fresh qualities of both scents play off each other and complement each other very well. Tonka and tobacco are two of my favorite notes of all time, so warm and rich, very present in this scent.

Drying down~ The lilac starts to yield to Babylonian musk, which totally smacks of my most coveted musk of all time, Egyptian. Wafting up from my skin is a perfect sexy cocktail of tonka, vanilla tea, deep tobacco, sensual musk and coconut. To my delight, the lilac never completely disappears, lending a soft, floral depth to the whole experience. All the notes play so well together, one never overwhelming another.

I am feel honored to be a small part of this unique and amazing collection. I'm definitely going to have to hoard "my" scent.

[kikithepirate]

This is so strange - for only having two floral notes, this scent is extremely flowery on me. It's a very soft, feminine scent, with the lilac coming out on top, though I can tell that there's a creamy quality that only vanilla can lend to a scent. My favorite part is actually the background of tobacco, which I only catch every now and then... I recognize it as the scent in Shadwell that I love so very much. As with most florals, the scent seems to stick around on my skin for quite a while.

[shriekingviolet]

Initial Impression:

Floral musk, with a hint of sweetness in the background.

 

After Wearing It:

Wet, this was very strong and heady on me. The Babylonian musk was prominent and nearly dizzying, wrapped with the springy notes of lilac and hyssop. I'm not entirely sure what kind of musk Babylonian musk is, but it seems to have more in common with white musk than red or black. It's not quite as light and airy as white musk though, which is fine as I'm not too fond of white musk (red's more my speed), but this is nice.

 

After the oil is given a few moments to settle down, the vanilla tea and coconut start to slide into the action. The fragrance is still that of a musky floral, but the vanilla tea wraps the blend in a sugared sweetness that's very appealing. The coconut is more subtle. I can definitely smell it, but it's more nuanced than the other notes. It's not the sweet and tropic coconut I get from scents like Elegba, more like the light, textured note in the sadly discontinued tarot blend The Star. It's slightly waxy, and it gives the blend structure.

 

Within an hour, the vanilla tea note takes center stage of this blend, and the floral notes move into the background. The musk tones down a bit to join the coconut in its role as fragrance support staff, and the tobacco finally pops up to help temper the sweetness down a notch. Its dry down reminds me of Dorian, though with coconut rather than lemon.

 

Final Thoughts:

Fabulous scent. Lovely and sweet, yet sophisticated. I think this one would please a lot of people, even the ones who are scared off by lilac. I'm not a big fan of springy floral notes, but its effect in this fragrance was beautiful.

[Honeygirl]

Bottle: Floral

 

Wet: Very feminine. Lilac and vanilla musk.

 

Drydown: I amp flowers like crazy, so I'm mostly just getting the lilac. Sigh.

2.5 outta 5

[Eros]

Huh...In the bottle it's sweet White Hawaiin Ginger(??), not good. Applied to skin it quickly turns to sickeningly sweet, powdered gardenia. I don't think it's the lilac, while it's not a favorite note it's never done this before so maybe it's just the right(or wrong for *me*) blending of notes to cause my nose and skin to turn it into evilness? Doesn't change at all as the hours go by, blah.

Ah well, they can't all work, right?

[iiinterstate]

At first this was WAY herbal...almost astringent. I assume that's what hyssop smells like.

 

Initial drydown is more lilac than anything, and after a few minutes, I can smell the tea/coconut/tobacco a little more. I'm not sure where the musk is... might be hiding behind the lilac.

 

I'm sort of hoping that after I give this bottle a couple weeks to settle, the lilac will back off a bit. I love all these other notes but right now this is a little too floral for my tastes. It seems to have potential though... every now and then I get a good whiff of coconutty vanilla. We shall see!

 

embarrassed edit:

I definitely spoke too soon, as I tend to do.

15 minutes or so after applying everything has balanced out. Lilac chilled out and vanilla moved in. I'm still missing the musk, but what I have here is quite lovely.

Edited June 9, 2008 by iiinterstate

[Delirium1009]

In bottle/imp: Coconut and light tonka with the tobacco or hyssop kind of sharp wafting around.

 

Immediately on skin: This has an herbal, slippery coconut scent to it. I know that sounds odd, but that’s the best way I can describe it. The coconut is the strongest note and the tonka and musk blend into it just a little. Over the coconutty base though is a wafting, sharper scent that might be the tobacco or the hyssop, or maybe both since it’s a little herbal, but almost smoky.

