Baba Yaga

[JazzieCazzie]

<div class="bpal" style="background-color:transparent; border: 1px dotted #000033; color: #000099; padding: 5px; width: 90%; align:center;margin:0 auto 0 auto"><i>Spell-soaked herbs and flowers, cold iron, broom twigs, bundles of moss and patchouli root, and moth dust.<!-- bpal scent end --></i></div>

 

This is one of the few scents which I really do not like in the bottle but I love when it's on ...

 

In the bottle, to me, it's almost too sickly sweet and fruity, almost fake-fruity smelling.

 

Yet once it's on, it goes right to Dole pineapple chunks in a can, deliciously sweet and juicy.

 

On drydown, it adds in a sweet sugary scent that makes me describe it as pineapple upside-down cake. It lingers all day with just the right amount of throw, a sweet, fruity and light scent ...

 

If this is released I would definitely buy a big bottle ...

 

On a scale of 1-5, a very high 4.

 

REVISITED AND REVIEWED THE RELEASED VERSION FEBRUARY 2013:

 

Purchased an imp of this during my recent impapalooza buy from the Lab, even though I knew that the officially-released version was different (to some degree, didn't know how much) from the long-ago prototype which I had so surprisingly adored.

 

IN THE IMP: It definitely lives up to its description with its intriguing and unique combination of herbs and woods.

 

Dabbed onto one wrist and crook (I'm trying to make some headway so I have moved onto trying two scents at once, one on each arm).

 

WET: Some sweetness seeps through but overall it quickly morphs into a slightly acerbic cologne.

 

DRYDOWN: It's on the herbal side for sure and gone gone gone is the lovely pineapple-upside-down-cake scent which had me longing for its official release for years.

 

OVERALL: Just not for me. Not bad but nothing special ... too much perfume.

 

Score: A 2.5 on a scale of 1-5 and into the swap box.

 

I AM curious, though, whether the original Baba Yaga blend was ever released by the Lab under a different name or, even, anything similar to it? I'm not a fruity-scent lover but this one was divine!

Edited March 1, 2013 by JazzieCazzie

[grrrlennyl]

at first: fruity, like apricot and cherries. maybe something tobacco-like, too.

on: fruity, with something else underneath.

1 hour later: a bit soapy with a nice fruit scent to it. i can't quite place the fruit, though.

4 hours later: more sharp on me now, but i can still smell something, which i'm assuming is pineapple, since that's what so many others have said.

overall: just ok. not something that blew me away, so i sent my imp on.

[pekeana]

Mmmm, nice.

 

Baba Yaga reminds me a bit of Mi-Go Brain Canister.

 

It smells of musk, light florals, and fruit -- pineapple and a hint of widdle bitty kiwi babies. Not jasmine as the floral, but something softer -- and, alas, Baba Yaga lasts a wee short time.

[Eros]

An extra from a lovely and most generous forumite and again, THANK YOU!!

 

Have to say, DUH, only realized a short time before I tried it that it's unreleased.

 

So...on with the review, yay!!

 

In the imp/first few seconds on skin...SWEET, syrupy pineapple. Or rather, the impression of pineapple...At this point, way too sweet and fruity for my taste.

Very quickly, as it warms on skin, goes to a slightly tangy, freshly opened can of pineapple with a bit of honeyed spice and the fruity sweetness has faded considerably.

There's a bit of a *very* light cinnamon tingle on the skin and a touch of light, spicy musk with a vanilla-like creaminess. Nice throw, too. Not overwhelming but definitely makes it presence felt.

Overall~musky spice with a touch of sweet, honeyed incense...a skin scent, and absolutely gorgeous!!!

Just might have to grab a bottle of this one when it's available.

[dcmo]

I agree with t3andcrumpets that this is similar to Mi Go Brain Canister. I also get something reminiscent of a Pink Sugar type scent. This is sugar sweetened pineapple, with a touch of something creamy and a little bit musky. This is really nice.

[Orodemniades]

Mm, sweet, with something vaguely citrussy? With lily or maybe gardenia?

 

I don't get pineapple in this, but as it dries it is becoming soapy, but florally so. It's definitely bright and cheery, with a hint of incense somewhere. I like it!

 

Oro

[coulrophobe]

Huh... mine did not smell like pineapple - while fruity, it was more of a rich berry/floral with a bit of incense. I wasn't able to pick out precise notes; Baba Yaga seems complex and very well-blended to me. It seems to morph each time I sniff it - from juicy berry to perfumey floral to crisp fruit (like pear, but... not) to smokey incense... a very intriguing scent.

 

I hope this one is released soon. It's gorgeous and unique, and as a lover of all things fruity, my little imp will be hoarded until it's available in larger quantities.

