Neutral

[Ishtar]

A flawless skin musk.

 

The name is definitely fitting. It is so... well, neutral that I can hardly smell it at all. If I really try to analyse the scent, I can detect something clean-smelling, a little fruity, slightly sweet and perhaps a touch metallic / acidic.

 

It's a perfectly pleasant fragrance, but so faint and close to my natural skin scent as to be a little flat and unexciting as a perfume. I would probably find it more interesting if I were into RPG, but as it is, I will be looking for a better home for it.

[LiberAmoris]

Neutral was a frimp from the Lab in my last order, and I'm so glad I got to try this one! It is a lovely skin musk, and this would be perfect for people who want a low-key, clean scent to wear in a setting where personal fragrance is discouraged, as this smells like clean skin, or the remnants of a nice shampoo or soap. The smell is tough to pinpoint. I'm getting musk and white flowers, maybe gardenia or honeysuckle? The floral note is one that includes a very faint smell of banana. Normally the smell of banana is pretty much the worst thing in the world for me, but here it smells more like a pale, golden yellow, like unripe bananas and white flowers, rather than the ripe, too-sweet banana smell that I find off-putting.

[grnwoodtree]

Neutral starts out smelling much like one of my favorite Tom Ford scents, and then alters to be more of a masculine, patchouli/spicy scent.

 

However, after wearing it for half an hour it is truly a wonderful slightly musky skin scent. Everything has settled and it fells to me truly neutral - not fem, not masculine.

Perfect for layering.

[Lunasariel]

In the imp: A sort of synthetic fruity scent, like decently nice shampoo. Actually, I'm 100% with Ishtar at this stage: clean, fruity, a little sweet, and just a touch metallic/acidic.

 

Wet: Not at all what I was expecting! From the name & description, I was anticipating a sort of "your skin but better" thing - a bit animalic, but very organic and maybe a bit sexy. Nope, here I'm getting kids' shampoo. For me this is kind of comforting, as it reminds me of the ostensibly kiwi-strawberry-scented concoction my mom used to buy for me in elementary school. I agree with LiberAmoris here - this would be the perfect scent for those of us who work in an environment where smelling like Snake Oil is discouraged, but still want to wear *something*.

 

Dry: Okay, THERE'S the "your skin but better"-ness! Just a hint of sweetness (whether floral or resinous or both, I can't quite tell), but mostly a dry and, yes, musky smell. Like with so many other RPG scents, I can already see the layering potential!

[petrichorandleather]

Neutral is white cotton sheets hanging on the line to dry on a clear, dreamy summer day. You're on a lawn where you are surrounded by huge white lilies and tuberose. There is no green from the lawn, just heady, orgasmic full white florals and cotton. It's truly beautiful.

[Malaena]

Wet it is a light sweet floral that I think is sweet pea plus some sort of candy sweetness...maybe sweet tarts?

 

Dry is has medium throw of sweet pea goodness. After a couple of hours I can pick up musk close to my skin. The throw turns into something lightly sweet like someone left open a bit of candy.

[Musamea]

In the imp, Neutral is super sweet! But not sweet in a foody, floral, or fruity way, just clean and very very fresh.

 

On wet, it's still sweet, with a teeny bit of floral blooming, like the very lightest of pale roses, covered with dew – I can already see how this would pair well with a ton of other blends

dry: What in the world is this deliciousness? Up close the closest thing I can think of is plumeria and then honeysuckle, but it's also not at all uber-floral, nor is it soapy, nor foody, yet it's the sweetest cleanest second skin scent I can think of; this is how I wish my skin smelled like all the time; I can't wait to layer with other scents!

Extreme dry: goes increasingly white floral (honeysuckle, gardenia) but never unbearably so (I'm not a huge fan of florals and generally prefer foody or resiny blends, but I'm really liking this), would be a great springtime scent on its own!

[Casablanca]

Bottle: Skin. Clean, but not soapy, with a faint, warm sweetness.

Wet: My skin but better. (Skinnier?) And sweeter.

 

Dry: Lovely, mellow skin, lightly floral.

 

Must try a bottle for use alone and as an additive.

[Cali]

Nice and clean. Wet. Goes a little musky/smoky on my skin and goes away after about 15 minutes.

[nolifeking]

Frimp from lab!

