Mars

[slave1]

Mars Revisited:

Dynamic Energy - Lust - Enthusiasm - Resolution - Courage - Physical Strength - Mental Acuity - Comraderie - Engineering - Any Work With Metals - Victory - Conquest - War - Power - Domination - Military Matters - Daring Deeds

 

In Bottle: Woody

 

On Skin: It smells like fresh cut wood at first. I look back at past reviews and all these people mention cinnamon, a note that almost never works on me, and I don’t smell it in this blend at all… Was my bottle mislabled? I mean seriously, I don’t smell cinnamon or a spice in any shape or form. I can get a slight resin feel from it, maybe Dragon’s Blood, but primarily it is sweet and woody. After about 10 minutes I get a little spice, maybe clove? But nothing overwhelming or overly “spicy”. I get a red feel from this scent from the resin and wood notes, maybe it’s cherrywood? It’s very sweet and I can even smell a little cherry I think. I am excited to try this scent for it’s intended purposes. I need some energy and strength right now. I hope it works!

[Alchemy21599]

In the bottle: sandalwood, mild cinnamon, and lilacs. Gee, I wasn't expecting this to be floral, at all!

 

Wet: Mild cinnamon and those lilacs! I love the fact that the oil is red, like the planet Mars.

 

Dry: Lilacs! I have to wash this off. I was not expecting the lusty god of war to smell like lilacs.

[UploadedLobster]

In the bottle: complete disbelief. Flowers? I think those are daffodils...

 

On skin: Yes, these are daffodils. Daffodils, lilacs, and sandalwood. It's...uh...okay? I can't detect any spice at all, or any resins.

 

Drydown: All spring floral, all the time. It lasts for a few hours.

 

Frankly I felt deceived, when I smelled this. And again, when I wore it. While Mars is the planet of Aries, and Aries comes around at precisely the time when daffodils and lilacs are blooming, I was expecting a POWERFUL scent. A vigorous robust scent suitable for (as the description lists) LUST, VICTORY, CONQUEST, COURAGE, PHYSICAL STRENGTH, et cetera.

 

And it turns out to be a spring floral. Oh HELL no. Major strikeout for the Lab here.

 

 

 

Lobster Rating

Better than: shampoo in your eyes

[gingersnapp]

This smells like straight up dragon's blood on my skin. Some sort of spicy, resinous floral. I can see why some people are picking out lilac, but this definitely turns into dragon's blood when I wear it.

 

Very nice, though.

[zillah37]

In the bottle: This smells so *red* which is fitting since it's Mars. There's a hint of cherry to it that gives it a bit of a cough syrup scent. It smells exactly like something I can't put my finger on. I want to say Robitussin, but I'm not sure. Oddly enough, this doesn't bother me. I like the smell of Robitussin. Yes, I'm strange.

 

On my skin: There's something very animalistic. It's smells vaguely like a light version of civet on my skin. Civet minus cat pee plus menthalyptus plus cherry = Mars. It's not spicy at all. It's almost like a light, flowery, watery scent. Dude, is there lilac in this? The longer it's on, the more civet it becomes. And I'm fairly certain it's civet. Hmm. It's not a bad civet scent, but I usually can't handle civet for that long. It's already starting to give me a bit of a headache.

[mandragora]

Imp courtesy of Kiena's Small Tarot Decant Circle

 

In the imp, Mars is RED, in color and in scent. Wet on me, it smells very similar to Dragon's Blood. As it driesdown, it becomes a little spicy, cloves perhaps. Later on, it's straight up Dragon's blood on my skin. I like Dragon's blood, so I'll be keeping the imp.

[Nekomata]

This is definately a masculine scent! In the bottle is smells like a classic insense, very woody. On my skin it dries to plain dragon's blood, sadly.

[Meg]

In the bottle: Wow, it's Mars-red! I smell clove and/or cinnamon and a faint floral, as well as something resinous (Dragon's Blood?).

 

Wet: Spicy! I think there's pepper in here, but there's also definitely jasmine. Peppery jasmine, it's very invigorating, actually. There's also something resinous, possibly some kind of incense.

 

Drydown: The flowers really develop and become dominant on my skin. I can smell jasmine, but there's also lilac and ylang-ylang, I think. It's quite spicy and a little bit musky, like the civet note. In an undertone I smell dragon's blood, orange and... lotus? is there *lotus* in there too?! Wow. It settles into red-hots cinnamon, ylang-ylang, lilac (?!) and dragon's blood, after quite some morphing.

