Pomona

[marared]

Azaroles, nuts, and apple blossoms with red apple pulp, mulberry, blackberry, and pomegranate juice.

Yummy cider, the kind where other types of fruit are mashed up along with the apple. I smell no nuts or flowers, just lots of sweet, tart fall fruits. This is more what I had hoped for from Pinwheel, really. I can see where it would turn to acetone on some people, and I was afraid it would do the same with me as I haven't had much luck with the mostly-fruit blends lately, but no, this has stayed nice and gently sweet and true on my skin. Yum.

[tinyvulture]

Reminds me of last year’s To Autumn, with that same mouthwatering combination of apples and hazelnuts. But Pomona is very fruity, and only a little nutty. The sweet fruitiness of apple is complemented by berry and pomegranate notes, and the hazelnut provides a somewhat bitter contrast to the fruits. It’s really nice, but it fades quickly, as others have noted.

[neddykapoozle]

I completely agree with what tinyvulture said... in fact, when Pomona dried down, I thought it was To Autumn layered over Agape (which turns into indiscriminate but lovely creamy fruity apple blossoms). This is really pretty, like all the fun inside things about fall without being candley. My decant is plenty because I have bottles of the two things I think it smells like, but this is definately one to try.

 

I imagine this would also be lovely in an oil warmer.... something about that nutty apple is so cozy!

[GardenCat]

Very appley and coconut? on the first application. Settles into that nice nutty apple I wanted. So cozy & fallish! Love it!

[Bluestocking]

In the bottle: Straight from the bottle, Pomona is strong and NUTTY. This is, hands down, the most nut-centric BPAL I've ever smelled; not even the walnut in Wood Phoenix is this pronounced. It's a deep, rich, warm and earthy nut smell, sort of a dark brown and velvety scent, and it has a nearly chocoatey aspect to me. When I sniff a bit more, I get tart red apple and a touch of the berries, which blends really nicely with the rich nuts. VERY autumnal.

On, wet: Crisp apples and berries, backed by all those warm, strong nutty notes. The overall result isn't overly fruity at all, and it lacks the light, airy quality that apple blossom can bring; Pomona has more gravitas. It makes me think of those rich burgundy and purple and brown shades of autumn. As I sniff, the pomegranate is finally becoming increasingly apparent, adding more bright red tartness to the mix.

On, dry: Tart-sweet autumn fruits, enriched with the deep, dark nuts and just enough lighter apple blossom to keep it from getting too heavy. It isn't as apple-centric as I expected; the pomegranate and berries are equally as strong, and they blend together very well. The nuts ground the scent and make it smooth and maybe just a touch chocolatey.

Later: Deep, dark berries and nuts and chocolate. Surprisingly, mulberry is the dominant note now, and it's very nice—sweet, but not at all a sickly sweet, mulberry candle aroma. It's just sort of deep and mellow.

Overall: Pomona is super-strong in the bottle, but she mellows almost instantly on my skin. I was a bit worried after reading some of the early reviews, but I think she's gorgeous and absolutely perfect for the season. I had the thought that this would be more apple than anything, but this actually brings to mind the harvest bounty, an overflowing cornucopia of ripe apples and berries and toasty nuts. There's a nice balance between sweet (berries and apple blossom), tart (pomegranate juice) and toasty-earthy (nuts). This is a rich, velvety scent, well blended and with tons of depth, and I have a strong feeling that it's going to age very well. I already love it!

 

[Aldercy]

Straight of the imp and wet Pomona is frankly pretty off-putting. It's really chemical-smelling, but also dull and kind of formless. I don't get anything resembling fruit.

 

It takes about a half hour, but it does sweeten up into something more presentable on my skin. Now I'm getting watery apple and berries with a slight sugared floral edge, no nuts at all. It's definitely much better and more wearable, but most fruit scents just don't tend to do much for me lately.

 

If it didn't have that long lead-in of ickiness, I'm sure I would wear the decant, but I don't know if I can deal with that every time I put it on....

[Invidiana]

This is wonderful ripe, bursting, dripping bery goodness tempered just enough by warm roasted nuttiness to not drive it into hyper-blast-o-fruit teenybopper body-spray territory (oh, the memories). This isn't a trail-mix type of fruity-nuttiness at all, but more of the deep delicious scent of baked fruits and toasted nuts. Cozy, comforting and delicious

[jade_starlight]

This is pretty much straight apples on me. Very nice, freshly cut apples, but just apples. Apparently the apples have a pair of stompy boots and they aren't afraid to use them.

