Siren

[moon_lemming]

Bewitching, tantalizing and dangerously seductive. A thrilling, exotic blend -- deceptively sweet, but spiked with malice. White ginger, jasmine, and a touch of vanilla and apricot.

 

Something in Siren detests my skin. It's woodsy at first, which doesn't work on me, and then it turns to a smoky floral. It's very much an incense scent on my skin, and those are the ones I tend to stay away from because . . . well, mostly because, with very few exceptions, I don't like wearing incense-y scents. After ten minutes or so, I can sniff out a little vanilla, but it's not enough to save it from the swap pile.

Edited January 7, 2006 by karen

[ktesedale]

In the bottle, this smells kind of... icky, I guess. I don't know how to describe it. Astringent, almost.

 

Wet, I swear, this smells just like patchouli. I thought I was crazy for smelling it, but I asked my sister, and she smelled it to. Which was too bad, because I hate patchouli.

 

Once it dries, though (about 10 minutes), the patchouli smell disappears completely. Now it's a lovely jasmine-vanilla blend, with the faint hint of ginger and *maybe* some fruit.

 

This smells just like my favorite candle as a teenager, a jasmine candle. None of the other jasmine blends I've tried have had that smell, so I'm very, very pleased with this one. It's jumped up to my second-favorite catalog scent. I'm buying a large bottle of this ASAP.

 

Small note - I barely put any on (as I only have an empty imp of it, and there was less than a drop left), but the smell wafted and lasted for hours. It's a strong, strong scent.

[em_h]

Wet: Apricot and jasmine. It's nice at the moment, but I already suspect where this one is going.

 

Drying: Actually, it's just possible that this is less monstro-jasmine than most. Not much apricot left, sadly, but there's at least some vanilla and ginger reining the jasmine in.

 

Dry: My gosh! It's a jasmine scent I can actually wear! Basically, my skin amps vanilla as much as it does jasmine, so I've got the two notes complementing each other instead of just one monstrous jasmine note.

 

Now, in all honestly, floral and vanilla is not my favourite, but still, it's exciting to find that jasmine doesn't absolutely have to be the kiss of death. This is actually quite pleasant.

[Meg]

In the bottle: umm... chalk? no, honestly, this smells mineral. I think it's the ginger.

 

Wet: very discrete ginger and vanilla, sweetening up as they dry. It smells... bubbly. Must be the jasmine.

 

Drydown: I get a base of vanilla, a very bubbly jasmine, and sharp ginger. The apricot is very far in the background, sulking. It's rather soft, though, and very very light. Except when the ginger comes through stronger (I think my skin is amping it at times), then it really rinses out your sinuses! And it's gone slightly plasticky on me and dried down to powder.

 

Overall: Um... boring. The jasmine/ginger combo smells aggressive on me, and the vanilla and apricot really aren't strong enough to balance it out. I like jasmine in general, but I don't find it really appealing here. It smells like a fizzy drink, like soda water with a hint of vanilla. There's a smoky/incense thing to it too, but it doesn't really seem to work with the rest. Really doesn't do anything for me. *waves off to swaps*

[ancilla_morte]

I cringed when I got the first whiff of this. there's just something...foul smelling about it.

its too peppery.

ack the ginger is soo strong. then there is something lemony behind it.

Now the jasmine is coming out.

all the notes that never work for me. raw ginger, lemon, jasmine.

 

[jazlyn]

Siren is pretty. I think the ginger (kind of smells citrusy/like Ginger Ale a bit haha) is dominant in this scent on me... but it's blended extremely well with the jasmine (makes it florally), vanilla (slightly creamy) and apricot (it's there somewhere...). Beautiful singing sea nymphs luring unsuspecting sailors to their doom (how sad), but hehe this is a pretty cool blend!

 

edit: Hmm, on second thought maybe this is too gingery...

Edited January 14, 2006 by jazlyn

[yeahbutnobut]

Siren

 

In the imp: sweet vanilla jasmine. This smells really nice.

Wet on skin: here comes the ginger-it seems this is a spicy ginger as opposed to floral white ginger. It adds a warm, spicy bite to the floral-vanilla scent.

Dry: I like this! The ginger in here is surprisingly strong, almost overpowering the sweet jasmine-vanilla with it’s dry, almost savoury, hot spiciness…but underneath the jasmine can be smelt, with perhaps a little bit of vanilla. And soon after, the apricot also starts to emerge, but it’s not too strong.

