Laurel Honey

[Iceblink]

Laurel honey.

This one is really green and planty on me, a little too much so. The wet stage is aggressively vegetal, with the honey only coming out after 30 minutes or so. It's much less sweet than some of the other honey blends because of this so this might work for those who find the Lab's honey to be too overpowering...but that plantiness is strong!

[angelicruin]

I have to agree with previous review. Very green & planty with just a trace of honey.

[edenssixthday]

Laurel Honey - I can't really add anything new. It's light honey with heavy green, bitter plantiness.

[zankoku_zen]

Heavy bitter plantiness - I actually get a whiff of coconut from it and honey. It makes me think of sticky suntan lotion.

[Blood onmy hands]

I don't have much to add here. The honey is a golden, sweet honey with a raw, bitter edge (which is pretty much what I've gotten from all of these honey blends), with a backdrop of dark green, plant-y something (reminds me of dark green, waxy leaves). The mix just doesn't work for me or smell pleasant to me...

[Laurel the Woodfairy]

This was an automatic bottle for me; I rarely buy BPALs based on name alone, but come on! I'm called "Laurel, Honey" by many loved ones, and this is as close as I'm likely to get to having a BPAL named after me (since Beth is not doing custom blends any longer). It's softer than I expected, and stays close to my skin. The honey is clearly there but not really sweet...the green notes predominate. It's nice; not OMGawesome, but pleasant. I think it would actually layer with florals very well, as it makes an almost neutral base of soft greenery on me.

[Ajila]

In the bottle - Something green and peppery

 

Wet on me - A wreath of fresh green leaves, complete with stems and sap

 

Dry on me - After a while it goes a bit washing powder on me, there are hints of honey, but they're drowned by detergent

 

Overall - Didn't really agree with my skin chemistry

[aquazoo]

A little dust, a little wood, very very very green. But where is the honey?

[Pika]

To me, this is very fresh, green, and herbal. Kind of cool and aquatic initially, but without ozone. (yay no dryer sheets!) It's actually fairly medicinal the longer it's on, and unfortunately, very much lacking in the honey I was hoping for.

 

ETA: went powdery/dusty at the end too. Don't know what note that was; certainly wasn't expecting it from the way it started!

Edited November 17, 2010 by Pika

[hkhm]

imp: sweet greenery.

 

wet: this is a very strong and bitter greenery balanced with very sweet honey.

 

dry: the greenery fades pretty quickly to the point where it is just faintly sweet.

[grrrlennyl]

Laurel Honey

 

On: Incredibly fresh and green with sweet, light, bright honey.

1 hour in: Very pretty. There's an almost mint-like note to this at the moment on top of the honey, plus a sweet, lush floral note.

5 hours in: A pretty, bright, almost fruity honey. Very nice.

7 hours in: This is a bit sweeter and not quite as light.

Overall. If I didn't already have Doll's Eye Infused Honey, I might be tempted to get a bottle of this.

[saralaughs]

I don't like laurel as a note. Very bitter plantiness when first applied. It does calm down but never really gets sickly sweet as honey is usually wont to do. Good for those that are into something that isn't so sweet but love honey.

[invisible iris]

A complimentary imp from the Lab.

 

In imp: Green gold syrup

 

On skin: Bay, fruity honey

 

Dry: Sticky honey (not what I’d call ‘dusky’ or ‘powdery’ honey, like in O, and not fruity anymore either) tempered by the slight herbal bitterness of laurel/bay leaf. Something smells almost like lemon pith, I think that’s the piquant edge of laurel. While the main note comes off as lickable and sweet, the laurel gives it balance and interest, with a hint of masculinity and an appealing medicinal quality. It reminds me a little of Manuka, a pungent tea tree honey from New Zealand. But I love the Grecian reference of the laurel--it works as an Ancient Greece blend, for those who dislike the wine notes from Wanderlust. (Come to think of it, I guess hemlock would work for that too.)

 

It's very nice. One of the few daytime, warm-weather-appropriate, not-too-sweet scents that has really drawn me. It makes me want to try other herbal honeys from Rappaccini’s apiary. Lasts a nice while on me, even when applied sparingly.

Edited June 9, 2011 by invisible iris

[changeling]

In the bottle: Interesting: honey but not cloyingly sweet

Wet to dry: A warm honey with an initially bitter note. As the oil dried on my skin, the bitterness faded, giving place to an herbal note that nicely balanced the sweetness of the honey.

 

I received this as a frimp from the lab. I had assumed that the scents from Rappaccini's apiary would be too sweet or too pale on my skin but this was a nice surprise. Thanks, lab!

[Maleficium]

Wow.

 

imp: smells like a crushed leaf or a freshly snapped twig.

 

wet: the very same, but some sort of blossom-y smell subtly makes its way to the surface. I kind smell the honey about 30 seconds in, it's there but very faint. It's got kind of a bitterness to it, but not a bitterness that is intruding or unpleasant. There is also lemon here, but not in a really citrus-y way. Smells like a little bit of shredded lemon peel.