[zankoku_zen]

Oh Pomona. You are more of an apple cider, than say Lamb's Wool, but you have that nuttiness that comes out. I was hoping for something darker, spicier and more berries, but on me you are this lovely roasted apple and nuts blend.

 

Lovely, but not what I was looking for.

[indybear]

In the imp: Acetone with a hint of apple

 

Wet: I still get acetone and a little apple. It's really not working on my skin at all.

 

Dry: It finally mellowed some and the acetone started going away. The hint of apple faded and a little berry came out. I'm not a huge fan of this particular berry, whatever it is that I'm smelling.

 

This sounded wonderful on paper, but my nose says NO!

 

[reynardine]

This is the one Halloweenie I've been waiting for, so I had to try it on right away when I got it!

In bottle: Uh, oh. Nail polish... ;_;

Wet: No, wait, it's Jolly Rancher! I haven't had one of those since I was eleven! But I can almost taste it now!

Drydown: Okay, now we're getting somewhere. Apples must amp on me, but the pomegranate is coming out. Sweet and sweet and sweeter still. This is so fruity and so sweet. I can see why some other reviewers were getting an alcohol jibe. Not quite at that point, but...

An hour later: Sweet apple/pomegranate with a touch of berry in the background. Very autumnal, although I could see this in late summer as well. Too rich for spring, too ripe for winter.

Love it!

 

EDIT: It's now 5 years later (2014) and the nail polish smell has aged out. It's much softer now, but still has that lovely apple/pomegranate scent. And it is still one of my go-to autumn scents.

Edited October 14, 2014 by reynardine

[KesHiro]

Initially, I get dark fruits, chocolate, and that scary acetone note so many have experienced. Fortunately, once it dries down it turns into a lovely fragrance. I get dark fruits, hazelnuts, chocolate, and something sweet. I almost want to say coconut (?!), but it's probably the apple blossoms mixing with the hazelnuts. Definitely a warm, boozy, comforting fruit scent. It makes me think of harvest and Thanksgiving, so this is going to get a lot of play during November. I agree, however, with some of the other reviewers: you could wear this one year round.

 

 

[iletaitunefois]

I have somewhat mixed feelings about this scent. At first I liked it, but the longer it stayed on my skin, the worse it smelled...

 

Wet, it smelled a bit like a very sweet wine. As it dried down, I started to be able to pick out a whole host of fruit, with berries heading the expedition. I was in love! It was beautiful! It was like harvest on my skin! And then...a strange artificial note started to come out. It was the artificial base that you get from a lot of really cheap room sprays, and the longer I had it on, the stronger it got.

 

I think i'm going to be trying this oil again if just because I liked it so much in the beginning, but I'm just not so sure about that back note.

[Coldfire]

 

 

 

Decant: Apple Skin.

Wet on Me: Lots of apple skin and I think nuts inthe background

[b]Drying Down:[/b] Mostly apples. Not much else and the nuts ran away

Dry: okay NOW I get some blackberry with the apple. Almost like an apple-blackberry wine I get from Peaks of Otter Winery. Nice. This is actually to be a gift to someone I know whose name is Pomona

 

[taramarie]

In the bottle, Pomona is mostly nuts. On my skin, it's apple, berries, pomegranate, and nuts. It's making me hungry, but I love it.

[Sawasdee]

Out of the imp it's appley acetone.

 

On wet, it's all crisp clear apple, very sweet. I don't get any whiff of the nuts that others are getting, I was hoping they would show up to warm up the scent, as it's very chilly.

 

Dry, it's pretty equal apple and pomegranate, red berries now, in a very artificial way, like smelling hairspray.

 

Not what I was expecting, unfortunately going to have to pass on this one.

[Argentwolf]

Apple juice/cider, mixed with toasted nuts, with maybe a faint whiff of blossoms here and there. It doesn't really agree with me, for some reason...the apple note is pleasant enough, but the combination of notes just...isn't jivin' with me.

[loubric]

Strong apple martini! This has a lot of fizz!!

I don’t get any nuts at all, just fresh tart apple (like granny smith) with hints of the pomegranate and juicy PLUM!!

Sharp and fruity. I love it!!

 

 

Okay I had to put some more of this on (more than just a testers worth) and I am seriously in love

 

I tried this again on 01.06.10 and I'm getting a lot of pear as well!!

Just got my bottle - AMAZING - stronger in the bottle but so so lovely 02.05.10

Edited February 5, 2010 by Lilly

[doublehelix]

In the imp: warm apple cider and nuttyness... The scent of apple cider while taking a stroll in the woods! very much a fall scent.

 

Wet on skin: warm apples... less nuts. definitely not as strong as it was in the bottle. there are some sweet pear and blossom undernotes as well which makes it even fruitier.

