The Illustrated Woman

[Nimthiriel]

Skin musk, smoky vanilla, pine pitch, patchouli, Indian resins, golden honey, and tobacco.

Initial impression:
A heady, bathroom-like scent of masculine pine and patchouli, mixed with softer vanilla and honey.

First on:
Musk, tobacco, resins, a faint touch of patchouli – something about it still seems very bathroomy to me.

Dry:
After about 10 mins, it's a smoky resinous blend with a light touch of vanilla to it. Something about it doesn't quite agree with me though... Not sure what, though.

It gets more intensely musk-and-vanilla after another 40 mins, but I get no precious honey, and the resins almost disappear, too.

Finally:
It does go more resinous as it keeps morphing hours later, but I'm not happy with it, so I'm letting this decant go.

[naeelah]

The first time I tried this, I have a strong DO NOT WANT reaction and was relieved I could send it straight out to a new home. I haven't swapped it yet, so now, a few weeks later, I gave it another go. I don't know if the oil has blended better, or if it's just a change in my chemistry, but now I actually really like this.

 

Wet, it's like burying your face in pine cuttings. Pine pine pine....and sap. It smells just like the pine sap in Pickled Imp. But the pine promptly warms up with sexy skin musk, smoky vanilla, a hint of honey, and is kept anchored with patchouli. The patchouli, which went OH HAI CAN I COME IN THANKS the first time I wore, has learned its place and stays outside where it belongs. The vanilla is surprisingly strong, but it's smoky and so well balanced by the resins, pine, and other non-sweet notes that it definitely doesn't give this blend a foody feel.

 

This initial dry down I think is strongest in skin musk, pine, and vanilla, tempered by resins. Everything blends very well under the nose. The longer it dries, the more the vanilla loses its sweetness. After an hour or so, it's a very earthy blend and not nearly as much to my liking. It's tobacco and patchouli (both notes I typically amp) grounded in resins, with whispers of pine and vanilla.

 

I loved the first hour, but I'm not wooed by the second. I'll hang onto the imp, though, and see how it continues to develop.

[gchris]

In Vial: Sharp, bitter, incense

 

Wet: So bitter. The vanilla is good but not strong enough to keep my nose from burning.

[starwild]

Bought a bottle unsniffed, and it's turning out to be the surprise hit of the CD for me. I think I need a backup of this before the Carnaval leaves town!

 

Bottle: A swirl of something creamy and soft, mildly sweet (guess that's the honey) with a sharper note of pine.

 

Wet: The undertones, warmer notes, are very well-blended and mesh to form something that is lovely, sweet and pale cream-like with hints of soft gold. I get whiffs of tobacco, but it's sweet and very faint. The pine keeps it from being TOO soft, and is still present, but is not overpowering.

 

Dry: It all dries down to a subtly creamy vanilla-honey-tobacco background with an overlay of patchouli and pine. Nothing is standing out terribly, and the pine accentuates rather than kills.

 

Somehow this is a very feminine blend, and it reminds me of the way Pepper is blended, though it smells nothing like that one. It's womanly and knows it, but is not at all conventional.

 

Love it, want more. If you like Lucy Westenra or Pepper, try this one.

[TereFaerie]

I have to agree with gchris above on this one. This is too bitter on me and I know it's the pine pitch. I have to admit I thought this one would work on me, but it just doesn't. Like others, I feel like this one might work on me if not for the pine pitch.

[any_old_actress]

In the bottle: Wet pine needles & dirt.

 

First application: Wet pine

 

The dry down: Resins, sweet musk, creamy honey/vanilla and a dab of patchouli. This scent dries down so lovely I can't believe it. It's a sweet, clean and creamy scent. I love it!

[grashopper8]

I've put this on twice, and both times I could hardly smell it. : -(

 

Am I going nose-deaf? I'll give it a try tomorrow....

[furygrrl]

In the imp: An almost effervescent - yet resiny - pine!

 

On wet: Sweet pine at first, but then the scent begins to deepen and grow more complex within seconds. Patchouli and musk come to the forefront next...

 

Drydown: Sweetness from the skin musk, vanilla, and honey (perhaps the Indian resins, too), smokiness from the tobacco, an earthy swirl from the patchouli, and that almost jarring green sap vibe from the pine pitch. Every note is apparent, but the overall scent I'm getting is sweet, rich, slightly dirty musk with a juniper garnish. Colour impressions: shimmering gold with a bold streak of silvery-sage green through the center.

 

Overall: This might be a touch overwhelming on me. Maybe if the pine was a smidge less glaring, or the musk not quite so sweet, I could see this being perfection on my skin. As it stands now, I'm willing to let it age, see if it calms down a bit before making any rash decisions. It really is a *lovely* fragrance wafting from me at present, here's hoping it just gets better with a little time! A (temporary?) 3/5.