 

After a little while: That strange, sharp herbal note has faded considerably, and what I’m left with is a warm, musky and slightly sweet coconut scent with a hint of lilac. The musk, tobacco, tonka, and lilac blend together mostly while the vanilla tea and tobacco sort of float above the rest of the scent, and the tea gives it a slightly watered down but still creamy feel.

 

Overall Impressions: This is a beautiful scent, but it’s rather hard to describe. It just has a very well-blended feel to it. It’s mainly coconut, but there’s so much else going on that it would be a shame to just call it a coconut scent. It’s very sexy and musky though, with a very subdued warm sweetness and hints of tabacco and lilac. This is perfumey, but warm and musky too. I love the scent, but I’ll have to wear it a couple times to see if it’s “me.”

[grrrlennyl]

At first: Floral, but musky and sweet.

On: Lilac and tonka is such a gorgeous combination. I'm loving this.

2.5 hours later: This had faded quite a bit. I'm going to put a lot more on...

Overall: This just fades so quickly on me. Boo. While I can smell it I love it, though.

[savage_rose]

I normally amp lilac into dryer sheet-perfume...but this is soooo different. With the coconut and the musk, it ends up smelling like creamy florals, tropical and breezy. This is a great mix of scents, both exotic and domestic. Lovely!

[Brianne]

This is THE scent I had the most hopes for out of this update, because it contained so many notes I adore. Basically all of it except for the hyssop are LOVE notes for me.

 

It goes on like almost straight powdery lilac though, and I think it smells a bit like baby wash. It's gentle and feminine. After a while I start to get a lovely musk, but nothing else ever shows up here. No tobacco, no coconut, no tonka. I really want to love this one, but it's just a very close lilacy skin scent for me and not much else

[suileach]

This worried me in the vial, as the lilac was prominent and touched only lightly by a cool undercurrent of hyssop.

 

The warmer notes come to life on my skin and for a brief time it becomes a warm, spicy floral - quite pleasant! - until the lilac once again rears it head, devouring the rest of the notes. And then my skin chemistry renders this truly disastrous indeed - I get this odd whiff of something funky, almost fishy from the throw at about 6" away. I don't know what went wrong, but I suspect that perhaps babylonian musk is the culprit, because that fishy note has a hint of powder to it. And when musks go bad, they go powdery.

 

I feel as though this could be an incredibly lovely, unique blend on those with more cooperative skin chemistry. Sadly, I am not among those so blessed.

[slave1]

ASHLULTUM

 

In Bottle: Coconut musk

 

On Skin: Wow. And another wow. The coconut here is heavenly. Sweet and creamy… I am transported to the tropics for a moment… The tonka layered with it adds an even more vanilla like dallop of yum partnered with the tea. The tobacco offers the absolute perfect amount of smoky love… the perfect grounding note. The hyssop and lilac are also sweet and give an even more island floral presence, with a nice spike of herbal coolness. The musk is so very soft, like baby’s skin. This scent just feels like a big plush blanket pulled around me after getting out of the cold ocean on a tropical beach. This to me is a gorgeous summer blend, I love how unique it is and not a Banana Boat kind of coconut summer scent. I will wear this for sure on hot summer nights. Light to medium throw, short to average wearlength.

[CrazyPretzel]

 

Liquid sex!

 

Oh, how I love it.

 

My first thought on popping open my decant (thanks Ahania!) was of fresh honeysuckle - in just over a year of intensive BPALing I have never yet encountered one that smelled so perfectly of nectar-laden blossoms. Obviously it's the lilac.

 

Wet on my skin, it's all about those gorgeous dewy flowers for the first few minutes, and I'm surprised when I go back and look at the notes - this isn't what I was anticipating, but I really don't care, because it's such a perfect, beautiful, sexy Venusian floral.

 

After the first five minutes or so I'm aware of the musk as a more distinct note that catches in the back of my throat, and little wafts of what may be coconut and vanilla tea from time to time... still it's bloody difficult to pick out individual notes, but it's less of a straight floral.

 

I absolutely cannot stop sniffing my arm where I applied Ashlultum, and when I finally see my long-distance sweetheart at Yuletide I know *exactly* what I'm going to be wearing.

 

Definitely need three backup bottles. Maybe nine.

[milo]

In the bottle, smells musky, with a slight hint of floral. On, the florals make their presence known, and while I love smelling flowers, I don't lilke smelling florally. I don't get lilac, it's more of a "honeysuckle", gardenia, or jasmine family scent. The throw was great, though, it lasted all day even after I tried washing it off. Not for me, sadly.

[Iceblink]

OH HI LILAC. Can you please step aside so I can smell the other notes? No really...MOVE IT!! OK fine, be that way.