 

Dry on skin: Apples with a hint of pear! the nuttyness has completely disapeared. If you're an apple fan, give this one a try. Much softer than Creepy's crisp apple scent.

[surf-tormented]

I love the goddess Pomona and jumped at the chance to own this one. But it reeks on me. I don't know if you can image very strong artificially flavored apple-cinnamon candle...like one of those Glade Plug-ins where it is foody and sickeningly sweet. Like something an old lady would put in her house and enjoy it while guests come and get sick from it because the poor girl has lost her scene of smell.

 

Or else someone got some Red Apple Wreath Yankee Candles and just went for it!!! It's a really overpowering gross smell, the only thing worse for it, is caramel apple candles, ick.

 

I put it on, waiting for the fresh apple drydown and it never comes. I have had some pumpkin oils I hated and then aged them a couple years and the sweetness really mellowed, but I am not sure if it would happen here.

 

I am not really sure what note in this makes it reek. I was thinking on me maybe it is the nut note. It smells really fake, though I am sure the components in it aren't.

 

I was going to use this for Mabon as opposed to Halloween, but I may just sell it. Perhaps someone will love this more than I have, for I can barely put a dot on before I want to scrub it off.

 

My boyfriend always greets me with a sneering "What's that smell?" when I wear most BPAL and in this case, I would get his snarky comments. This does reek and smells like cheap room spray. Or that I rolled around in cheaply scented candles. I sort of get it now.

 

Did I get a bottle of Stinky by mistake? For this is Stinky!

 

But for all her faults, Pomona wants me to keep it...again hopefully this one will age and get rid of its stinky edges in the future.

Edited February 25, 2010 by Madame Nyx

[Ajila]

In the bottle - Apples and (for want of a better word) stuff; there is something tart, which suggests the other fruits, but I couldn't put my finger on it

 

Wet on me - A warm, mild amalgamation of fruits

 

Dry on me - It fades quickly into a soft pulpy musk

 

Overall - It's a little indistinct and fades very quickly on my skin

[Suu4LC]

I didn't find this as nutty as some of the other reviews did-to me, this is a warm, fruity cider-less appley, and with more dark red and purple fruits-not sugary fruity or super sweet fruity-more pulpy, slightly bitter but not acidic, meaty dark fruits. On my skin I definitely get more of the nuttiness than I do in the bottle, but primarily this is a lovely cider scent and an excellent embodiment of fall.

 

It is less "spicy" (not hot spicy, spices spicy) than some of the other cider scents I have. It's darker than Punkie Night, but not smoky like Fearful Pleasure. The touch of apple blossom is just barely noticeable, but is absolutely lovely. One note: this fades REALLY fast on me. I only have a tiny partial of this (about 1/6 of the bottle), and I feel like I will end up using it up super fast! Overall, a really nice dark, fruity cider scent!

[BuxomM]

It smells like nuts, berries, and apples. It remind when we were in Utah and stopped at this fruit stand. On one table they sold pine nuts, mixed berry preserves, and apple sauce. Pomona smells the way the stand did.

[fairnymph]

Nutty, sweet, fruity. The nutty-grainy notes lend a sort of richness that makes this quite foody. It smells like overripe fruits, stewed or baked, not fresh/juicy/crisp notes. I wish it were tarter. I do get a little apple blossom which lightens the scent in a lovely manner. I also get a lot of booziness, like a thick cherry liqueur. I get hazelnut note, which smells almost chocolatey.

 

Still really really boozy, very sharply so, with a very strong top note of hazelnut liqueur. I totally see the 'nail polish remover' thing. I can pick out a bit of (cooked) apple and a tiny bit of jammy blackberry (agree that it's the same note from BJ&S), but really this strikes me as more cherry than any other fruit or berry. I can't really detect the mulberry or pomegranate. Still some apple blossom, faintly soapy now.

 

Boozy hazelnut calming down a bit, but apple blossom has gone more soapy. I get a little mulberry and pomegranate now which add a nicely tart edge, but honestly the fruit is very muted in this, and utterly overshadowed. It's a very faint backdrop. This had really strong throw at first, but has faded a lot since in a relatively short time.

 

The hazelnut/cherry thing is making me nauseated. That's what I get from a distant, but when I shove my nose to my wrist I do get the other fruits/notes and it's much nicer, but still not that great. This actually still has good throw, and while it continues to fade over time the longevity is decent.

 

Not at all what I'd hoped for.

[Pika]

This was very APPLE and then BERRY and kind of BITTER underneath. The whole scent was kind of chaotic for me, my nose never could figure it out. And while that makes it kind of fascinating, it's not what I was hoping for.