Meliai

[voodoobaby]

Ash manna and ambrosial honey.

Whatever wood smells are in here -- balsam, pine, ash, whatever -- are very similar to the wood notes in Samhain, but this is less autumn and more spring. It's also brightly aquatic/citrusy and a bit floral, but the wood notes balance that and keep it from being too overpowering. The honey isn't typical because I can actually wear it. It's thankfully deeper and a bit darker than normal.

This isn't what I was expecting. I don't know what I thought ash manna would smell like, but this wasn't it. Still, it's quite nice.

[sparkleyturtle]

I totally get the start out of the green and citrusy with a touch of the aquatic sharpness. The green may come from that ash manna. Very spring like. When it dries down, it has like a smooth, sweet smell. That may be me picking up the honey. It is nice, but I don't think it is something that I would purchase

[Fjaer]

in imp: I'm getting a very green scent, can really smell that pine freshness, just hope it loses that air-freshener/ cleaning product edge when it's on the skin.

 

Wet on skin: still very piney and strong. It still smells of cleaning products to me slightly with a little sweetness creeping in.

 

Drydown Yay =] it's mellowing out and I'm getting the honey come through, still a very clean scent but in a more natural, green way.

 

Dry: Im liking this a lot more , the honey has really come through now, and it smells almost exactly like the Orange Blossom Honey I had a couple of weeks ago and also a little like the Organic Sleep Easy herbal tea I have with an added spoon of honey. There are also citrus and floral notes in the background.

 

 

Overall, this is a pleasant, smooth, fresh, sweet, feminine blend. Not the kind of thing I would usually go for, don't think I'll go for a bottle, but it's proven to be really quite nice.

[frecklestars]

In the bottle: very very sweet, but a bit spicy too. it reminds me of oranges and cinnamon-cloves, but of course none of those ingredients are in it (go figure). there is a little bit of smokiness that keeps it from being to christmas-y, though it still reminds me of pomanders (only with honey drizzled on top as well).

 

On my skin: it's still spicy-sweet, but with a bit more smoke in it. almost like burning sugarcane(?), or at least what I imagine that would smell like. or root beer. maybe. I've never smelled ash manna, so I don't know if it's accurate or not. unfortunately, it dries to a plastic-sour smell.

 

Last thoughts: it's a touch too sweet for me, but it _is_ very pleasant. the spiciness is almost like root beer. odd but good combination, just not good on my skin (too much plastic and root beer-esque vibe).

[Ella LaRose]

I smell gain laundry detergent, which is cool, cause I like that smell, but it is the smell of fresh washed lines to me.

[keyake]

Okay! So, I love ash trees, and bright green sweet scents, so I was curious to try this. (Bpal makes so many myth-inspired scents that it will be the death of my wallet, I swear. I like that thing! I want to smell like that thing that I love the stories of! oy vey)

 

Wet in the imp: Oh dear, this may be another "light" smell that fails horribly on me and gives me headaches. I don't know what it is about light colored oils, but they tend to amp flowers on me and then give me migraines. I'll try it anyway.

 

Wet on my skin: I already like this better but there's a sharpness that I'm unsure about. Already though I can tell this is better than all those other light scents. I've been searching for a spring-summer "day" scent and I may have found it.

 

Drydown: Less flowers, more smoky sweet and sap and green. I'm really liking this - I could see how other posters found it to be "androgynous" but I don't get masculine from this at all.

 

Dry: Smokey honey sap green yesplease and thank you. I'll be ordering a bottle of this soon. ... oh dear.

Edited July 25, 2011 by Shollin
Removed Lab description

[filigree_shadow]

I'm not sure what this is supposed to smell like, but when I first put it on it was very sweet. Sweet as in some sort of exotic fruit that I wouldn't know the name of. After about 30 minutes it got a lot softer and smoother.

 

It's very nice, but I'm not sure that fruity note is my favorite fruit ever.

 

ETA: After about 90 minutes or so, I keep sniffing the air and wondering where that cologne-like scent is coming from. I tracked it down to the test spot of Meliai. It smells kinda like one of those sporty colognes at this stage. It is still not bad -- in fact I'm actually enjoying it -- but still probably not something I'd wear with any sort of regularity.

Edited May 21, 2011 by filigree_shadow

[Honey]

Honey on honey, purr!

 

 

Imp: Omg, so good! Freshly peeled oranges, sweet honey and a floral undertone, I think this must be the ash manna.

 

Wet: This is way more fruity than like honey. It could be orange but also passion fruit or some other yellow-orange and exotic fruit. There is a herbal and rich note to this scent.

