John Barleycorn

[tdgnika]

Barley, beer, blood, and whiskey.

In the imp, I smell a cloying alcohol sweetness – probably the barley and beer.

Wet on the skin, oddly enough, it smells very strongly of lilacs. Really.

Fades to a bland floral. What a strange one.

[milo]

Strong buttered whiskey at first, then fades to soap. Huh? Kind of a manly soapy soap. Not for me.

[WidgetAlley]

Imp: Bananas! Sweet, sweaty bananas. And metal, and the tang of incense. Not unpleasant, but certainly weird!

 

Wet: Bananas, brown sugar, incense and a faint tang of what might be beer, alcohol, metal, or blood. And something floral? How very very strange. But it's actually quite nice! A little powdery perhaps but not anywhere near as dark or scary as I expected.

 

Dry: Floral, powdery, perfume-y (definitely dragon's blood in here!), banana-y, grain-y and sugary. Oddly pretty, but nothing I'd really wear. Glad I got to try it, but this tester will be off to a new home.

[porcelina]

john barleycorn is sharp in the bottle, and really boozy.

 

on my skin… it does the bad thing that rum and sugar notes do to me, where they go all thin and plasticky. it's a little grainy. the blood is not really noticeable. not a favorite.

 

i tried it on my husband and it went CRAZY powdery on him!

[Redillon]

In the bottle it's a strange mix. I can smell a little booze, blood and grain. Not unpleasant but it makes you go, hummmmmm.

 

Wet on the skin it goes floral/banana. Just like a few others mentioned! No booze or blood. A little grain but it's peeking in the background because the banana is holding it hostage!

 

Dry on skin it's all floral and a clean smelling soap or detergent. It's kinda nice.....if you like cleaner, floral scents. I'm a spice gal but this is something I'd dab on for something different. A big bottle is not in the cards for me, but I'm happy that I got to experience it!!

[BlueberryPie]

Wet, this is nothing but whiskey on me. On the dry down, I start getting more of the barley, with the subtle tang of blood. This is certainly a VERY unique scent, and unique scents are exactly what I'm looking for from BPAL. I can't imagine being able to get something like this from anywhere else. However...I kiiind of hate the way whiskey smells. It's the one alcohol I'm determined to never try, because my taste buds would have PTSD for the rest of my life if it tasted how it smelled. And even though the whiskey here is VERY good whiskey, all sweet and rich and stuff, it's still fundamentally whiskey, and I can't stand it. Luckily, I know a friend who'll go crazy over this, so I'm gonna pass it off to him. He can probably pull off such a masculine scent better than me anyway. I am far too girly to pull off the whiskey + blood combination.

 

 

SCORE: 3/10 (But again, I'm biased. I'm sure someone who enjoys whiskey would rate this a lot higher.)

[Zii]

Honey, dried grass and alchohol. A lot less boozy than I was expecting, given how strong Beth's booze notes can be on me, but there's this cloying sweet note that reminds me of cheap honey bear. Passing on this one.

[theredkilt]

2008 version:

 

The whiskey note tingles my nose and i can discern the barley/beer combo rendering the blend sweetness.Alas, the blood note shows up and turns everything into powder with an antisceptic vibe and after 10 minutes it all disapears from my skin.