[joseybird]

The notes in Baba Yaga are difficult for me to identify I definately get the pinapple but it's more like dried pinapple than fresh--no juicy smell. I also get something resiny...and maybe a tiny touch of pine? There's definately a woodsiness here...

[OriginalWacky]

Bottle (Imp): A little sweet, quite smooth, with a tiny hint of spice.

 

Just On: Sweet and smooth. Just a bit of spice, maybe a bit of flowers.

 

An hour or two later: Hmmm, watery spices.

 

Around 6 hours: Mostly water, and a bit of spice.

 

12 hours: Spicy water.

 

Overall: Not too bad really. I think I'd consider more of this.

 

After reading other reviews: Wow, the pineapple really didn't stand out to my nose. This is a good scent though, and the more I think about it, the more likely I would be to by a bottle.

[UltraViolet]

In the bottle

Bright and fruity

 

On

Oh my goodness this is a yummy foody scent. It is indeed a tropical fruit smell like pineapple or mango or something. I know there's an herb in there but I don't what it is. It's sort of spicy cinnamonish or something. Whatever the other note or notes are they go really well with the tropical fruit smell so that it's not just fruity, it's got some dimension. I think I smell lotus. It's like a running joke now with me with the lotus.

 

30 minutes

There's a floral that's trying to peek out, it's shy. I've smelled this other note before, is it in Peithos? Or Himerus? Whichever one is the jasmine one, this note is in there too, it's creamy and nice. I can't tell if it's a floral note, a woody note, an herb or a spice.

Edited to Add: I'm thinking this floral is Pikaki. I have Pikaki sn now and it's a dead ringer. Doesn't explain the pineapple scent but the floral note of this blend.

 

Throw:

average

 

Scent category:

Fruity/?

 

Summary

It is initially a bright sweet (not too) pineapple-y blend. As it dries and when dry it gets a little less bright and more "thick" but it is still lovely.

 

Purchase again?

Yes! This is the best blend that has a tropical fruit type of scent that I've tried yet from BPAL. That includes, The Star and Black Pearl. There's no coconut smell (thank God) like those blends but I'm just trying to compare with something foody and tropical in nature.

 

1-5 rating (5 being best)

4

Edited January 16, 2006 by UltraViolet

[amrita]

Wow-- bizarre. My experience with this one is so different!

 

Upon application, I get a generic perfumy, heady, wet smell. As it dries down, it starts to waft an unpleasantly perfumy musk. I can't pick out anything but that. A half hour later, I smell a hint of vanilla underneath. I had to wash it off eventually. I have a feeling it would be quite instructive for me to know the notes in this.

[CapricornSister]

Wet: I get a musky smell along with some spices. I think there's something vanilla-like in the back. Kind of like a nice cologne.

 

Dry: I think there may be some sandalwood in this one too, but it's very light. It still has a cologne-type smell to it, but it's on the sweet side. Very nice

 

To me this one is a bit masculine, I think I'll swipe it on my guy and see how it smells on him. I would probably get a bottle of it if it came out

[ladymissspyder]

I was really, really hoping for a pineapple scent, so I was a little disappointed when the only time I got pineapple was when I sniffed the bottle.

 

On, it has a spicy, incensey quality with just the slightest undercurrent of soap.

 

It's nice - I love spicy and incensey scents - but I think I'm going to swap it.

 

 

 

PS. I tried layering it with a drop of O to see if that would help, and I was only able to bring up the pineapple for a moment. :/

[brownbear]

Very interesting.

 

This one starts out smelling kind of perfumey. Then once it's dry it mellows out and settles in. It is fruity and warm and tasty. There is posibly some musk in here. Very nice, not sure how much I'll wear it though.

[Blood onmy hands]

Review for the unreleased prototype version of Baba Yaga:

First on this smelled a bit perfumey to me, sort of a creamy vanilla musk scent. After a few minutes, I'm getting the canned pineapple scent that others have mentioned. Sweet, yellow, and syrupy.

Within a half hour I am getting a definite floral and soap smell from this. Perhaps jasmine? It's not overly strong though, so it's not giving me a headache. The fruitiness is the main note.

Baba Yaga, on me, smells like a nice tropical scented soap. Sweet pineapple and sweet exotic florals. It's nice... I'm not sure that it's really me though.

 

Review for the released version with notes of: "Spell-soaked herbs and flowers, cold iron, broom twigs, bundles of moss and patchouli root, and moth dust."

In the imp, this smells like potpourri and immediately turned me off.

