O

[roseus]

The scent of sexual obsession, slavery to sensual pleasure, and the undercurrent of innocence defiled utterly. Amber and honey with a touch of vanilla.

 

Well I was scared to try this. Honey has always ruined things on me, it amps and goes foul and gives me a headache. However my roommate got an imp and I will try anything once.

 

In the imp: Honey and a touch of vanilla.

 

On wet: Honey, amber, and vanilla. The honey isn't blowing things out of proportion yet.

 

Dry: Soft, powdery amber. Sweet (but not cloying) honey. Beautiful! And surprising!

 

Perhaps there is hope for me and honey.

[spikyfairy]

Mainly tried this one because of the reviews that said it "smelled like sex", I was curious! But all of these notes are iffy for me, so I wasn't expecting to like it. Honey usually goes wonky on me, and I don't like vanilla unless it is very strongly balanced by something a bit earthier, and not dominant in a blend.

Wet on me: Very sweet, I can smell all the listed notes. Nice, but it feels like it's trying too hard to be sexy..
Dry: Settled down to a powdery amber that reminds me of my mother, with honey overtones, particularly in the throw. Vanilla is quite subtle and well-blended. It's very pretty, but I don't find it sexy and it's just really not me. I also get that hint of play-dough that others mention (I kinda like it, though!).
+2 hrs: Play-dough and a little bit of pee??! Ugh, this is a total failure of skin chemistry. Weird how it took a while.

This imp will find a new home with someone who doesn't turn it horrible..

[Kmye Chan]

In the imp: very sweet, mostly honey to my nose.

 

Wet: Well, it does what it says on the tin. Amber sweetened by honey, and I can smell an undercurrent of vanilla.

 

Dry: Soft powdery amber, honey, a touch of vanilla, as advertised. I could almost have sworn there was a bit of sandalwood in there at times. At one point I got a weird artichoke smell for a few minutes (the pee smell others have mentionned...?) - and then it was gone. Not too sure what happened there!

 

Throw: pretty strong on me (I did slather it on quite heavily though).

 

Wear time: long - I could still smell this faintly on my skin after 12 hours.

 

So this one is weird. I like it, but I don't love it - and yet I found myself sniffing my wrists like crazy. It's very warm, sensual and comforting. I need to try this again.

[Casablanca]

Bottle: Crunchy-sweet honey and a touch of amber. The oil itself is close in color to The Lion -- just a little lighter, a red-orange honey tone.

Wet: A snootful of honey. This is the honey that has started to crystallize with sugar. Crunchy! Behind the honey come amber and then vanilla.

Dry: Vanilla comes out more in balance with honey. The amber blends and bridges the two. This scent stays fairly strong.

This is touted as a sexy scent, but I get a sort of childhood comfort from the honey. I don't feel like crunchy honey is my ideal -- yet I snort my wrist again and again, like an addict needing another hit. This could easily have a place on my shelves and be used often, especially in winter.

 

ETA: This is lovely combined with The Lion for some spice.

Edited April 6, 2016 by Casablanca

[LizziesLuck]

Wet: Honey! I amp amber, so I was expecting it to take over, but this is a sticky-sweet honey scent for sure. Very sexy and likable, and I really like it. Took me FOREVER to try it, because I always go for "flashier" more complex scents. The sweetness and simplicity of this is stunning though. It's really my type of scent. This is the same honey note that's in Womb Furie, to my nose.

 

 

Dry: I love the simplicity of this. Somehow it's sexy and comforting at the same time. I feel like I should probably have a bottle.

[Joyleaf_]

On me this scent is a very sweet foody vanilla with almost a cocoa scent attached. However this was the scent that got my friend into bpal and on her, it deepens and becomes more resinous almost. The honey really smells thick and resinous. Makes me a bit jealous the way it smells on her, but now I understand why its so popular.

