Bastet

[Aredhel]

Bast, Ubasti, Ailuros, Ba-en-Aset. Represented as both a domestic cat and a fierce lioness, she truly evidences traits of both. She is the Mother of All Cats, Goddess of Sensuality, Fertility, and a guardian and protector of women. She is also one of the Eyes of Ra, and in that aspect is an Avenging Goddess, seeking retribution and punishing enemies of her people. Luxuriant amber, warm Egyptian musk, fierce saffron and soft myrrh, almond, cardamom and golden lotus.

Rating (on skin): 0/5
Summarised in a word or two: Weird!

In the imp/bottle: Sickly-sweet almond, lotus and amber.

On skin, wet: The dominant notes are most definitely almond and amber. Actually, I don't catch anything else but almond and amber!

On skin, dry: This makes me queasy. After an hour or so, it starts to calm down, and it becomes a soft, warm amber.

Conclusion: This isn't my thing in the imp, while wet, or for the first hour, but after that, it turns into the amber that I love; The thing is, I don't think I could stomach it for the first 59.9 minutes. Edited December 17, 2005 by Aredhel

[Krista]

Bastet

Why does almond always smell like anise to me? Anyway…Bastet is a nice light almond, very much reminds me of Dana O’Shee. Dry, it takes on more of a sweet floral. The lotus is really faint, but definitely present. I really like this once the almond is toned down and more floral comes out. Definitely a 5ml purchase.

[emz83]

In the bottle it has a wonderful round amber scent, and a verrrry slight nuttiness that looking at the other reviews I guess is almond. However, once it hits my skin it went to baby powder. Le sigh.

[Tesseljoan]

I never expectied Bastet to be so light and gentle as it is. On my skin, it is almond at first, and then it morphs into a flower/spice combo, that I can only smell occasionally. It is lovely, but even Dana O'Shee lasts longer. A keeper, but a slatherer as well.

[eisoj5]

I have Aredhel's imp It's spice and a hint of incense and musk on me; it's mellower on than in the bottle. When I put some on my collarbones I got a very strong sense of "kitties!" that's fled now. Sniffing my wrist puts me in mind of the Middle Earth store in Ann Arbor near the incense and soaps section.

 

(I really need to get some single notes to practice with...)

[Janie]

An ephemeral scent that only lingers briefly with a hint of spice and incense, then disappears altogether.

[nineveh]

On me, Bastet is a warm, sweet, and light scent. I can smell the lotus, but it doesn't take over. This becomes a smooth, creamy scent with a bit of incense underneath--maybe that's the myrrh. The floral, resin, and spice aspects of this are blended very well together so it's hard for me to pick them out individually.

[OriginalWacky]

Bottle (Imp): Oooh! Sweet, spicy, and quite interesting.

 

Just On: Wow, it's very well blended, and I really like it.

 

An hour or two later: OOh, this has amber in it. It's pretty well blended, so I can't pick much out, and I rather like it.

 

Around 6 hours: I still can't pick much out. Two of my cats are adoring this. Looks like I'll be needing more of it.

 

12 hours: I get a bit of powderiness. Not a bad bit, and it's faded a lot.

 

Overall: This is a very nice blend, and since a couple of my cats adored it, I think I may have to have some more.

 

After reading other reviews: I never could pick out any of the notes, other than a whiff of the amber peeking out, everything just stayed SO well blended. Between a couple of the cats slobbering on me, and me liking it, it's going on the big bottle list.

[dcmo]

Wet, the dominant note is almond/cherry, but this dries into gorgeous amber and spice. Soft, exotic, slinky, sexy. Along the lines of sherezade and morocco. Just gorgeous!

[JazzieCazzie]

I had ordered an imp of this based on notes in one of my daring periods ... and received it as a frimp which means I will have TWO imps of it on my swap pile ... This is the first total wash-off I've had in a long time ...

