Soothing System

[ravenfeathers]

SOOTHING SYSTEM
Inspired by Gris Grimly's illustrations for the System of Dr. Tarr and Professor Fether.

A lunatic’s vintage cabernet.

in the bottle i wish to take a shot of this from the bottle! pure, red, dry cabernet!
wet on skin y halo thar, grape. the dry booziness burns off really fast and leaves a sticky sweet grape behind, a dark grape reminiscent of fox grapes that have been frosted sugary sweet in late autumn, with an almost woody back note
dry on skin no morphing here, except that the sweetness evens out and leaves a lovely red wine scent that sticks very close to the skin. still quite grape-y, but very, very wearable.

after a second test, the scent i find this most similar to is, oddly, gluhwein. *head scratchy* i think it's the incredibly booziness of it. this is a grape version of the orange-y TP scent. Edited September 3, 2009 by ravenfeathers

[angelicruin]

Inside the bottle, Welch's Grape Soda.

 

On my skin, starts out very purple grape on me.

 

As it dries, less fruity grape and more grape wine scent.

 

I really like this one, especially since there are not a lot of grape BPAL scents out there, making this one a real treat for me.

[tarotgirl99]

I must echo angelicruin's Welch's Grape Soda diagnosis. I love to drink it, but not to wear it, so it won't be a purchase for me.

[Teggy]

I really wanted to love this one because I've been dying for a killer red wine scent. Sadly, it ended up smelling like Extra Bubblegum...you know, the pink one that's kinda fruity. Sad face.

[Blood onmy hands]

In the bottle, this reminded me of Gluhwein and my heart skipped a beat (I just adore Gluhwein <3). It's like sweet, sexy, dark fruitiness and a bit of bubblegum. Gluhwein without the spice.

 

On my skin, this has a brief moment of smelling like sexy wine and then quickly dissolves into smelling of grape juice and grape bubble tape gum. It's sweet, strong, happy, artificial purple grape. It softens after a while and becomes less in-your-face sweet, but it's still sweet and smells like grape bubblegum. I find this oddly appealing.

 

Soothing System is a sweet, cheery fragrance. I'm going to use this for layering & mixing with other scents, as I can imagine it adding a fun touch to a lot of different things.

[RaeiNarcissus]

Remember when you were sick as a kid, and mom was sweet and got the Grape Dimatapp instead of the nasty Robituson? This is Dimatapp.

[ivyandpeony]

I popped in to write a brief review, read the newest arrivals first and realized that Little Bird and I had very similar experiences with Soothing System. And she said it all very well, so I may not add much to what she's said about this one.

 

On first sniff I immediately picked up the wine note from Gluhwein too - totally Gluhwein without all the spices! And I'm a big fan of that scent so that got me giddy right away. It stays sweet on my skin, but doesn't really morph to the super-sweet grapiness or bubble gum that a lot of reviewers have mentioned. My chemistry doesn't tend to make most sweet things sweeter, and dry scents stay really dry on me, which may work to my advantage with Soothing System. As it dries down a bit, I sense a little bit of woodiness, like grapevine or wine barrel oakiness?

 

One thing I really love here is that BPAL's red wine scents can sometimes get a little tart or sour on me, veering towards BPAL pomegranate, while grape notes can just be a little weird and heavy on my skin (Bess and Urd for example, just didn't work) - but somehow this one stays right in the middle, light and grapey and cheery (perfect word, so why change it? ) My preconceived notion was that this would be a dark, sexy nighttime scent, but I really think this will be more of a bubbly daytime perfume - but once again, with credit to Little Bird, layered with other scents it could really go to some new and exciting places too. If you loved Gluhwein and had trouble scoring a bottle, I'd grab a bottle of Soothing System and get to experimenting.

[Schmoozy]

Dry red wine that within seconds turns into sweet grape juice.

[siddal]

I love this scent. To me, it falls in the same category as Lady MacBeth and Gluhwein: that delicioud bpal wine note. The dry down on this is very faint on me, and a tad sweeter than Lady MacB. And naturally it is less spicey and honeyed than Gluhwein. I could see this being a fave for me in the warmer months when I want to be a Wino, ha ha. I can't wait to buy a bottle of this.

[Monster]

In the vial: Boozy red wine. Gah! I love the Labs wine note. SO nice

 

Wet: Boozy red wine and fresh grapes.

 

Dry: This dries to a yummy purple grape scent.

