Review: Gorilla Perfume [Part II]

Karma, Imogen Rose, Orange Blossom and The Breath of God

I would really love to know more about how patchouli oil came to be associated with goths and hippies. If anyone can enlighten me on this subject, please do comment. Karma is certainly on the hippie side of the patchouli equation. It includes notes of pine and orange. I normally ignore distinctions between “masculine” and “feminine” scents, but this just smells like something more suited to a male type person. If you’ve never smelled Karma, the pine and orange lighten up the patchouli a bit without losing the earthiness of the scent. This dries down to a very piney scent on me. Smells like it would be great in a floor detergent, but not on my wrist.

Imogen Rose is a powdery floral that contains mainly rose notes. Rose is a wonderful scent in theory. In practice, rose perfume often smells like it belongs on a elderly lady or a girl. Perhaps this is just my prejudice. Imogen Rose is soft and light. Rose often goes awry on me, but this one didn’t. It dries down to a baby-powder scent that is inoffensive. Overall, this fragrance was okay, but not surprising. It may work better on others, but I have no interest in wearing it again.

Orange Blossom smells exactly as it’s named. I live in Florida, so orange blossom is a common fragrance here. This scent starts very sweet and dries down to a subtle woody-citrus note. Like Imogen Rose , this scent is floral without being overwhelming. It’s light enough to be bearable in close quarters. It has perhaps less fresh citrus notes than I might have liked, but then orange blossoms do smell very different from oranges themselves. This scent was nice, but not impressive. I just couldn’t see any future situation in which I’d want to reach for this. Like the previous two perfumes, I was fairly indifferent to this.

The Breath of God is like a huge exhalation of cedar. God’s mouth must be so free from moths. This was the only perfume out of the bunch that I actively disliked. The Lush website describes this as “intensely medicinal,” a phrase that makes me expect camphor, mint or bitter notes. All I get is overwhelming cedar. I had to wash this off my wrists because it was giving me a headache. I was excited for the smokiness promised in the fragrance description, but I couldn’t detect any. There may be people for whom this fragrance is wonderful. I am not one.

The last four fragrances in the sample batch were not ones I would purchase. I am, however, looking forward to sampling Dirty and The Scent of Weather Turning. Mint and ozone are my eternal fragrance quests.

Visit Gorilla Perfume at Lush.