 

BOTTLE: Almond and something else that is very sweet.

 

WET: Almond and soap. Kind of interesting and complex at first, for about a minute or so ... at which point my throat starts closing up.

 

DRYDOWN: I had a very virulent allergic reaction several years ago to some raw honey, like an anaphylactic shock, and this was physically a mild version of that ... but on a more sensory note, this was just horrible to me. Old maiden auntish cloyingly sweet HORRIBLE scent ... I have no clue what the offending note is ... I know I can't stand lotus, but I know that's not what's doing it.

 

Even after washing this off with orange anti-bacterial soap I still stink.

 

Do I even have to say that on a scale of 1-5 this is a 1???

 

REVISITED FEBRUARY 2013:

 

Since I clearly did not re-read all of my old reviews prior to making a brand new impapalooza order, I re-ordered this based on the notes listed ... I mean, amber, saffron, musk, cardamom, how could I go wrong (again)?

 

I DID, however, re-read the review before application and still wanted to be complete in my reviews (yes, there is a hyphen in anal-retentive) so I forged ahead, but this time with only a tiny swipe of the wrist.

 

Imp acquired from Lab 2/13

 

IMP: Very fruity despite there being no fruits listed in the notes, very sweet, slightly medicinal (this may be because I immediately associate cherry and medicine which is why I never order anything with cherry in it). Not a hint of amber, musk, cardamom or saffron that I could tell.

 

Dabbed LIGHTLY on one wrist.

 

WET: A little bubble-gumy addition to the afore-mentioned notes but that's the only new note for my nose. NONE of the notes I love. I'm guessing it might be the lotus that is the deal-breaker on me and overpowers the others? Orchid works like that on me as well. Not much almond in it for me, which is neither here nor there -- I won't order a scent FOR the almond but it won't be a deal-breaker for me either, since I quite like Eclipse and Salome, for example.

 

DRY: Just perfumey. I have to shower in a few anyway so no biggie. If I didn't have so many scents I wanted to try I'd probably be fine with leaving it on for the duration until it wears off, which is still a HUGE improvement over the first time when I nearly went into anaphylactic shock.

 

OVERALL: I'm upgrading from a 1 to a 1.5-2. It's not horrible. I mean, let's face it, NONE of Beth's scents are horrible, honestly -- they're all brilliant in their own way. Even my least favorites are other people's favorites. It's just wonky on me, for whatever reason. I'll save the 1s for the ones I have to wash off immediately.

 

And my wonky will, at some point when I get my swaplist together, be someone's wonderful.

Edited February 22, 2013 by JazzieCazzie

[subbes]

I got this in a swap after an LJ friend raved about it.

 

 

In short: This is, on me, almost a dead ringer for Eau de Kookai. Insert your own umlaut, I don't have the character map handy.

 

I think it's either the saffron or the lotus -- or the combination of the two -- because I recall Kathmandu having a similar air about it (under the 'snake oil' exotic spice air that always comes up huge with me, plus cedar).

 

So, if you're missing Eau de Kookai, or something, and your chemistry matches mine, try Bastet.

 

 

Straight out ot the bottle, I get almonds, that then starts to dry down into a delicious amber-y medly. Then, somewhere, something happens and bam! Eau de Kookai once it's dry.

 

I don't mind EDK, but I was hoping for something more like the amber medly I first smelt. This might well go back out to swaps a mere day after I got it -- in a swap. Pity.

[olympia301]

Almond, the prettiest start, and it is warmed by amber and what hits me as developing musk. There is something like leather in here as well, a comforting scent of places loved and where you let down your guard.

 

Perhaps I am reading in too much, but I have smelled cats' fur which smells a lot like the background scent in Bastet. (BTW cats think it's very rude to smell their fur). Bastet dries down to an indefinable scent mantle, I think that is the musk which your nose gets used to fairly quickly.