 

Overall: I love this...but I'm not sure I would wear this one alone. Soothing System would probably make a great scent for layering.

[Molls]

This one reminds me a little of something... Horreur Sympathique? A very sweet wine scent... it does seem to be a bit grape-y, but it's drying down to be a wearable-enough perfume. Not sure if it would be a bottle purchase for me, but I like it enough to keep the decant

[Xanon]

In the Imp: Gah! Grape chewable tylonol.

 

Wet: Still get the tylonol but its getting a little spicier.

 

Dry: Sweet spicy wine. Not so bad not.

 

Overall its not so bad, but I can't get over the sickening sweet grape. Oh well, I am not a big wine note person, so I am not sad. May keep the imp, but I may swap. Glad I got the chance to smell though.

[ellebelle]

in the bottle: Wine-like grape juice

 

wet: grape juice

 

dry down: stale smelling grape juice

 

This is the second scent I have tried recently that is supposed to be "boozy" and it has just turned out smelling stale on me. I scrubbed and scrubbed and couldn't get the grape juice smell off of my wrists. This was awful on me.

[zankoku_zen]

GRAPE!

 

This is that lovely luscious grape that I get from High John the Conqueror. Sweet, juicy and delicious. It kinda reminds me to the japanese grape gummies.

 

TASTY.

[boxinghelena]

I had the opportunity to catch Gris Grimly in Baltimore for his book signing this past weekend so I snatched up Soothing System while there.

 

I think this may be my favorite of the blends. I've never been a fan of grape scents but this is the most amazing juicy fresh grape, right off the vine scent I have ever smelled. It's amazing on me. I love it so much!

 

 

 

[Heeroluva]

In the bottle this has a very strong alcohol scent, almost like whiskey. Wet it's a sweet red wine. Dry it turns into grape candy and stays that way.

[kira21]

I absolutely love the Lab's wine scents and this one is definitely a must have for me.

 

In the bottle it is a deep potent wine with a strong grape note.

 

Wet on the skin the wine note intensifies with the grape turning slightly sweet.

 

Once dry this stays pretty true to its wet phase.

[Dark Alice]

This smells like someone who drank too much wine and was trying cover up the smell by chewing bubble yum grap bubblegum. Not a fan.

[Lethran]

In bottle: Pretty much as described. Cabernet sauvignon. Wet: Wine. Sweeter on the skin and vaguely reminiscent of Bazooka Joe bubble gum. The bubble gum appears ascendant. Dry: The bubble gum softens and it ends up a gentle mix of that and the wine.

[hkhm]

imp: strong on the booze, light on the grape.

 

wet: this smells very strongly boozy while the faint waft of grape remains. not bad but somewhat odd.

 

dry: as the grape fades, this smells more and more like actual wine, not wine and grape kool-aid. i think this might be an ideal layering scent.

[voorishsign]

In the imp - booze! And how. Reddest, strongest of wines. Wow. I'm kind of afraid to put this on my skin

 

On wet - a bit lighter than before, thank god. Slightly grapey, but still mostly boozy.

 

Drydown - dries and smoothes into a pleasant, light wine scent. So basically, this does exactly what it says on the tin, and it does it very well - it doesn't work much for me but it's still a very beautifully honed wine scent

Edited June 16, 2010 by voorishsign

[good_mourning]

BPAL's wine note might well be my favorite thing they do (definitely in the top three), so I was very excited to try this--no. Grape bubblegum and burnt plastic, or possibly the aftermath of hairspray just having been set on fire. I couldn't even bring myself to try skin-testing it. Seeing all of the comparisons to Gluhwein in this thread surprised me, so I just did a side-by-side, and... well, clearly those folks are aware of something I am not.

[yamiko]

In the bottle, this is definitely wine! The first whiff, I got a dryer Cabernet then I have in subsequent sniffs, but it's definitely a thick, heavy red wine. On me, it definitely stays that same dark, thick, slightly sweet wine. It doesn't morph much on me at all. It makes me smell like I've been boozing it up, and I'm totally fine with that.

[Dark Alice]

When I was a kid I used to wonder if the wine in communion was really grape juice. Turns out that it was really really cheap grapey bad wine. That's exactly what this smells like on me. Cheap boozy grape bubble yum bubble gum. Time to pass this on to one who will love it more than me.

[mymymai]

On me, it smells like a combination of fake strawberry scent and a little cat pee as soon as I smell it in the imp or put it on.

Dry: I get slightly grape-y bathroom freshener. This scent is not for me.