Badgers

[GypsyRoseRed]

BADGERS
As a general fact, these girls are smart, good-looking, well educated and are near, and prepossessing in appearance. This is especially the case with those who are called "Badgers," but more widely known as panel thieves. These plunderers have had full swing, of late, and have robbed many an unsuspecting stranger of his all.

Sweet patchouli, soft, honeyed leather, sassy sarsaparilla, honeysuckle, and French vanilla.

Badgers really turned out to be much softer and sweeter on the whole than I was expecting! I can't detect leather, and it's one of my favorite notes (but I can always add a drop of Rogue if I want to...) which initially was disappointing, but once the scent dried down, I really like the soft warmth of the patchouli in this one, and although sarsaparilla can be over sweet in some blends, the notes all balance themselves out perfectly here. Even the honeysuckle is blended and harmonious with the vanilla until all I smell is a lovely, rich earthy sweetness.

ETA: This is heaven. :joy: And about 40 minutes into wearing it, the leather note *did* make an appearance, though it's a soft glove leather note. So effing awesome.

[absinthetics]

Patchouli is the first thing that hits my nose, wet. And behind it slips honeysuckle and the vanilla. This is a different vanilla than a lot of the vanillas in foodie scents.

 

 

As it dries, there is a sharp amp of sweet on my skin, perhaps the honey part of the leather. The leather is all but not there in the beginning but as it dries, it peeks out from behind.

 

 

This is a warm, foodieish scent that has an incense quality due to the patchouli. I wouldn't call this a straight up foodie scent though. It's a little bit what I wanted Dolly Kei to be.

 

 

More later on the dry down!

[izile]

OK, my skin chemistry did a number on this. I was really worried about some of the notes, but it smelled really good in the bottle so I grabbed one quick before they were gone.

 

While wet it was very sweet and kind of odd, I'm guessing the honeysuckle maybe? Maybe the sarsaparilla? But sweet, not too patchouli (I normally hate patchouli) and nice, but not in a foodie way.

 

Dry = coconut. I kid you not. Not Obatala coconut, but a really dry, husky, sweetened coconut. Like a really nice coconut got split open and then left in the sun and has dried up, concentrating the sweetness in the meat and its rough husk. It smells really good, it's almost like a dehydrated mounds bar, where you're only *thinking* about the idea of chocolate (could be the sarsaparilla and vanilla combined enough to give a foodie nod in my brain)

[Lethran]

In bottle: Patchouli dominant, to a worrisome extent, but not as over the top as Occupy. The leather is a distant second, but a good choice with the patchouli. The sarsaparilla and vanilla are soft, but pleasant with the stronger notes. I can barely find the honeysuckle at all. Wet: Still a bit too much patchouli, but not as egregiously so. The vanilla and honeysuckle strengthen and form a weak second together with the leather starting out just behind them, but moving up to challenge the patchouli, carrying the honeysuckle and vanilla along with it. The result is sweeter and more feminine than in the bottle, but still patchouli strong. The sarsaparilla hovers in the background for a while, then edges into support of the leather. It morphs a lot. I had such hopes for this, but think it’s just too much patchouli for my taste, even with that gorgeous honeysuckle/vanilla complex. Dry: Pretty on the dry down where the patchouli and leather blend better with each other and the vanilla. It’s still not me, but I have hopes of it being good on someone who’s skin is better friends with patchouli. I also suspect this will age beautifully.

[SadariEvenstar]

So, the only thing that is keeping this blend from skyrocketing into my top ten is that I'm a little bit allergic to honeysuckle. It's going to have to wait in reserve for days when I'm having absolutely no allergy/asthma issues and feel like I can handle it.

 

This is beautiful soft brown leather, I think the softest leather that I have ever smelled in a bpal. It blends together seamlessly with the patch, vanilla and the sarsaparilla to make a beautiful spicy, warm, sweet, earthy scent. For me, the honeysuckle is a little high pitched and green sitting on top, especially until it dries, but I think that it is only so predominant to my nose because it bothers my allergies.

 

Dry, everything seems to meld and deepen much better and I have a harder time picking out individual notes.

 

edit- Seriously screw my allergies, this is too gorgeous to not be in my top ten. It's definitely my top leather scent.

Edited October 17, 2012 by SadariEvenstar

[jolarocknrolla]

izile isn't the only one that thought she smelled coconut somewhere in there during drydown! On me, it is soft, sweet and amazingly well blended. the leather note is really not at all sharp (I am generally ambivalent about leather) and honeysuckle smells like a very fresh vase-flower to me, freshly sweet but not cloying. The patchouli, vanilla and sassperilla are what make it awesome though, it is the perfect sweetness held JUST barely in check w/ that subtle leather. I love it, it was the only NYCC oil i got and it makes me SWOON with delight <3

[tailoredshirt]

I really like this!