 

It's a beautiful and comforting blend, made me relax and think of cats, big leather chairs and soft purring. Very light, you may lose it quickly but try a scent locket to keep it close. A really fine scent.

[dreadeddragon]

In the bottle: *cough*almond!*cough* That's pretty much it. Almond.

 

First on: Incense is strong here, but it's not heavy. Probably the myrrh, amber & saffron blending. Almond is hardly detectable, but leaves a slight sweetness to it, I can't smell musk, and while I don't know what golden lotus is exactly, I don't smell bubblegum.

 

Drydown: I'm getting a very sweet, light scent. It's really perfect for Bastet, the goddess of music, dance, and joy. There's a hint of a darker side, which I expect would be much more prominant in Sekhmet, but it's not very strong here. I'll use it for ritual work, but I don't think I'll be wearing it on it's own much.

[cranberry]

I had a similar reaction to Bastet as I did with Baghdad.

 

In essence, this scent is a scrubber for me It turns to this unpleasant powdery floral on me - not what I like at all. After looking at the notes, I think that it's the combination of amber (which I love), saffron (which I THOUGHT I liked) and musk (can go either way on me) that does it - commonalities between the two scents. Oh well - there's plenty more BPAL to love.

[Blood onmy hands]

Bastet made me gag when I first put it on. It is powdery almond. Something about it is reminding me of the smell of rest stop bathrooms

 

After a few minutes the amber and myrrh start getting stronger and making this much better on me. They're making the blend smell warmer. It has a slight incense quality to it now.

 

Ugh. This is turning into a baby powder scent on my skin. After an hour it's a sickeningly sweet powder with a synthetic cherry smell in the background.

 

Bastet is definitely going to my swap pile after it gave me a headache. Bad Bastet

[voodoobaby]

In the bottle: Almonds. And myrrh. And maybe a hint of musk.

 

Wearing: As it usually goes, the almond scent melts away within just a couple of minutes. This one is horribly difficult to describe. I think I mostly get a spicy musk in this stage, but the spice isn't cardamom if it's even separate from the musk note.

 

Later: Mostly amber. Yay, amber! A very golden scent indeed. It doesn't last overly long on me, sadly, but I like it just the same.

[Miss Lynx]

This one is really startlingly lovely.

 

Startling because I got it in my first actual lab order, which I made back in June, and only just received, and I've found a number of the things I thought I'd like back then I don't like so much now. For that matter, I wasn't even sure I'd like it then -- it has almond in it, and I normally really intensely dislike the smell and taste of almondy things (actual almonds are fine, but almond extract and Amaretto and that sort of thing are right out). I had ordered it mainly because my partner wanted it. It does have some notes in it that I like, but overall I had my doubts. But I still tried it because -- well, I'll try anything once.

 

At first sniff, in the vial and when freshly applied, it was frighteningly sweet. Did I mention I'd also found out since ordering it that lotus usually turns horribly cloyingly sweet on me? But then... within a few minutes, all the notes started blending together beautifully, and even though still a bit sweeter than I'd normally go for, it started smelling really, really nice.

 

The strange thing was, I could actually smell the almond and lotus in it, and normally either one of those could have been a deal-breaker. But somehow the other notes tempered them and made them not only bearable but actually nice. It evolved into a complex, beautiful, evocative blend, that really did bring images of desert mysteries and cat magic to my mind. It's still fairly light, pretty, sensual, and very feminine -- very much the side of Bastet that made the Greeks associate Her with Aphrodite -- but there's power in it, and subtle hints of a darker side.

 

I guess I am starting to learn that just knowing the dominant notes in something doesn't really tell me whether I'll like it or not. Sometimes things that are full of notes I like just don't work on me at all, like Sri Lanka, and other times things that contain notes that would usually be like kryptonite to me turn out to be gorgeous.