On my skin, yup, this is cheap potpourri. It's like that dry bagged mix potpourri that people put out in little dishes around their homes. It smells oddly spicy, like cinnamon + kitchen herbs (maybe some type of pepper in here as well). There's a little bit of floral perfume and dry, dusty smelling wood underneath the spiciness too. It reminds me of Mama-Ji, but a paler, cheaper, not as spicy version. The overall feel is cheap potpourri, and it gives me a vicious headache.

 

I'll pass on both versions of Baba Yaga.

Edited October 28, 2009 by Little Bird

[Fishwomon]

I'd like to know the notes in this, because I'm trying to track down what note turns to generic perfume on me - and it's definitely in Baba Yaga. I love the story of Baba Yaga, but on me, this oil was nothing like her. The oil is very faint on me; I have to stick my nose right up to my wrist to smell it. What I get is a very generic, uninteresting, brassy perfume smell. Alas.

 

ETA: During the drydown, this gets a lot stronger, and I really don't care for it.

Edited November 11, 2005 by Fishwomon

[Fefferbella]

On my skin Baba Yaga starts out smelling like generic perfume- like when you walk throught the cosmetics area of a dept. store.

 

Once it dried, a fruity and warm tropical note came out.

This was VERY faint on my skin, but a really lovely scent.

[malanna]

I expected this to be all pineapple, and while Baba Yaga is a bit sweet and fruity smelling, the fruit smells too tart to be pineapple. It is a bright fruit, anyway. The pineapple is incense-y, but not smokey incense, more spicy incense. The fruit becomes more of a floral (not sure what floral), although the floral remains sweet. I'm not so sure I'm so big on Baba Yaga. This is definitely a happy scent.

[aidenraine]

I smell soapy soap and then something fruity. There could be a hint of cinnamon in here as well. It starts out as a really mixed blend but becomes extra super soapy really quickly.

 

It also grows faint really quickly on my skin.

 

More soap.

 

(More time)

 

Wow, soapier. Somewhat like lavender soap. Hand soap in a hotel.

[valentina]

I received Baba Yaga as a frimp from the Lab. Thank you! I was rather excited to try it, because my forum name - Valentina - originates from a graphic novel character by Guido Crepax. Crepax also draws a charcter named Baba Yaga, who encounters Valentina and plays out elements of the original folk story, except this Baba Yaga tries to take Valentina as a lover and at some point hops in a car and tries to run over Valentina.

 

So I am getting to my point... the Baba Yaga scent sort of ran over my body chemistry -- it blew up wildly once applied to my body. Wow, did it get strong right away. And what I get when I smell it is lots and lots of ylang-ylang, with maybe a bit of spicy smokiness in the background. It doesn't smell bad on me, but it's not one of my best. I do think it's rather intense and exotically weird, and I wished it worked just a bit better, because it smells unlike anything I've previously tried. I do think I'll try to put a few drops in unscented body lotion and see what happens, because I'm simply not ready to say this one can't work on me in some form or another...

 

valentina

[melange]

Imp: tropical fruit + musk.

 

Wet: one of the nicer kinds of "invigorating" bath gel.

 

Drydown: I can see the resemblance to pineapple that others have mentioned; I get a clear, pale yellow top note that isn't quite lemon (lemon peel, perhaps, but not juice), hovering over the musk, plus a bit of a floral.

 

Worn: more floral, with a perfume-y feel.

 

Conclusion: fun to experiment with the frimp, and a nice enough scent, though right now it doesn't feel like "me." I think it would be better in the springtime when the sun's out and the air's warmer but still a little crisp, and the breeze is playing with your hair.

[slave1]

In Bottle: Sweet fruit

 

On Skin: Interesting! It’s a bit fruity and a bit soapy… very bright! I get a yellow tone from this. I like the scent, I don’t exactly picture it fitting with the Baba Yaga character… but it’s interesting to imagine. The fruit is a bit pineapple-ish, and the soapy ozone notes are coming from florals I think. I like that it is so clean smelling… but I generally like more sweet perfumey notes… If anyone wants a fresh soapy scent that is slightly floral and fruity, this would the perfect match!

[angharad]

I got a strong pineapple scent with a layer of something woodsy underneath from the imp. When I put it on, the pineapple toned down a bit, and the woodsy note came out a bit more. I was really starting to like this when it suddenly turned to baby powder and disappeared half an hour after application. Bad skin chemistry!

[harmonyfb]

I have to say, this doesn't remind me of the old woman of the forest. In the imp, and when I first applied, it had a strong 'commercial perfume' scent. Once it dried, it was an unremarkable musky floral. ::shrug:: Eh. Not my thing.

[maewitch]

Erm...my dad's cologne?

 

Really, I'm not getting any pineapple or fruitiness in this. It has that classic sort of cologne shape to it, this mix of herbal-floral notes, with a jolt of something breezy and a little sweet and that underlayer of musk.

 

It's nice, but not me.