 

 

This scent makes me feel and smell like a wood fae. It's quite lovely.

[Schmoozy]

Honeyed greenery. Upon initial application the honey is golden, sticky and sweet. Once on Laurel honey blasts green leaves, stems and like everyone else has commented it is bitter. The sweetness dies down after minutes and what is left is a hint of honey with greenery. This is so pretty.

[aphrodite]

This is actually very honey-like on me, with just enough of a light woodland floral to keep it from getting overly sweet. I can wear it all day, unlike many sweet scents, because it's such a natural sort of sweet. It's divine when mixed with something sharper, like Elf or Belladonna. It inspired me to order a bunch of honey imps, because if they all have such a distinct honey sweetness and I can find one balanced with a darker scent, it would be sheer perfection. this was an unrequested imp and I am so glad I got it.

[milo]

This is like a bitter honey on me. They don't blend together nicely, it's like two separate entities fighting on me. Not really my thing, though I do like the honey note here.

[Suu4LC]

I like bpal honey, though it can sometimes go powdery on me.

 

In the imp this is an earthy/woody green + sweet honey. I do love that honey note, but green scents really tend not to be for me...

 

On my skin it almost smells like a citrussy honey for a second, then that starts to fade into the green scent + honey. Very green. There is some note in this that is just going weird on me...this happens sometimes. It's almost like a chloriney note on top of the honey. I have yet to figure out what note reacts like this on my skin. Harumph! It definitely did not smell this way in the imp.

 

The weirdness does fade as this dries on my skin. This blend is definitely a morpher. It ends up being a slightly sweet, honeyed, powdery green note on me that is actually not bad. Powdery, but not TOO powdery.

 

In the end, sort of dried to generic honey powder. Pleasant, but nothing special. Gives me some hope that maybe one of the other apiary honey blends will work for me!

Edited November 22, 2011 by Suu4LC

[VelvetSky]

Laurel Honey is a very sharp, green blend that definitely has presence. The honey is there but its buried underneath the strong, sappy green notes. It dries down into powdery musk, and the honey does come forward a bit. An interesting scent but not one I would likely choose to wear.

[ami226]

On the skin: A green, honey blend, emphasis on the green! Smells like freshly picked plant leaves with a slight whiff of honey.

 

Interesting, but not for me.

[hecate_jones]

In the imp: Sharp and plant-sap smelling. For some reason I immediately thought "Shampoo!"

Reminds me a bit of dandruff shampoos, like Neutrogena or T-Gel similiar.

Realising that, I'm not sure I want to try it, but...

 

Wet on skin: Yup, medicated shampoo

 

Dry: Powdery medicated shampoo.

 

Not a keeper.

[JazzieCazzie]

Received as lagniappe in a purchase from a lovely forumite ... and tested as I work my way through my entire BPAL collection, revisiting and reviewing.

 

To preface, I am very intrigued by the honey scents by BPAL and have acquired imps of some of this series. My reaction to this was apparently quite different to many of the previous reviews, based largely, I think, on my body chemistry.

 

IN THE IMP: Indeed, sharp and green with very little of the honey.

 

Dabbed on one wrist and lightly in the crook of same arm.

 

WET: My body amps honey up like nobody's business. I really love the initial wet combination that results from this, as the green of the laurel combined with the sweetness of the honey smells like a fresh pungent green bush (in fact, much more like my boxwood plants that the Heinous Hedgerow does). A very early mid-Atlantic spring smell.

 

DRYDOWN: This is a complex, long-lasting scent that isn't really in-your-face but the honey keeps getting sweeter and sweeter. It's like herbal sweet honey.

 

OVERALL: This one is a really really tough call for me. I sort of adore the scent. But I don't see wearing it very often because it is very strong, even lightly applied, and something that I think might bother people who are scent-sensitive. I would LOVE this in, say, a room spray or candle but as a body scent, I think I'm going to have to put it in the swap box. My hand really hovered over the two boxes ... it was a tough decision.

 

I may need to see if I can find other BPAL blends with laurel because I liked that green.

 

On a scale of 1-5, a 3.5 but not something I'd wear because of above reasons.

[Magycmyste]

In the imp: Green plants.

 

Wet on skin: Wow...even greener.

 

Dried down: Hmmmm... This is going kind of bitter on me. I was hoping the honey would come out more and balance the plant, but i'm not really getting it, except for the faintest bit in the throw, and there's not much of that.

 

Throw: Not a whole lot. But I like what I'm geting. I just wish I liked the scent that was coming off my wrists a bit better.

 

Verdict: *** I need a bit more honey in this to really enjoy it. I think it will be going into the swap pile.

[brilliantcat]

Very very green and bitter in the imp. I get some of the honey sweetening things up once applied but it smells like I've been gardening. I even get a damp soil note in here. It's an amazingly true to life green plant. On drydown, the honey comes out more but it still remains pretty bitter and green. Not for me.