 

Grade: B+

Edited August 23, 2005 by Miss Lynx

[mayhap]

I'm so glad I got a bottle of this. It reminds me of sweet golden sunshine and makes me want to streeeeetch like a cat and bask in my own loveliness. It is rather sweeter and foodier than I was expecting, but I do love it anyway.

[faifai]

This started off ok--warm, very "gold"; I could sense almond and spice. Then it morphed into something truly awful--like a memory of the worst spiced food I ever ate, or the worst Indian grocery I'd ever set foot in. It literally made me queasy and I had to run to wash it off. I can't figure out what it is but maybe it's the lotus...I've had no problems with any of the other notes in the past. So, basically, I wanted to love Bastet [me + almond = ] but it didn't want to love me back.

[fragrantgrasse]

I was looking forward to my 5 ml of Bastet - ordered without imp-ing it first. I love Queen of Sheba absolutely so almonds and Middle Eastern spices are all ok on my skin, as are all the other notes in Bastet.

 

Initially myrrh turns out to be the dominant note on my skin and it turns the scent slightly astringent and verrry dry. As it warms it goes through a stage that reminds me alot of O - which I also love....but at this stage all I smell vinegar.

 

But hang on - all is not lost!

 

Give Bastet time to breathe, now I smell the warm, sunlit amber, and all golden warm notes come to the forefront and take over mellowing the sharpness of myrrh.

 

[Dark Angel]

Unfortunately, Bastet does not work for me. I am one of the folks on whom it goes nasty old maiden aunt powdery, like the smell of nursing homes. I have no idea what it is that does that: amber is sometimes powdery on me, but not in that way. I have not had any problems with myrrh or musk; most musks seem to like me. Saffron was fine in Scherezade. Perhaps it is the lotus; I do not really know what lotus smells like. I do not detect any almond scent at all. But Hecate also has almond and I do not get the nasty funk from Hecate like I do from Bastet. It's too bad that this is such a failure on my skin, but this is the first oil that really has gone sickly on me. So, lots of others to enjoy!

[maewitch]

Wow.

 

I mean, really...wow.

 

Seductive, elegant, exotic. Sweet incense and other notes blended so perfectly I am hard-pressed to identify any single one as distinct. This is just so perfectly sensual. This immediately makes me feel languid, earthy and mysterious.

 

Loooooove.

[sophia_helix]

In the bottle:

 

Cherry-almond.

 

Wet:

 

CHERRY almonds. Sigh. Why do almonds do this to me?

 

Drydown:

 

I sniffed this one compulsively. I think I got some spice/amber/incense at one point, but nothing like O or Snake Charmer, which were much better on me.

 

No, that's because they kept being destroyed by the sickly-sweet cherry almond thing I got from Dana O'Shee. BPAL almond + me = bad news.

[puck_nc]

This wasn't a scent I would have tried from the description, but I've always had a soft spot for Lady Bast.

 

Origin: Bought on a whim with some other imps from LJ.

 

In the Bottle: The only thing I can smell is the almond, despite several tries.

 

Wet: Very almond on my skin, and I think the cardamon. Could be the myrrh. I'm not getting anything else.

 

Drydown: And right on schedule, here comes the musk. *sigh* It's not that I don't like musk. I just don't like how it drowns out every other note in the bottle once it meets my skin.

 

Verdict: Swapped.

[lookingglass]

Wet she's a blast of almondy sweetness...drying down though, Bastet really wins my heart. It's indescribable really. I used to wear Egyptian musk as a single note, and while I can recognize it here it is SO much more sophisticated: Clean, yet sweet, soft, slightly powdery. The lotus is sweet but not bublegummy like it can be (thank the gods). The saffron...spicy amber with the sweet...a magical, soft yet powerful skin scent. The scent just radiates golden light.

 

ETA: This blend has become very special to me. My cats obviously love it-they come over and get some lovin' consistently when I wear it. I have also used it in ritual work and when wee kitties have passed. I'm very thankful for this one.

Edited September 5, 2011 by lookingglass