[jewelbug]

Bottle: This is so light in the bottle that I can hardly smell it, but I get wafts of smoky 'nilla.

 

Wet: Smoky vanilla, and what smells like a dark amber, slightly powdery in a good way.

Dry: Smoky, dark vanilla, with a hefty bit of sweet dark honey. I love this. I do get wafts of pine, but its fairly understated on my skin.

Overall: Yes, please. Smoky dark vanilla love.

 

Note: Its odd, but of the 6 placed i put this that were within reach of my nose, this turns into super strong pine on ONE elbow crook. Nowhere else. I like comparing. Strange skin chem...

Edited October 1, 2008 by jewelbug

[Miss Lynx]

Mmmm, I think I like this one. It's got a slightly similar feel to some of the Faces of the Heroine scents from last year's Lupercalia (particularly Vasakasajja, which has vanilla and skin musk as well, though this one is darker and without the florals). Warm, musky, resinous, and with a definite bit of an Indian feel to it. All of which work well for me...

 

Early impressions: the vanilla is relatively subtle here and thus far shows no signs of turning to Play-Doh on my skin (though it usually takes a while to do that, so it's realy too soon to say). Similarly, pine and patchouli are fairly soft. It's mainly a musky/honey/resin scent at this stage, like a deeper and slightly darker version of O.

 

Over time, it doesn't really change all that much, but stays very nice -- earthy and sexy and quite appealling. Not sure if it's bottle-worthy, since it's not too dissimilar to some scents I already have, but I'll definitely enjoy using up my decant of it.

 

Grade: B+/A-

[hlinspjalda]

In the vial: Patchouli, pine, vanilla. This smells great!

 

Wet: Lots of pine, but the resin and honey are rising to meet it. Patchouli and vanilla are lessened.

 

One hour: Delicious warm, sweet, playful blend. I smell honey, vanilla, pine, patchouli, and unidentified other things. It's got more throw on me than many, kind of like "Mme Moriarty."

 

Three hours: Yum, this one likes me. It's patchouli and pine and vanilla with resin and something very sweet. I'm definitely going to need more than a half-imp of this one.

[Dark Sparkle]

Illustrated Woman is all about the vanilla with some pine and patchouli backing it up - it is gorgeous, really, quite fresh and sexy at the same time. I am undecided about a bottle though because I already have a lot of vanilla scents. Still, I keep coming back for more!

[dzurlady]

I wanted to love her, but all I get is a very sharp and aggressive pine dominating a well blended mix of other notes, none of which I can pinpoint (even knowing the notes in it). I'm going to hope it improves with age, but I fear not.

[tinyvulture]

this reminds me so much of the GC scent Florence – it’s got that same combination of pine, sweet juicy berries, and powdery amber. Florence has always been a sentimental favorite of mine, so of course i like this as well. and it's not like they're identical. the honey and vanilla give The Illustrated Woman a different kind of sweetness, and the tobacco and resins add depth and complexity.

 

it’s also very similar to Hexennacht ’08, except that the Hex doesn’t have berries.

 

a word of caution for “powder” haters – the amber is QUITE powdery. at first it’s like…have you ever sniffed a Kleenex or a square of toilet tissue and it’s got that powdery, bathroom-y scent? it kind of smells like that. i know, weird association. but it fades, as the pine and berries come out in full force. after a few minutes it just smells like your typical, nice, warm amber.

 

i’m glad i got a bottle. it's not an "everyday" scent for me but i can see myself being very much in the mood for it at certain times, especially when the weather turns cold. highly recommended for pine lovers.

[theseagrows]

this scent is a bit strange on me. the pine is less sharp than the pine i am used to and is closer to a sweet pine sap scent. the background is a nice vanilla-honey-resin scent. i sort of wish my skin didn't amp the pine as much as it does, but i like this scent for something different.

[maika]

In the imp, tobacco, and a hint of pine.

 

Wet, gorgeous, gorgeous smoky vanilla, with maybe a little trickle of honey. And, of course, the skin musk...can I bathe in this? Because I want to smell like this all over.

 

Dry, it's smoky, and spicy...and there's an undertone of leather in there too. This is gorgeous!!! Ultra-feminine, without being the slightest bit girly...will pull this out for days I need to be the boss!...and well, I could see myself pulling this out for no other reason than that it smells incredible.

[Christine Daae]

Straight out of the imp, this is pine pitch/tar and tobacco. This is emphatically Not What I Want to Smell Like. However, I have read many glowing reviews of this and wish to give it a try anyway!

 

Wet on my skin, it’s piney, patch-y, and tobacco-y. Which are pretty much the three notes I didn’t want to get much of in this blend.