 

Overall: It's the weirdest scent celestial I've smelled so far. It's so well blended that it really challenges you when you want to pick out a note. It smells slightly metallic, like rusty nails (could there be a dash of ozone in there, too?), and sharp, and sweet. It most certainly smells like Mars: powerful, a bit aggressive, sexual and with a huge amount of energy. It certainly isn't one of my favourite things to smell, but I can see myself using it when I have trouble getting things done.

[cranberry]

In the bottle I smell wood, maybe a touch of cedar, resins.

 

When I first apply this, it's slightly sweet, resinous, maybe elements of sandalwood? It's really quite nice and I like the wet scent quite a bit. It's a rich, warm, sexy smell.

 

Where did my sandalwood (or whatever that was) go? As it dries, it dries to a dragon's blood scent. There's a touch of spice back there.

 

I like it and I'll keep the bottle but I did like the wet scent a bit better.

[emz83]

I got this before reading the forum's reviews; which, yeah, once the oil hit my skin I thought "Dragon's Blood", and sure enough once I check the reviews there it is.

 

Granted, this isn't as purely resin as some other blends (it's not as 'soapy' once it hits my skin), it has what seems like several strong florals, daffodils and lilacs I think. It's nice, but I think I'm going to have to swap this because of the resins.

[draconix]

In the bottle: Very... forceful. It's a bit overwhelming and gives me a slight headache. Something that smells kind of floral, possibly jasmine. I'm not smelling any cinnamon in this like everyone else seems to be, but if I shows up when I put it on I won't be disappointed. Clove is there as well.

 

On my skin: This dried instantly. Clove, a bit of cinnamon... something slightly floral. Fiery and fresh. An odd combo.

 

Final Thoughts: There's something nicely invigorating and alluring about this. Yet another Celestial to add to the good list.

 

On a side note, I accidentally knocked this over when testing it and it spilled a bit onto my window sill. Now every time I have the window open and a breeze comes through it picks up the scent and my room smells fantastic...

[Elrianra]

In the bottle, thick and - well, there's no other way to describe this - RED. Dragon's Blood resin, possibly some rose, lichens and woods and frankincense I think. I smell smoky-throaty-lusty redness. On my skin wet, this is copper and honey - metallic but sweet and smooth - with a floral and woods tone that spins my head. I think it's oak, that golden wood note, and there's musk - oh yes, I smell musks. As this dries, the musks (I was wrong, not a lichen or moss but musks) and dragon's blood come shooting straight to the top. Unlike Dragon's Musk however, this isn't the heated throated sensual musks, this is body heat and smoke over a bed of florals. Warm, it's all dusty red musk and florals - oh my yes! There is a pepper-spice scent that I want to call cloves but I know it isn't; no, I think that may be tonka hiding in there. Hmm, this one can't make up it's mind at all and just keeps shifting. It's delightfully warm with just a tinge of sensuality to it. There isn't much throw to Mars, but it's powerful once you're close in. It stays warm and reserved for hours, not at all cloying but close-lying instead. Mmmm, one 5ml of this is NOT enough!

[themerrybaker]

Mars is my favorite of the Celestials. Definite metallic/ozone over leather and resin. Mars seems dark and powerful, this oil really captures the intended experience.

[batsy]

In the vial: high retail men's cologne?

 

On the skin: Ow, skin burny! Now the cinnamon/cloves are coming out... but it still smells like some men's cologne for me.

 

Not for me.

[edenssixthday]

Mars - I'm not surprised in the least that Mars is a red oil and that it smells of Dragon's Blood. What does surprise me is how common the scent is. It's definitely dragon's blood and it possibly has some extremely light spice notes in it, but there's nothing remotely interesting about it at all. It reminds me somewhat of Blood Moon, but is lighter and mellower. It's certainly not an unpleasant scent, but it doesn't seem unique to me in the least. The scent has incredible lasting power, although I find that after the first 45 minutes or so, it sticks very close to my skin and doesn't have much throw. It's nice, but I'm glad I didn't buy a whole bottle.

[Eunice]

Mars is what I imagine brimstone (not the Lab's Brimstone, however) to smell like. I don't smell cinnamon at all. It's the clove I am getting first but it is blended with a smokiness that doesn't come from wood. Pepper and ozone! This is an amazing opposite to Venus.