After a while: after 5 mins, the ginger retreats and all the notes are well balanced, and it smells delightful. Heady rich jasmine, sweet vanilla and fruity fresh apricot (as opposed to the apricot jam note I get from other apricot scents) with a bit of spicy ginger. A lovely combination.

About 30 mins later, the jasmine note becomes a bit dry-I think that may also be the ginger’s dry spicy note, but there’s the vanilla-apricot background that keeps this smelling full and sweet. The dry scent is only when I smell my wrist, away from it, I get clouds of heady sweet jasmine and vanilla and I love that!

Verdict: this is a very pleasant sweet floral with a nice ginger edge. I get a heady, full on jasmine note with sweet vanilla and a bit of apricot, but the ginger adds warmth and a spicy twist to the scent. The scent has good throw and surrounds me with clouds of jasmine and vanilla. I am very fond of it-I’m not sure if I want a bottle yet but I really like and will consider maybe getting more some day. Apparently it’s even nicer when aged.

[ABrokenAngel]

In the Bottle: Oh god. What the hell? This has everything I love in it. Why does it smell but diapers? I just…totally don’t get it.

 

Wet: I think my nose was messed up last night. This is fantastic on. Every single element is balanced out and well blended and merged with the other scents.

 

Dry Down: Oh yes yes yes … very very nice. It’s all woman. Every last bit of it is womanly and not just in the sexual way.

[kylni]

I like this one a lot.

 

Maybe it's mostly because of my great affection for jasmine. But really, the scents seem to blend together amazingly well - knowing that it has jasmine and ginger and apricot in it, I can pick them if I imagine really hard. Maybe. So I'm not sure I can adequately describe it.

 

It's just kind of sweetly-floral (jasmine and vanilla) but also slightly spicey and fruity, so it doesn't come off totally flowery, which I don't like at all.

 

Perhaps my favorite so far, of my admittedly limited sample.

[telesilla]

Why I tried it: In spite of the jasmine--a note I'm not wild about--the other notes sounded good. I love Beth's fruit scents, particularly her apricot. Also, it was a frimp.

 

In the bottle and wet: Apricot and jasmine, with more of the latter, alas.

 

Drying down: The apricot comes to the foreground.

 

Dry: It's blended pretty well, no one note dominates the other, so it's sort of a fruity, sharp, floral. I don't dislike it, but I'm not as wild about it as I am about March Hare, for example. It's kind of...nice and non-offensive.

 

Later: It's still nice but not nice enough to keep.

[brownbear]

This one changes on me. It starts out as a sweet, fruity floral. Very fresh. Then there is an undertone of something a little biting. It is either coming from the jasmine or the vanilla reacting with my skin. Overall, I still like it. It is a sunny fruity floral. I love the apricot note in this.

[rhubarbbear]

siren was really confusing to me. i love the listed notes, but don't smell any of them in the vial or on my skin! i'd think it was mislabeled, but i've had several imps pass thru my hands (i keep thinking they must be mislabled). furthermore, it gives me a headache

[sookster]

to my schnoz, siren is insanely dark and sweet.....muhuhahaha....

a little bit of apricot and floral jasmine....very strong....this one is really

different and unique ... quite pretty

[sea_stars]

I wasn't fond of how this smelled in the vial at all..and was hesitant to put it on my skin. Though I am a fan of ginger, the ginger was just so sharp and predominant in this blend. Once it had dried on my skin, however, the ginger mellowed out to reveal the jasmine and vanilla. It's very warm and sexy and feminine..with a great throw! I'm so thrilled!

[grrrlennyl]

at first: sweet, with a bite to it.

on: pretty. lots of apricot and other sweet scents, but with something dark underneath.

half an hour later: a lot more vanilla and jasmine. very pretty.

1 hour later: soft and sweet. there's definitely more of a gingery feel to this now.

3 hours later: very pretty. soft, sweet, and fruity.

overall: this is very nice, but i really prefer depraved.

[AlaskaSnows]

The vanilla and apricot in this are wonderful, and the jasmine adds a bit of depth and headiness, then the ginger comes and spikes up at you and wanders around being belligerent and pointy. It could mellow, this is so nice I am willing to let it age... hopefully it will.

