Bollywood or Bust

This is a very pleasant and satisfying fragrance with sandalwood, but done more elegantly than in a hippie gypsy fashion. The rose is there, smooth and discrete, and the sandalwood lingers nicely and gently. I really enjoyed wearing this today and find Smell Bent scents to be original and so much better than the "fake plastic watermelony florals" that Coach, DKNY, and everybody else is doing right now. Smell Bent's fragrance names can be naughty (though fun and suggestive) and sometimes do not give full credit to the complexity and elegant design that is being offered. Other favorites, soon to be reviewed, are Smell Bent's She Wolf and Mirror Ball, both also great. Bollywood or Bust, Incensed, and Mirror Ball, also smell to me like they have a good amount of natural molecules in them (She Wolf is nice, but has a tenacious synthetic musk, I think). I like the at least partly natural composition, which adds complexity and is safer for people who may have sensititvities around me. I will wear these Smell Bent fragrances to work applied lightly.

How can I be the first to review Bollywood or Bust? Maybe this means you all have yet to discover Smell Bent, and I'm not sure I want to clue you in. At $45 for a bottle, this is the biggest bargain in niche fragrance. Whether you love his scents or not, the one thing that is objectively true is that they smell like they cost three times the price. If you all start buying it, you may drive up the price. The colder the weather the more I get rose, but in the warmer weather the rich spices come to the fore on my skin. This is a very easy and comfortable scent. Brent Leonesio captured the delicacy, along with that coolness that is particular to roses. The sweet spices give it a comforting quality. It smells far less exotic to me and on me than the name would imply. But it is, in one word, delicious. Where is that like button? I like Bollywood or Bust. Edited to add: I have both the oil and the EDP. I prefer the EDP. Very good longevity, but not a lot of silliage on me.

I've been on a "rose" hunt, and I must say this really makes me happy. Not a headache-y rose. I don't get the incense as much, and the sandalwood is understated, which I like. Hmm, this may be in the running for my FB. I agree with jonovon that the rose smells very real and close and velvety... if I close my eyes I swear my head is buried in a bouquet of them. There is almost a raspberry-ness to the rose. Similar to Andy Tauer's 10 Une Rose Vermeille, which does have raspberry in it. This is VERY nice. Every perfumer needs a nice rose, and I'd say Brent has done very well here.

This is really lovely! Lovely rose and spices and sandalwood! Beautiful.

Cheap, fun, kind of trashy, a little cloying, way over-loud. Yes, it's the tackier side of the Bollywood aesthetic, performed and enacted with great enthusiasm for a reasonable price, and certainly has echoes of greater, much classier rose/woods scents. In its celluloid dreams it's a marquee star like Guerlain's lovely Santal Royal. In actual fact it's more of a mall-grade princess. I still give it a few stars. As I'm not a fan of big, high, pink/red rose as a note it's a little much for me overall, but it'll still be loved by many who want a warm, ever-so-slightly niche-y treatment. I was hoping for far more wood & spice and less of that ever-so-slightly screechy rose top, which does (for me) conjure not-premium incense sticks, rather than real flowers. But it's all a matter of taste and this one is definitely closer to the mainstream than many of Smell Bent's wackier more experimental things (which I tend to like more.) Seems pretty femme but male rose lovers would be able to rock it. As I'm sensitive to that big-petal blowsiness its sillage seemed pretty huge to me, but it didn't last forever - 3-4h max on skin. If you can imagine an ultra-budget remake of Santal Royal but with everything filmed through a slightly blurry filter and with the colour saturation amped to the max and beyond, you're about there. And there's a place in the world for that.

Bollywood or Bust smells of rose, very light sandalwood and some kind of spice upon initial spray. I definitely sniff as though the 'spice' is turmeric. This is very evident to me as I was obsessed with turmeric coconut teas for a while. It is one of the most powerful natural anti-inflammatory/antioxidants out there. I was grating turmeric root though because the powdered spice doesn't have that beautiful, almost gingery, curcuminous oily pep to it. This perfume has a powdered turmeric feel so it can be off-putting. If it had that rooty, spicy pep instead of musty powder, it might be more wearable. The sandalwood is really balanced with the rose and spices and it can be quite enjoyable for about an hour. Then ... nothingness. It smells like nothing after an hour! It is one of the most fleeting scents I have ever worn. This is striking to me considering the boldness of the blend and its initial spritz. I would have imagined it to last. This is not a fragrance I care to reapply again and again ... and again, but it was incredibly lovely to sample.