 

Wet, the patchouli and leather are dominant (especially the patchouli!) but I get all of the notes and they are blended together well. Aside from the patchouli, leather, and vanilla, I probably wouldn't be able to pick out any individual notes if I didn't know what I was looking for. The patchouli/leather combination is sharp (mostly due to the patchouli; the leather is a nice soft brown leather), and the other notes are sweet and almost powdery in contrast. The vanilla is nice, not too foody. I was a bit worried about the sarsaparilla being too sweet when paired with the vanilla/honey, but it's not cloying.

 

The longer it sits on my skin, the sweeter it gets and the more the leather/patchouli calms down. I do get a slight impression of coconut as some other reviewers have mentioned, and I think it's the vanilla/sarsaparilla combination.

 

I've had it on for about 3 hours now, and it's mostly sweet vanilla/sarsaparilla/honeysuckle with a bit of patchouli. Very pretty!

[Dark Alice]

I get no coconut from this. Just bad ass patchouli and honey with a blast of bad ass leather. As it dries the vanilla comes out more to softens up the leather a bit. This is just damn gorgeous. But I still wonder if I need two bottles.

[crebbsgirl]

I can sum up my review in one syllable:

 

UNNNNNNHHHHH!

 

This smells amazing on my skin. I normally have real trouble with the lab's leather note. In fact, I think the only blend with leather I have ever been able to wear has been Bow and Crown of Conquest. Most leathers go to chemically grossness on my skin. This, however, is absolute sex. This is a really soft and smooth leather, almost suede-like. The patchouli is really sticky and sweet. It blends nicely with the leather. I get hints of honeysuckle underneath, and I can smell the sarsaparilla sweetening this a little further. I also get nothing resembling coconut on my skin. This is really a stunning scent, and I think it's only going to get better with age.

 

Thank you so much to my amazing NYCC fairy for this.

[SophieCedar]

Holllleeeeshit. Its Ninon and Banshee Beat's lovechild.

 

I see what people are saying about a sharp note at 1st or the honeysuckle being culprit. I'd say wait it out. Its worth it.

 

The patchouli is very sweet and mellow, honeyed leather: whatever that is I need more, sarsaparilla is laying low adding a slight non-foody brown-golden spiciness, the honeysuckle is amping the golden quality and making this decidedly feminine, french vanilla? who doesn't need that? No really it helps make this warm and sweet.

[Alethia]

Thoughts before testing: I read the description for this one and literally squeaked with excitement. Everything here is a win and I'm really hoping that this will be as beautiful as I'm imagining!

 

Wet: Unnf. I'm going to have to find my bottle of Banshee Beat and double check, but the patchouli here reminds me a lot of the patch in Banshee Beat. This is so freaking good. Wet, it's a strong blast of sweet patchouli to the exclusion of the other notes, but that's ok by me!

 

Dry down: I start to get more of the leather and it's amazing with the patchouli. The leather here is soft and sweet and I'm in heaven. I can detect just a tiny hint of vanilla at the very end but no honeysuckle or sarsaparilla at this point.

 

Dry: I die. Seriously, this is wonderful. The patch and leather are delicious, and I can finally detect the sarsaparilla mingling with the vanilla in the background.

 

Final thoughts: Badgers is crazy good and just rocketed into my top 10. This is definitely my favorite leather blend so far.

 

Verdict: Hoarding!

 

ETA a HUGE times a billion thank you to my wonderful pick up fairy!

Edited October 23, 2012 by Alethia

[suki]

In The Bottle: I think the honeysuckle is combining with the patchouli to create some off version of a Victorian Gentlemen's cologne It's odd. Not unpleasant, but not really my thing either. I hope it shifts...

 

Wet On Skin: There's something very "green" smelling in here. Like lavender and green twisting vines, or ferns. I'm am truly puzzled. None of the notes mentioned have ever turned into something like THIS before on me.

 

Dry Down: Ah. *There* we go. Whew! I thought it was going to be that way forever! Now I'm getting sarsaparilla, honey and some vanilla. And yet, this doesn't read as a 'foodie' scent at all! The patchouli is really, really subtle. Far more than I anticipated.

 

In All: Because of the rich, resinous makeup, I think I'm only getting half the story. I have a feeling I won't really know the final verdict for about 6 months to a year. BUT, from what I'm getting now, I think it's going to be worth the wait.

[alioth]

Oh, this is lovely.

 

Wet, there was definitely some honeysuckle in there, but now that it's dry that's gone. I'm getting the sarsaparilla from Anti-Saloon League with the gorgeous leather from Crowley and just a little bit of vanilla creaminess to keep it from being too sharp. I'll have to do a non-wrist test to cement my adoration, but so far Badgers is just beautiful. So glad I had an awesome fairy to get me a bottle.

[VixenArgentum]

I bought this bottle off of somebody on a whim, and boy am I glad that I did!