 

As this dries, this gets less heavily piney, and the resins, honey and vanilla start to come into play. However, this still isn’t really doing it for me. I am so glad I got to try a decant of this before I decided on a bottle!

 

Eventually this dries down to a musky, vanilla’d honey with hints of resins and tobacco. It is quite pretty at this stage, but I can’t really get through the other stages to get to this.

[Geminirubyshoes]

Here are the reactions to The Illustrated Woman which I riecieved today:

Me: Wow!!!!! This is amazing!!

Co-worker: This is sex in a bottle

1st person at the bar: You smell soooooo good

2nd person at the bar: Damn you smell good!

3rd, 4th 5th anf 6th person at the bar: Mmmm you smell like babies

7th person: You smell so f'ing good!

 

This is the first BPAL smell I have ever had this many compliments on. In the bottle it smells like piney, smoky vanilla and when it wears down it has a faint hint of patchoul mixed with those two. The tobacco breaks through early on, but just enought to mix with the honey ansd skin musk taht I smell at first. This is excellent and I am going to need mulitple bottles.

[Phaedra]

Wet this is musky, sweet and warm. When first on this is gorgeous vanilla, patchouli, and tobacco. It's warm and sweet, very intoxicating. After a few minutes the honey really develops. After a couple of hours this is a very sexy blend of warm vanilla and pine. It feels very cozy. On the drydown this is a soft, close to the skin honey, vanilla and pine blend. This is gorgeous!! I also think this captures Shelldoo perfectly I'm sure this will be one of the CD classics. I've already started stocking up on it.

[jade_starlight]

Wet this is strong musk, patch and pine. In fact, it's so strong it's giving me a headache. Off to the swaps.

[birdiefu]

I first tried this a few days after I got it in early August, and it was pine death. All pine, all the time, and not a happy thing for me. Well, I could tell there was something under there, but the Christmas tree was smooshing it all to smithereens.

 

I tried it again today after almost 2 months of aging, and it is better but still not as wonderful as I had hoped.

 

First on, I don't get the Christmas tree needle smell anymore, but more of a deeper and sweeter pine sap. However, this does mellow out pretty quickly and I'm left with a very odd and hard to explain scent - not quite plastic and not quite cleaning products... so I try to ignore how I smell and wait for it to dry.

 

The odd smell very slowly softens over time and sweetens up. 3 hours in, I finally get something nice- a smoky, musky vanilla! But it is so very faint . 4 hours in, I have a delicious honey over that dark vanilla, but the scent as a whole is just about to fade away.

 

As it stands, the Illustrated Woman isn't worth the very long wait to get a nice faint whiff at the end. However, since I got a change for the better after 2 months, maybe more aging will turn it into the fabulous scent that I know it can be.

[Czarina]

From a decant dated June 2008.

 

In the decant: pine and vanilla.

Wet: boozy vanilla tobacco, plus pine pitch.

Drydown: this expands into a wonderful cloud around me. The sharpness of the pine pitch balances out the sweetness of the honey, and the patchouli and tobacco come to the forefront.

 

Nice morpher.

[ankhfangirl72]

Wow, this one smells drastically different after it's dried down to when I first put it on. Wet, it's a mixture of vanilla and pine. After a while the tobacco comes out and I can just about smell the honey. It has a smoky quality that reminds me of Snake Oil a bit, must be the musk. I was worried the pine might make it too cologne-y but the honey and vanilla balance it out perfectly. It's lovely, if not one I often reach for.

[rayvn1]

Oh my fracking GAWD! This may be the best BPAL sent I've ever smelled. This is seriously sex in a bottle. This is "tie me up and spank me" good!

In the imp it was very stong on the musk and patchouli.

Dry it is a luscious, dark red musk, resin, and tobacco heaven with a hint of the vanilla and honey in the background to make this the sexiest female on the planet!!

 

 

Frack me.

 

 

This requires more than a bottle - this requires a fricking BARREL of BPAL goodness.

[ECAmber]

Wet on the wand and straight on the skin: pine and vanilla with a liquid scent of skin on top.

On the dry down: this turns immediately sweet vanilla with a thin layer of honey on top. The pine fades but doesn't disappear. This is sweet but not sugary, there is depth, slight hint of tobacco, resin, patchouli and pine. incredibly well balanced.

Further in: The honey and vanilla sit neatly on top, the pine is right underneath it. deep into the inhale is the musk and resin. oddly the patchouli is very faint and not the usual domineering. There is a light sharpness that keeps this from getting powdery and complacent.

 

 

This jumped straight to the top of being my favorite scent. Ever. Without qualification.

 

Grab a thesaurus and look up "beautiful." There you go.

 

I need multiple bottles of this. I really don't want to imagine not having it.

 

Also, so people know I'm serious - I hate hyperbole.

Edited October 9, 2008 by ECAmber