 

Indeed, this is quite a clean scent, perfect for work

[yakiguri]

Scent-wise Neutral is exactly as it says on the tin, a skin musk that reads as slightly red to my nose. Mostly clean, but just a tad spicy. It's is like that coveted my-lips-but-better (MLBB) lipstick shade: nothing exciting, but just adds that little extra oomph to lift you from blah to, well, you-but-better.

 

I wouldn't wear it on its own but it'd definitely help anchor other blends together.

[roseus]

This is warm, sweet skin. In a very innocent way. Beautiful, and will likely need a bottle!

[sasqa9]

Clean, slightly sweet skin.

 

It seems so light and unobtrusive that I'm tempted to put on more than the usual micro-dot. But I resist. Neutral intensifies on drying, disappears, then reappears again stronger. It has a powerful throw that I sometimes can't quite smell, but can sense, like a force field from my wrist. It's almost eye watering. By mid-day, my nose is burning, my throat is sore ... I think I'm sensitive to something in this.

 

The scent itself is so friendly, likable, fresh. I want to wear it! But no.

 

There's a scent component called ISO E Super and I think I detect it here (or a close cousin of it). It's really popular, for good reason: it smells great. It has a large molecule size that blocks scent receptors, so it wafts in and out as your nose tires of it, then recovers. Some perfume brands wayy overuse it ... which is why I like BPAL so much: these scents almost never give me 'chemical burn' (like other perfumes do). Neutral is a rare exception.

Edited March 17, 2017 by sasqa9

[LizziesLuck]

Looking for some lighter scents to wear at work, so naturally I thought I would give this a go!

 

 

Wet: Hmm, not sure I would call that neutral. It's like musky lemons or something? It's clean though. And fairly light. I do enjoy it. Maybe I could get away with wearing a dab of this at work? It's kind of bugging my nose though - it almost burns when I inhale it? Then again I have my face right on my wrist. I can't even smell it though with my arm a few inches from my face, so maybe a tiny dab on my neck would not be detectable from a foot away. The waft is lovely when I wave my arm around. I do like this.

 

 

Dry: This is really lovely. Light, clean. I think pretty inoffensive (I can't even smell it now, after 30 mins, unless I put nose to wrist). I think I have a winner!

[marilyn eyre]

Ugh, this is so lovely. Just perfect. Light, inoffensive, and so natural. A perfume for when you need to feel like you have it together.

[gloame]

Musk, where? This smells like a light fruit-floral to me. Something melon + violets maybe. Pretty, but not enough to buy a bottle.

 

Where I'd wear this: A spring picnic somewhere grassy and humid

[Juliamon]

If this is floral, it's one that doesn't hate me! It's a very light, sweet, gentle, clean scent. Not exciting, and not something I'd wear out, but I've been putting a bit on before bed the last few nights and I think it might be helping my brain relax a bit because I've been getting sleepier faster. Will keep experimenting with the imp, but probably doesn't warrant a bottle unless I find something to layer it with.

[quigza]

This goes on with a light hint of cantaloupe, something floral, and a light musk. As musk tends to turn on me, I readied the soap. But, a half hour later, it hasn’t turned. So glad. The floral component must be a white floral, because the flowers do seem to amp on me. The floral component must be a white floral, because the flowers do seem to amp on me. I’m wondering if this is osmanthus? Every time I get a good whiff of this fragrance, it seems to fade away. You have to let hour nose rest to get another good sniff. I like scent, but it’s elusive, despite it very much being present when you can smell it again. It makes it hard to pick out notes. But, I guess that’s the point of something called neutral, right?

 

Additional note: I know there is no sandalwood in here. However, this fragrance does what sandalwood does to my nose. I can smell it for just a second, then it disappears.

[dementia_divine]

I love layering Neutral with Ranger and Elf, but I haven’t actually ever reviewed it on its own, so here goes!

In the bottle: That’s some clean, light musk, all right.

 

Wet: This is bright, but not a crystalline, vanillic musk. It’s skin musk… so clean skin, but better. And sweeter.

 

Dry: This isn’t a morpher. It calms down a little, but remains a bright, clean skin scent. I do get a floral vibe from this and some honeydew beneath the musk.

 

Verdict: Neutral is not a scent I would wear on its own unless I were in a scent-sensitive environment, but it is my favorite of the RPG alignment scents, and since it is one part of my favorite RPG layering combo (thus far!), I am happy to have a bottle of it to layer with Ranger and Elf.

Edited June 19, 2018 by dementia_divine