Beowulfe

Since I gave a bit of a thumbs down on my first BPAL review, I'll flip the tone and review this one. I originally got Fenris in a group of imps Christmas 03. This one I added to the list because of the name. I was pleasantly suprised that this was my favorite on all of my samples as the descriptive notes themselves were not too exotic or complex. What I really like about Fenris is the woodsy quality without an overload of cedar, which just overbears just about anything its mixed with. Wet, its does, as I may have read elsewhere, smell almost of chocolate. As it dries, the sandalwood/resinous scent becomes more and more prominent and warm. I have never smelled rosewood raw, but I'll guess this is what lend the chocolate sensation. The amber in this sweetens, but the woods keep the amber from forming a "playdoh" cloying sweetness that I often get with amber. It does have a lot of similarities with Czernobog, but I prefer Fenris to the former by FAR. Ultimately a nice masculine mix that altogether reminds me a bit of M7 by YSL. Thumbs up from the Wulfe.

I got this one in an imp at Christmas 04. Its weird how noses can differ, but on my skin and from the vial this scent smelled absolutely nothing like leather. I used to work at a Tandy leather store, and was around leather day in and day out. Leather by nature achieves its odor via chemical treatment, so maybe as a natural oil approach to leather De Sade is a good attempt, but not accurate to its description. De Sade is more grassy/weedy, particularly as it dries down. Vetiver, or something? Kind of reminds me of Vetiver by Guerlain.