[Convallaria]

I'm another one who gets the bitter almond. If you think of it and sniff closely, it's only sharp, thin honey. Still, the overall impression remains "almond" for about first fifteen minutes. Then it softens into a more honey-ish scent, closer to skin. The drydown is almost powdery vanilla. The amber is in the support role here. Not what I'd associate with contemporary sexuality, but it does remind me of old-school French perfumery, which should fit the period and location of the story this scent was named for. It could have been something "O" herself has worn.

[ShannonElisabethJones]

Amber and I have really never been friends. Honey and vanilla....I'd rather eat them. But, this being such a popular scent, I'd be silly not to try it.

 

Wet and freshly applied, I get honey with something powdery in the background, probably the vanilla. Very very honey. It's nice and warm.

 

After a few minutes, there's definitely something resinous creeping in. This is usually when resins go awry with me....let's just wait and see.....

 

The verdict is: No. It just gets powdery with a lingering resinous funk that doesn't work with me.

[Candice Chen]

My absolute favorite sweet yummy scent from BPAL. It's not my most complimented (Snake Oil and Alice take that honor) and it's not the one that intrigues me the most (Candy Butcher, Milk Chocolate Myrrh and Gunpowder), but it absolutely embodies hedonistic pleasure for me.

 

This thing is golden, languid, syrupy, almost narcotic, and so rich that I think it should be as dense and thick as liquid gold. And the honeyed amber smell almost sends me into the best sort of sugar-induced coma. If I had a signature scent (which will never happen because I'm the world's worst fragrance polygamist) this might vye for top spot.

 

Ironically it is such an absolute comfort scent for me (there are no sharp edges or any strange kinks in this scent for me) that I don't wear it as often as you'd expect. It's like walking around in the buff. A big pleasure, but something I enjoy in small dozes, in my own company.

[Sio Bhan]

Damn... straight out of the bottle it's pretty much vanilla to me, but when I put it on my skin the honey comes out and is warmed by the amber. Unfortunately this turns to baby powder on my skin, but long lasting baby powder! I wish it retained the initial sex smell on me as it does for so many others, but alas.....it is delicious.

[Foodie]

Oooooo wOw! O is sooooooo gorgeous and sooooo sexy! I get absolutely no play doh, no plastic. Just a sexy snake oil vanilla mixed with honey. If you like Snake Oil, you'll like O for sure. Words I'm associating with O...

Close

Skin

Sex

Comfort

Snuggle

A bottle of O will be in my next order.

[kajacana]

BPAL's honey note doesn't usually agree with me -- it has peskily turned so many beautiful blends into Baby Powder Single Note on my skin. But remarkably, O is different. This is literally the first time I've ever smelled honey from a blend on my skin. Sweet, golden honey, as though I'd just swiped the real thing on my arm. The vanilla comes through too, and those two components are really quite beautiful together. It's honey dominant for sure, but as it wears, it gets less sticky-sweet and more soft-sweet. After the ten-minute mark, it does take on a powdery quality, but I think that's just the amber doing its thing, because it's not the typical in-your-face baby powder deal that I usually get from honey blends, and I do usually like amber. It's sweet and nice, not necessarily what I'd call sexy, though. All in all, I'm pleasantly surprised, but don't think I need to acquire more beyond this frimp.

Edited September 17, 2016 by kajacana

[Coldfire]

Imp: powder-y vanilla
Wet on me: vanilla and baby powder
Drying Down: honey tinged vanilla with baby powder
Dry: vanilla honey baby powder. This is the wrong sort of sweet for me. to trade.

[lizabelle]

This starts off as a kind of spicy, ambery honey scent on me and then slowly transforms to be almost floral. Despite having no floral notes listed, to me it smells like getting up close to a white flower (I smell lily, gardenia, or maybe jasmine) and getting all the pollen/green stuff too. Not as overtly sexual or as loud as I expected, but decadent and seductive. It would definitely make me want to get closer to whoever's wearing it! I'm really loving it.

 

ETA: I took a nap and when I woke up this had turned to pure, golden honey. From previous experience I thought I didn't like BPAL's honey, but it seems like that's only certain scents. It does lean slightly animalic, but it's very true-to-life. I'd love to smell this aged.