I actually really like this. I received a sample and I enjoy it; am going to get the full bottle. I like the curious mix of the rose with the sandalwood and spices. Definitely exotic, and definitely well-done. It's a clean scent and the spices and sandalwood don't override the freshness of the rose. It's nice to walk and get a whiff of this coming off of my skin. This makes me feel cultured and worldly. I like to travel so it kind of makes me feel like this is something I could have picked up while overseas. I appreciate that is isn't so typical and all-American. Anyone who smells this on you will certainly be curious about it. I have a good number of mainstream scents and I appreciate that Bollywood or Bust stands out from the pack.

Bollywood or Bust reminds me of some Arabic oils I had sampled. In fact, if I had to pick up a label to this kind of scent, it would be "Arabic Floral". Suntuous, very rich and complex despite of its simplicity. Not paradoxical, if you consider the quality of the ingredients and the clever, minimalistic blend. The rose here is very real and is the star of the composition (that's a velvety rose, you can almost feel the texture of its petals). And the spices go on with it like a perfect match. One of those scents that you close your eyes and take a deep sniff. I think it will work perfectly on classy women, but not that suitable for a man. I gave my sample to my sister.

This is an interesting spicy scent. The spices are hard to determine. There's definitely chai and maybe ginger. The longevity and sillage are good. The dry down is very nice. I like that it's interesting, it's like its creator was thinking outside of the box. I can see wearing this somewhere where you don't want to be seen as frivolous for wearing a sweet perfume... like to the hospital to visit someone or to court. I have a sample but I'm not sure I'll buy a full bottle.

A lot brighter than I expected, theres almost a ginger-y top note followed by a fairly common wood and rose pairing. It smells nice but kinda reinventing the wheel here.

64)You will pay € 110 less beautiful rose in the Tauer brand. So it is not because it costs only 45 € I'll be choosy.

I am not a fan of this. It's like water on me. I don't smell anything but sandalwood, definitely not Bollywood. It reminds me a lot of Diptyque's Tam Dao, no substance, expensive watered-down nothingness.

Ok just not for me. All I smell is rose, which I'm not a huge fan of.

The graphics and presentation of Smell Bent strike me as a cross between the houses of Lush and Etat Libre d'Orange. This seems to be even more cartoonish (literally!) than Lush, and the names of the scents, such as this one, Bollywood or Bust, make it clear that we are dealing with a concept house à la ELDO. The prices are budget niche, for sure. How are the perfumes? Bollywood or Bust is my first foray into the house of Smell Bent, whose website I visited a while back but then swiftly navigated away from the page. I received this sample with a purchase from an online emporium. Left to my own devices, I probably would never have made any real effort to investigate this venture, but since I now have a sample, I decided to review it today. To me, this is a standard sandalwood-vanilla floriental perfume like a thousand mid-level designer fragrances. The composition is definitely not original, nor is the quality remarkable--it really seems like an average mainstream scent à la Ellen Tracy or something along those lines. What about the concept? Does Bollywood or Bust capture the essence of Bollywood? I guess that I am not convinced. Shouldn't this be more in-your-face and over-the-top? What precisely is supposed to be "Bollywood" about a middling mainstream floriental scent? Couldn't this just as easily be called "Carmella Soprano"? All in all, it seems fair to say that I am unimpressed.

This was an odd little fragrance that a fellow Fragrantican gifted me a decant for. Seeing the sandalwood, I was excited to try it. However, I found it to be more spice than sandal. The prominent notes for the first hour are foody-spicy (curry-ish, maybe paprika-ish), savory not sweet. There was a smokiness, and then the rose evolved out of all of that. The rose was a smokey-sultry rose, not dewy. Toward the end, a kind of musky-plasticky note came out, but that was minor. It was an interesting fragrance, but lasted only about 3 hours with low sillage. Fun to try, and glad I have the decant in my pocket for reapplication.

This is straight up for Insence / Nag Champa lovers !! It's a powdery rose, a bit spicey exactly like Insence sticks made in India. There is complexity to it! I think smell bent have nailed it - spot on. Gave it to a friend who wears this type of perfumes and it's just lovely! Great silage & longevity.

Just a quick review: to my nose it smells very similar to Calligraphy Rose by a Aramis, but with out the bitter oud. So if you like Calligraphy, but aren't such a huge fan of oud (perhaps for daytime?) pick this one up. It is really lovely and spicy, but not overwhelming.

This reminds me of those little wooden fans you get at Renaissance faires or the like. Very strong sandalwood and rose. Very strong. I wasn't able to wear it to determine if the spicy aspect ever came through.