[karengypsy]

In the vial: Cinnamon. Clove, maybe? Something else, too... saffron?

 

On me: I smell all three of those notes, but I'm not sure if I like the way the last one turns on my skin. In fact, I think it's going on a little rancid. Ick.

 

Verdict: Off to the swap/sell pile.

 

Rating: 1/5

[shadith]

This is so light, despite that it smells bright orange-red. I get cinammon and some resins, I think it's dragon's blood. When I first smelled it it reminded me of Red Phoenix, but I compared them and Mars is nothing the like. This blend is really good, but I'll for sure have an imp for touch ups with me when I wear it.

[chapatti]

First whiff: OUCH IT BURNS US, IT BUUUUURNS!!!

 

Drydown: Hmpf. Now that Mars has stopped showing off with his skin-scortching, I-am-god-of-war-feel-me-roar routine, I can actually smell a strong dragon's blood smell (so, lilac, pretty much), with an overlayer of spices, most prominently pepper - not perfumed, pink or white pepper bays, mind you, this is harsh, ashen pepper from the pepper mill. The resulting smell is, frankly, unpleasant - but I do feel the trademark Celestials Special-ness®. Joy. Still, it smells bad

 

Verdict: honestly, scent-wise, it's really not great, and that's a euphemism. The smell is actually so distracting that I haven't been able to focus on any possible effect from the blend.

...and to think I was hoping for cinnamon. Ha!

 

4/10

[theseagrows]

i basically tried this just because i'm an aries. i cannot pick out any of the notes in this at all. i can smell a slight spiciness and something sweet, some sort of floral, maybe orchid (it reminds me of shadow witch orchid a bit). it does smell very red though, as others have said. it's the slightest bit perfumey too, and is more pleasant than i thought it would be.

Edited July 18, 2006 by theseagrows

[jarvenpa]

another from the implet planetary set sent me by the good zenvodunista.

 

The motto of this Mars is obviously "Make Love, Not War", which comes as a great surprise--but I love it. Mars and I have had a long, long love hate relationship (Aries Moon, 12th house Cancer Mars)--I am settling into adoration now.

 

This is Mars with flowers in his hair. This is Mars who is lolling about Venus's bedchamber, looking very muscular and all that--but really, far more into action in the bedchamber than in tromping off to slay enemies.

 

It's a version of Mars I enjoy a lot; Mars with a sense of humor, Mars with a sly grin and bedroom eyes.

 

Flowers layered over--maybe sandalwood? The flowers are the early ones of spring, appropriate to the spring time sign Mars rules so well. I think of daffodils, and hyacinths. There may be spices here as well (hyacinths always smell like cloves and an afternoon in heaven to me)--but mostly floral. And then the deep dragon's blood, that gives this oil the beautiful scarlet color.

 

Mars wafts distractingly. He'd have me in an instant.

[indicolite]

Ah, Mars. Indicolite the blue tourmaline likes red stuff, alert the media.

 

Dragon's Heart is what I smell, only with a spicy kick to it. I always figured the perfume-y note of Dragon's Heart was the musk, and the dragon's blood was the resiny almost-fiery smell I get a little later, but either the first note is actually dragon's blood, or Mars also has red musk. I would not put it past him. This is a sexy scent.

 

Very nice and sexy. I have to decant Mars to carry around with me. Dragon's blood + spice (is it clove or cinnamon? Come to me, both of you, I like you lots) = what's not to like for red-hearted Indicolite?

 

Thanks, o lovely lab, for putting Mars where I can get at him.

[sofiaviolet]

I think I smell dragon's blood. Also woods and musks. I had this in my swap pile but decided to review it because I hadn't yet, and now I want to keep it. I may try layering it with Dragon's Blood to see if I can get that to last longer, or with Blood Rose because I'm a girly girl a lot of the time.

[forspecial_plate]

To me this is a peppery floral that reminds me of dragon's blood resin. I don't know my florals really well so I couldn't say which one specifically I'm getting here. But it's nice, and I smell black pepper as a backdrop. That's about it really, a nice blend, but hard to say when I'd be in the mood to really wear this.

[gravedigger]

I was expecting cinnamon and clove... Unfortunately, in the bottle and on me, Mars is weird, soapy, old-lady floral. Not a even scary, powerful old lady... this is the kind of old lady that sits on the porch and knits all day.