Edited January 12, 2017 by lizabelle

[Mermaid-on-Land]

This smells honey-vanilla and almost peachy close to skin, very sweet and clean. The throw is something else entirely, a very similar (and hella strong) musk to Bastet, which I kinda compare to the smell of a pet's coat that's been sitting in the sun. So far, not sure here. Eventually the musk settles a bit and what's left is lovely. It's a warm, musky honey-vanilla, saturated, almost sticky in texture. It reminds me of the sweetness of Blood Kiss, and the musk that's in here (again) very much reminds me of Bastet. It's strong and more on the animalic side. It's throw is great, and the wear length is great as well. Trying this, i suddenly realize I have no idea what amber smells like in a scent. I can't pick it out in this or anything else. It has to be mixed in there somewhere but I dk where? I don't turn amber powdery so I'm not sure what it actually smells like. Anyway I quite like this! Gotta wear it a few more times and see how often I reach for it but I like how the honey and vanilla combine with the musk.

On a second wearing, omg I'm in love, def in my top faves! Also I think I'm starting to notice the amber now.

[Kay Torres]

I wish that I had gotten ANY of the listed notes from O. It did the same thing that Snake Oil did on my skin and magically morphed into the scent of Play Doh. If Snake Oil does that to you, you may want to skip O.

[RobberBaroness]

This is a very, very foody scent to me. The honey is reading as fruit on my skin, and I suppose the amber is reading as cooking products. I might not wear this on its own, but I imagine it could smell good in a lotion.

[marilyn eyre]

Nope, nope, this is straight up Play Doh. Nope, not for me.

[Nikki Scarlet]

I'd been hoping to find a nice vanilla scent. This says it only has a hint of vanilla, but it also mentions honey, which I'm also curious to try. I think the combination could be lovely, although amber's a bit of a mystery to me, as I'm pretty new to scents in general, let alone BPAL.

In the imp and on me, wet:
I can barely smell this, but what I am getting is a somewhat medicinal honey.

On me, dry:
Still almost can't even smell this, even after reapplying rather generously. What I can smell is a teensy bit of honey, occasional hints of vanilla, and something . . . blunt. I wish it had a little more strength and throw. It feels like something I COULD like if it showed itself a little more.

Verdict:
My results seem so much in contrast to other reviewers'. So many other people seem to get a strong scent from this, but it's barely detectable for me. I really want to like this, but . . . meh. Will probably swap.

 

 

ETA:

Today I don't have anywhere to be and decided to play with my scents as part of a self-pampering day, so I've given O another chance. It was the first scent I'd put on for the day, applying generously to my wrists and just letting the puddles dry on their own rather than rubbing them in.

 

This is still a very subtle scent, but I'm picking it up a little stronger today. Not sure whether it's because it's the first and only scented thing I've put on myself so far, or because I'm at a different point in my cycle than I was when I first tested it, or because it's been allowed to age for a couple of weeks, or because I'm wearing more of it. Or maybe a combination of all of the above.

 

What I'm smelling, I like. It's very a very soft, smooth sweetness. Luxurious, if faint. I'm going to agree with a few other posters that this scent is a combination of sexy and comforting. I'd say it leans more toward comforting for me, but the sexiness sort of springs from that. It's an intimate, private scent (perhaps partly due to how close I have to get to smell it at all). Not the kind of scent I'd wear out somewhere with the hopes of luring someone in, but rather a scent I'd wear for mutual, private enjoyment with someone who's already very close to me.

 

Back in high school, I had a friend who pretty much said anything that popped into her head, and at one point walked into a change room, furrowed her brow, and said, "This place smells like girl." That's what this smells like: it smells like naked femininity in all its complexity and beauty and imperfection. O smells like girl. It's a much subtler fragrance than my general preference, and I'm thinking it's not something I'll wear very often, but this second try has saved it from the swap pile. I can see occasions where I'd want to wear this. And I have both an imp AND a frimp of this, so I think that'll do me just fine for a while.