[Chrysantza]

I wasn't sure about this when I sniffed it in the imp and put it on. Wet, it smells like some kind of cocktail made with very sweet liqueur.

 

Drying down, it reveals itself to be like Katharina, drunk, having taken an aphrodisiac, and in sexy lingerie. The apricot gives the white floral and vanilla sweetness a real kick. It's a delicious sweet fruity/spicy floral.

[Mirja]

I had high hopes for this one, but it was not to be...

 

After a first sniff I thought "ieeeeeuw". Too much for me! But I have learned with BPAL that a scent can change completely on you skin. Alas, on my skin it smelled like bug spray It toned down a bit, but only slightly and I still smell like bug spray. I love ginger, but not this one! The vanilla and apricot never appeared, just this one scent.

It's giving me a headache and I'm going to wash it off right now.

[Lizzie]

I LOVE ginger and had such high hopes for this...but on my skin it's baby puke and burnt rubber. NOT good. I'll be swapping it. This was my first really horrible "get it off me!!" reaction. It was traumatizing.

[TheStormCellar]

I wasn't sure what to expect from this, since it does have jasmine in it, and I'm still leary of jasmine. It came out of the bottle onto my skin smelling very sharply of ginger root. But now that it's settled down, and the vanilla has come out, it's this rich sweet scent. I can really smell the apricots just dripping with heady sticky juicy goodness. It is very suggestive, but it might be tame enough for office wear.

[jidabug]

This started off intensely floral, with the jasmine coming off strong. The jasmine backed off a bit and the ginger came through with a sharp bite. I could just detect the vanilla being shy and lurking in the background. The ginger was a bit too sharp for my taste at first, but it mellowed out after a while. Okay, I'm probably going to hell for this, but it kind of reminded me of a perfume I used to wear in junior high, Exclamation by Coty. It had the same tropical floral, fruity zing to it. So this was very nostalgic for me.

[sissa125]

Imp: Candy-like, dried-fruity, spicy.

Wet: herbal, spicy, less candy. Scratch that - really chalky candy with lots of artificial flavor.

Dry:powdery ginger and apricot. very dusty. Growing on me.

 

This was an interesting scent. The ginger was foody rather than tart. The vanilla was a bit weak.

 

Siren didn't have the freshness that I now realize I look for in scents. I was nice enough to finish up the imp, but I passed it to a friend who likes ginger and apricot, and she seems to love it more than I did.

[fiddledragon]

Scent in bottle: Ginger, with kind of a rotten smell...I'm not sure where that's coming from.

 

Scent on me: It stays that weird rotten-fruit smell the whole time...I think it might be the jasmine mixing badly with the ginger and apricot.

 

Conclusion: Bleagh. Back to the swap table you go, little siren.

[Syzygy]

The first time I tried this, first onstage was GINGER! followed by JASMINE! And that was pretty much the whole show. Vanilla and apricot never even made it out of the dressing room.

 

I let the imp sit for a few weeks and then tried it again this morning. This time the jasmine was nowhere to be found, and the vanilla did show up a little, but once again it was all about the ginger: I smelled like a freshly opened bottle of Canada Dry ginger ale. Love to drink the stuff, don't wanna smell like it. Methinks Siren is not the one for me.

 

Note: A couple hours later, at work, I decided what the heck and dabbed on a little White Rabbit, a scent that's cozy enough when the linen note isn't amping itself into dryer sheet territory. Which, of course, it promptly did, and now I smell like...Canada Dryer Sheets. You layering fans may consider yourselves warned.

[draconix]

In the bottle: *sniff* *cough* Woah. I'm not sure what the smell is... there's a certain spice that feels gingery to me, but the rest is a mystery. Very potent.

 

On my skin:This is very gingery. That's all I can smell, it's very strong. I don't smell much jasmine, or any flower-type smell, but it is vanilla-sweetness riding under a wave of ginger-spiceyness. After a bit, it starts smelling like an Asian collectables store. Very incense-ish. Only sweeter. It's almost a candy smell after awhile. Actually, it smells a lot like those ginger candies, which makes sense.

 

Final Thoughts: I'm undecided on this one. Unless I'm up close, it's a surprisingly (after what it was like in the bottle) light scent. Nowhere near as overpowering as I was expecting. The sweet and spicy smell is kind of nice... I don't know. I'll have to try it some more and see how I feel.