 

In the bottle it smelled very green to me without any real warmth to it, so I was nervous at first. As soon as it touched my skin, I smelled the honeysuckle and something that smelled exactly like burnt peanuts...which didn't reassure me any more than before. O_o It was beginning to look like one for the swap pile.

 

But then, after the 5 minute mark, MAGIC! Pachouli and honeyed leather front-and-center, with the vanilla just sort of rounding off the warmth. I'm not entirely sure what sarsaparilla smells like, but if I use my nose to fill in the blanks, I think it's something I like. <3 As the hours move on, the vanilla becomes stronger.

 

This scent doesn't have a very high throw on me and I burn through it fast, but the extra applications are worth it. I just have to wait the 5 short minutes for the bizarre peanut smell to disappear and then I can go about my day! What a lovely, quirky oil!

[zankoku_zen]

UNFFFFFFFF.

 

Badgers. You are a mystery to me. On wet, you smell like a citrusy patchouli and the sweetness of the vanilla and honeysuckle makes me reminisce fondly of Jingo-Kogo. As you dry down, the leather and patchouli mix more together, the citrus note disappears but you remain a sweet, sexy blend.

 

Very sexy. I don't think however I'll need more than a half bottle of it. But hot damn, this is fabulous.

 

ETA: Who am I kidding? Badgers quickly turned into an obsession and something I reach for. Compulsively. Executing my previous Queens from the top. And one of the few bottles I hoard.

Edited November 15, 2013 by zankoku_zen

[tharsei-thanate]

Got a decant of this from Dark Alice!

 

I just got it in the mail this afternoon and I was going to wait a week or two for it to settle before testing it but I couldn't resist!

 

Badgers is a yummy golden brown scent that's mostly a seamless blend of honeysuckle and French vanilla with soft leather hiding shyly behind it. There's also something else in here- something that smells very good- that I can't identify that's becoming more prominent as it dries- it's probably the sarsaparilla, which is a note I'm not familiar with. I'm not really catching the patchouli, although there's a suggestion of it. Overall, Badgers is warm and sweet and so very pretty. It has a great depth to it and it's very evocative.

 

I have a feeling this will become even better once it settles. I especially hope the leather becomes bolder!

[Blood onmy hands]

I thought this would be awful on me, because I haven't been enjoying bpal's patchouli scents lately, and honey rarely works for me. But this is gorgeous on me. The honeysuckle and French vanilla smell so delicately sweet and charming, with the earthy patchouli and honey giving off this sort of outdoorsy skin scent smell. It smells like a beautiful girl in a country song.. cowboy boots, lacy sundress, sunshine and flowers... it's outdoorsy, but in this pretty, classic, feminine way. Almost sort of airy and sunny rather than dark and heavy (which I expected from the leather and patchouli). The patchouli reminds me of Thierry Mugler's Angel a bit.

 

I'm very glad to have a bottle of this one <3

 

ETA: This is another bottle from this series that seems to have gone off over the last six months. This totally smells like sour, funky jasmine (I guess it's the honeysuckle) and dirty ash tray on me now

Edited April 16, 2013 by Little Bird

[ljaylh]

In the bottle, it smells really citrus-y and sharp but sweet - 'fresh' is probably the right word to describe it - so I guess that's the honeysuckle, although I don't usually get a citrus smell from honeysuckle. It smells... sunny. Hmm.

 

As soon as it's on my skin, I get a sharp blast of honey. Uh oh. I'm not really a fan of honey in my BPALs, it's not a note that plays nicely on my skin (stale vomit, anyone?) and it's the one note in here that I was worried about. But thankfully, a few minutes later it's mellowed right out and I can now smell the lovely patchouli and leather. The patchouli seems to have a slightly smokey note - I wouldn't have said 'sweet', but it's definitely not the earthy/hippy/feral slap-you-in-the-face patchouli we know so well from things like #Occupy - it's more the soft caress-your-cheek-gently type of patchouli like in Hippie Ghost. The sarsparilla isn't 'sassy' on me at all - actually it's pretty subdued.. it's just there, sitting quietly in the background, but it's adding a soft warmth and slight spicy spark that's quite lovely behind the sweetness of the honey.

 

Leather.. hmm.. yes, it's there, but not like LEATHER at all - more like leather - kinda quiet, and soft and fuzzy. And hey - there's the French vanilla! It took about 15 minutes to appear, but there it is.. and it's lovely - quite deep and rich, not candy-sweet at all. The honey/honeysuckle sticks around pretty much through the whole wear time for me, but it never gets cloying or nasty - woo! Badgers has totally laughed in the face of my anti-honey stance.