Edited July 1, 2017 by Nikki Scarlet

[lexyOZ]

Wow.

I applied a tiny bit of this in the crook of my arm and then put a hoodie on and forgot about it. 10 minutes later the waft of fresh honeycomb is coming out of my sleeve and I'm utterly beguiled. I'm not getting any other notes but an extremely realistic and beautiful waxy honey. I definitely get the animalic musk mentioned earlier which I think gives it that kind of sharp sweetness that real honey has. I generally dislike foodie or sweet scents but this is so lovely. I can see myself using this as a layering note quite a lot, and think it would be beautiful with very smokey fragrances like Smokey Mountain Mallow from Solstice Scents.

[Lucchesa]

O was in my very first order from the Lab, and I wasn't impressed at the time. The vanilla hit my skin and took over in a very weird way, or maybe it was the vanilla and honey combination, but it just wasn't good on me. So, this morning I saw a necklace of mine hanging in the corner of my office. It's a Japanese necklace with a compartment inside, I haven't worn it for at least a couple years, and looking at it, I thought, "That would be perfect to hold a couple of imps." I opened it up and damn, that's where Fae and Uruk and my original O had gone! O is now a dragon's blood red; I don't remember it being this color originally. And it is freaking gorgeous! The three notes blend together seamlessly, and there's a tiny bit of spiciness, maybe from the amber? It is sexy as hell. Age this one, folks! Age it! It's fantastic.

[russalka]

It is sweet thick cherry on me ... A cherry dripping in honey. The vanilla + amber deepen the smell.

 

It can sometimes remind me a little of cherry cough syrup though, which is not great, but it's not horrible either.

 

I might have reviewed this one already. But now it's been a couple of years since I bought it and ... well, see above.

 

I still like it. It lasts, but I am not in love as I was with it when I first bought it and first became BPAL fan.

[follis]

O is unfortunately Oh No for me to begin with... it does mellow out but it might be my skin chemistry.

 

Wet: It might be the amber but it smells a bit like medicinal cherry on my nose.

On: Something about it just smells a bit cloying on me. I personally think it's because this is my first amber scent, and well, within reason it might be because amber doesn't work for me (as I now know). It does however...

Dry: ...mellow out to a nice honey vanilla scent which is wearable and fortunately I am good with foody scents.

 

Unfortunately not for me but will work well for a friend

[mishi-bear]

It's easy to see why O is a popular scent. I received this as a frimp and I'm very glad I did. It also took me a good few months to finally get around to it, which I think only made it even better. Honey, amber, and vanilla scents all tend to get better with age in my opinion, and it certainly seems to have made O especially lovely. It's a very pleasant honey vanilla, while the amber warms it up and gives it more depth.

 

I'll likely spring for a big bottle of this eventually.

[tansy19]

K so when i first sniffed this out of the imp my nose wrinkled in disgust. I had considered blind buying a bottle based on the notes but I decided on a test run. Any scent touted as "sexy" I'm always eager to try. But i was disappointed. at the time. I thought it smelled cheap and too sweet so i didn't even skin test

 

However, I will say, I've learned my lesson in judging at first sniff. Before BPAL perfume, to me, was impressions of things you wanted to smell like. Not too deep, fam. just spritz, and be on your way. This company changed all that. It showed me scents can be something you enjoy alone (personal scents), for everyday wear that you would like others around you to enjoy or for specific situations. This is one of that falls into the first and last category for me.

 

Honey can easily come off as dusty, old, cloying. And my skin amps honey like crazy. The amber and vanilla in this blend is very muted on me. O is done so very well though. It smells so eerily natural on my skin. Almost like something my own body made. It makes me think of those slow, sweaty, sensual scenes/sessions that go on for hours. It smells like being close to someone and having a connection whether you know them very well or not. It smells like loving submission, given completely and freely.

 

I don't know if I'll be getting a full bottle because I don't see myself wearing this in public ever. I can see the vanilla and amber being more prominent on someone else making it different and more suited for day wear. Either way don't pass up at least skin testing this one because it really is a masterpiece