Ashlutum is strong lilac and the only hint of anything else I get is some musky sweetness. I'm going to guess that's the vanilla and Babylonian musk. No tobacco and it would be very welcome here to make the lilac chill out a bit. And no coconut either!

As an almost straight lilac, though, this is good. I may not smell all the other notes but the lilac's not turning to powder the way it does in most BPALs, which is pretty amazing.

[filigree_shadow]

Wow, this is very pretty. It's not terribly strong, so I had to put on another swipe with the imp wand in order to do a proper test. The lilac and hyssop together are apparently a very pretty floral combination; although the lilac is dominant, it does seem like that's not the only floral note in this. The coconut must be that dry husky kind, and it's adding to the musk, tonka, and tobacco brilliantly. On my skin, this smells like a dry lilac musk. It has a warm, glowing feel to it.

 

I think this is an unusual scent -- not the typical floral scent at all -- and I really like it a lot. It smells elegant and sexy in an understated way. Quite beautiful. Possibly my favorite BPAL lilac scent!

[Nia]

It's very, very nice, althou I don't detect any of the ingredients. Like others, I must be amping up the lilac, and a lot, because everything else is blending discreetly as the lilac's background.

[euterpe414]

Wow, I am really loving the coconut and lilac combination- who knew!?! Yes, for the most part those are the two predominant notes in the blend on my skin. Very sexy and creamy with the twist of a sweet feminine edge from the lilac. The tonka, musk and vanilla tea really add to the rich creaminess created by the coconut in the drydown. This blend lasts and lasts and is just drop dead sexy from start to finish. I do not get any tobacco or hyssop, for what it's worth, but I love this blend just the way it is. Fabulous!!

 

[theal8r]

Imp: I'm not sure. The violet is really prominent.

 

wet: I'm not sure *what* it smells like. I'm not sure if I like it... Liquid Ambivalence??? It sort of reminds me of this perfume I wore in high school: sand and sable?

 

dry: that is sooo strange. I just can't describe it! Like a soft, kind of warm fragrance that is not floral at all. not spicy... I just can't... I don't...

 

I think I like it!

[inurbanus]

I've been discovering that lilac is one of my problem notes -- when I wear it, it overpowers everything else in a blend. It's not surprising, then, that when I applied from my decant of Ashlultum, I was hit by out-of-control lilac. What is surprising is how quickly it calmed down and cooperated with the other notes.

 

Ashlultum is one of those scents that's difficult to review because everything blends so well together, and it's hard to pick out individual notes. While I can't directly smell the coconut and the vanilla tea, there's a definite sweetness that's cushioning the lilac, making it something more intriguing than your standard floral. There's a very heady quality to this, which I think comes from musk and maybe the tobacco as well, that's intriguing. Overall, the best way I could descibe this would be "lovely." It's delicate without being wimpy, and refined without being dowdy. It's like a warm blanket of scent.

 

4/5

[ladyver]

in bottle: i spot the flowers first

wet on skin: flowers, but there is something underneath...

dry down: the other notes are providng a warmth and little dirtiness (in a sexy feminine way) underneath the lilac

dry: this is beautiful - all the notes are perfectly blended

 

i like ashlultum more and more each time i wear it - i can't really explain

Edited June 28, 2008 by ladyver

[sookster]

straight sniff from bottle is coconut and musky lilac...

 

once applied this is oh so elegant and feminine...it gets a slightly vanilla edge

and the lilac is not overwhelming...absolutely perfect in every way ...love it!

[jewelbug]

Ashlultum in the bottle smelled of acetone nail polish remover. I was taken aback. But I could tell that my nose was simply reading some floral as acetone, so I gave her a try.

 

Wet, she was floral, sweet and clean (no more acetone, thankfully!). I could definitely pick out the lilac, but as I’m not sure what hyssop smells like, so I can’t comment on that…

 

Dry, she went through quite a surprising morph. On me, she is a dead ringer for LUSH’s Figs n Leaves soap. I can’t explain it, as they don’t share a single note, as far as I can tell. It’s that same gentle, slightly creamy, clean natural scent of that particular soap. If I sniff very hard and try to pick out single notes, I can tease lilac out of the mélange, but the overall picture is that of FigsnLeaves. There you have it.

[bites_the_sun]

On me this is a surprisingly strong but pleasant floral with an occasional waft of vanilla. Throw is pretty good although wear length is relatively short for me. A very pretty, summery and subtly sexy scent. I like!

[NatCatz]

Starts out like sun oil (which I've always loved the smell of) and becomes more floral on me with time. its light and feminine and really really nice. I think I have finally found a floral that works.. I'll get back to ya'll