 

An hour or so later, I have a lovely soft smell of leather+patchouli+vanilla with just a hint of honey - very nice. And although it's soft and pretty, it's not weak or 'girly' at all - it has a bit of unff behind it for sure. I love Little Bird's description of a beautiful girl in a country song - that's it.. this is the smell of sunshine on your skin, laying in a field of soft grass and sunflowers. It's soft and snuggly but also a bit naughty - just like its namesake. Cute, but a bit badass - so actually, more like a honey badger

[donkehpoo]

Wet: Sharp, sweet patchouli.

 

Dry: This is a sweet patchouli-leather scent on my skin. No vanilla, no honeysuckle, no sarsaparilla. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't bummed out, as this was the NYCC exclusive I was most looking forward to. However, I know a lot of other people would absolutely love this scent.

 

I'll probably give this a few months to see if it changes. If not, then it's off to swaps!

 

 

1/5

[OctoberGwen]

This is a gorgeous blend. For once on me, the leather is soft, not sharp and overwhelming; and the honey and vanilla do not become so sweet they nauseate me. There is no trace of plastic. It is not flowery at all. Just a smooooooooth, perfect blend. Interestingly, twice in a row my right wrist smelled more strongly of the leather, and my left had a distinct rootbeer quality from the sarsparilla (another note I generally do not care for, incidentally.)

 

I was a bit sad that this is so nice, actually. My beautiful NYCC fairy (you know who you are) went to a boatload of trouble to obtain two other exclusive scents for me - I was convinced that Badgers wouldn't work. Ironically, I ended up swapping those two away and then really liking Badgers when I got a half decant.

 

I thought I'd need to hunt down a bottle of this, but I think I'm fine with my decant after all. As lovely as this is, I still don't really want to smell like leather. I'll enjoy my little imp, for sure!

[Ordo_ad_Chao]

Thank you so much to my NYCC fairy for helping me get my hands on this!

 

For me, Badgers is soft, sweet patchouli-leather. I was nervous about trying it, because honey and honeysuckle generally amp up on me and turn everything into dripping sweet sugary rot. Here, they don't.

 

The leather is barely-there, and is softly supple sort. Patchouli reigns, but definitely not a dirty patch. This is a tamed, soft, creamy patchouli.

 

The sarsaparilla works with the honey/honeysuckle to give a faint sweetness and a hint of barely there spice.

 

I don't detect the vanilla at all, at this point. However, knowing how BPAL vanilla and patch age into rich gorgeousness, I'm planning to set this back in the humidor for a good while and try it again.

 

As a fresh oil, I clearly see comparisons to Banshee Beat by virtue of being a soft, rich, non-dirty patchouli. The scent lasted upward of 12 hours on my skin, and the long-term dry phase resembled a sweeter BB without much vanilla. I suspect that after aging a while, the vanilla will emerge and the resemblance will be stronger yet.

[Monday]

I was so sad when my fairy let me know that Badgers had sold out. But I finally managed to get my hands on a bit of it!

 

Badgers starts out quite green and fresh, then the honeysuckle amps together with the sarsaparilla and patchouli. It's quite a heady scent which is probably due to the honeysuckle.

After a while all the notes combine into a sophisticated scent that's faintly reminiscent of dry mandarins. I'm glad I don't get a lot of leather or honey though the dryness of it is due to the leather.

Apart from the mandarins the another strange thing about this is that it goes very smoky when it's dry, like opium smoke. I like mandarins and opium.

Badgers starts out feminine and ends up leaning towards masculine. This is definitely a quirky one but one that I'd love to have more of.

[milo]

I tried this twice today, with slightly different results. The first time was right out of the mailbox, and it was mild, sweet patchouli with honeysuckle. Now who would have thunk that these two scent smell oh so nice together. The second time, sweet, honeyed patchouli, but the honeysuckle came out 45 minutes later or so. I"m thinking the oil was freezing cold, so maybe that was the difference? At any rate, I think I need more. This kind of reminds me of a less intense Haloes, or Osiris v4. Lovely.

[nefta]

Got a decant through angelamaria and her lovely fairy who got the NYCC exclusives.

 

Bottle: Sharp honeyed floral, probably the patchouli. Spicy.

 

Dried: When first applied - sharp spicy leather, personally, I couldn't withstand this one. After a while, the leather becomes softer and mixed with honey, but still strong. Vanilla barely there. I couldn't pick out the sarsaprilla and patchouli, but I'm guessing both makes the leather appear spicier when I first applied.

After ~3 hours or so, the leather softens again, I quite like this stage. Vanilla is more prominent with the leather and honey.

 

Verdict: Pretty interesting as its my first leather blend, never expected this to work nicely on my skin. Definitely looking out for other leather blends next time. But I don't forsee myself reaching out to this very often.

[Zorra]

My decant bought from someone from this forum arrived today and it smelled so good I had to wear it. It's gorgeous. I wish I had tried to find a fairy to get me a bottle when it was available. It really jumps right into my top ten!