 

Dry: It smells what I have always wanted orange blossom honey to taste like! Very sweet and fruity with a herbal and spicy undertone. The citrus note is a bit too sharp for me, though, and the scent takes on slight toilet cleaner attributes after dry.down (maybe a bit heavy on the bitter lemon that could be in there after all).

[brittanywut]

In the imp: Sweet and green. Herbal.

 

Wet: The same.. kinda piney.

 

Dry: On my skin it's just herbaly and piney. No honey whatsoever. Not my thing.

[melrose]

I love this first on. It's sugar and spice with something indescribable grounding it.

 

Later, all the top notes disappear. It's honey and grain, which must be the ash manna.

 

Slightly weird, because it's veering into oatmeal territory, so no to a bottle, but I'll greatly enjoy the imp.

[lookingglass]

I think this smells like yuzu fresh on. Drying out, it's bright green with sexy creamy honey! This smells like SPRING! Drying out, the ash manna gets kind of dusty and I still love it!

[bellumed]

I admit that I’m not really familiar with “ash manna” as a scent, but to me Meliai smells like a cross between honey candy and a Lifesaver gummy. I can see what other people are describing as “springy” and “green” but it’s just coming off as more fruity/candyish to my nose. Not bad but not quite for me. Swaps it is!

Edited June 28, 2012 by bellumed

[Monday]

On my skin wet: Mandarin? Like a freshly peeled mandarin. There's something underneath that that I can't quite pinpoint it smells a bit like greyish soap.

On my skin dry: Persistent soapiness, where did that delicious mandarin go? The soap smells a bit of anise and honey. Meliai has quite some throw, but is not something I enjoy wearing.

[neuilly]

Not quite sure how this frimp got lost in the pile! This morphs a bit and is incredibly unexpected and not my normal type - but I can't stop smelling myself!

 

In the beginning I agree that it had the green freshness of a florists, but perhaps even a touch sharper. The honey at that point was only hiding in the background. There was also a vaguely evergreen note - I kept think of breath mints?

 

Give it ten minutes though and the honey moves up front. Refreshing but warm, and slightly sweet.

 

This is so hard for me to describe! I'm quite fascinated by this scent, but I will have to see how much I use the imp before diving into a bottle.

[biocarolyn]

Wow, I wish I remember where this imp came from... I'd like to thank whoever sent it along! The ash manna (which I had to look up, and appears to have nothing to do with this was burnt-and-on-fire ash and everything to do with sap from an ash tree) is a very green scent, with what feels like a strong component of woodiness coming through too. The honey sweetens this up, but not in a foodie sickly-sweet kind of way, more an unidentified richness that adds to it significantly. There is something really familiar about this that I can't put my finger on... like it reminds me of some bath product from my childhood. I'd say this is predominantly green and fresh, at least on my skin. I see where people are getting pine or fir but it doesn't seem like that to me, just aggressively green. And this is also one of the few BPAL scents that smells the same to me in the imp, wet, and on dry down. It's got something in common with Ochosi, and also maybe Sundew. I really like this!!

[Innocuousmold]

This is a nice coniferous tree, rosemary and wintergreen scent to me. I get a sweetness to it, but it's not overt or anything. I get the greenness people are talking about, but it's less like grass and more like herbal. It's nice but minty is not my bag.

[Elspethdixon]

Wet/in imp - Sharp, herbal honey, somehow 'clean' smelling

 

Freshly applied/five minutes in - Sharp/clean herbal honey (heavier on the green herbs than the honey), that I'd swear has citrus in it were it not for the fact that citrus notes generally smell like cleaning products on me and this just smells fresh and clean/bright. There's also a hint of something acrid/dry/hot, like burning (checking the notes, this is probably the ash resin or wood, and my brain subbed in "burning" for "dry woodiness" because the word "ash" suggests burning). I'm a fan of warm/dry wood scents and"fire"-themed scents like Djinn, so I actually really like it.

Half hour - after about 30-40 minutes, the ashes and herbs fade into the background and the honey comes to the foreground. It's a fruity-smelling honey, which I guess is the "ambrosial" part. The fruity honey stage lasts about 2 hours before fading (but might have made it a little longer if I hadn't put on sunblock at that point).

.

Overall this is a lot like an Apiary scent, except I actually like it better than I do several of the Apiaries. It's a good spring/fall honey, first clean and herbal and then somehow fruity and crisp rather than sticky and sexy. A shame it's discontinued.