MamaMoth

I find myself craving Sudha Segara day after hot, sweltering day. And Hypothermia is also quite nice when it's muggy and sticky. It's not my favorite thing to smell, but it makes me *feel* cool.

You know when you're testing a billion imps, and suddenly one of them morphs on you and becomes wonderful, and you're frantically sniffing through a pile of imps trying to find the one you dabbed on the pinky finger of your left hand?

Yeah, like that.

I'm really not a fan of leather scents, as they tend to smell like a swimming pool liner to me. (plastic-y and chemical-y) So while I adore opoponax and tobacco, and am a fairweather friend to amber, I never tried The Black Rider because leather is just such a big no-no for me. Well huzzah for frimps, and trying things I'd never otherwise.

At first, this one does have that synthetic-smelling leather tang on top that I'm not so fond of, but also darkly resinous and sweet underneath. The leather stays dominant for the first few minutes after application, and the scent falls very firmly in the masculine category for me. But then magic starts to happen. The leather calms down greatly, and just lends an earthy warmth to the overall scent. The amber and opoponax are definitely in the forefront here. Sometimes amber can have a fakey kind of overwhelmingly perfumey smell to me, but here it is beautifully resinous, sweet, a little bitter (in a good way,) and softly dry. (Because it's "black" amber, maybe? Further investigation required.) The tobacco lends to the overall sweetness, I think, but I can't pick it out individually.

Warm, sweet, dry, and cozy. Dark but not overwhelming or intimidating. I would say it ends up being unisex with masculine leanings.

Whelp, that seals it. I've tried it in a lot of forms, and I just can't do leather notes.

This smells like when my parents replaced the plastic liner in their pool, almost exactly. Plasticy and watery and a little chemically.

This smells a lot like Morocco with a little dash of added floral aspect. Creamy and soft, a little dusty, with gentle cardamom spicy-freshness. I can't think of any other way to describe it, besides: Morocco and soft florals!

It's soft and gentle and feminine. I can't really pinpoint the florals but they are pretty nonoffensive as far as florals go. I can see where this one might be a hit, but it's a little... hmm... demure for my taste.

I've always felt that rubbing it in kind of advanced the scent on the drying scale. So if I enjoy the early stages, I don't rub in. Otherwise I do, as I want to get to the longest-sustaining stage of wear as quickly as possible. When I'm reviewing I don't rub in, as I want to be able to evaluate all the stages.

Yes, this has always seemed more logical to me than something needing to settle after shipping. Lab-fresh stuff does seem to change over the course of the first, I don't know, week? Sometimes dramatically. I just got a bottle of "The Illustrated Woman" today and the first time I applied it, it was very aquatic in quality; six hours later, it smells a lot more like I was expecting. I think the blend is still combining. Changes like this just don't happen when I get something from a swap. Even straight out of the shipping package, the blend will smell the same days later.

 

I got a roller bottle of rose oil a few years ago the day after a snowstorm. It had solidified in the bottle. THAT needed some time to "settle" after shipping... also, liquefy.

Just as an aside, The Illustrated Woman ages fabulously. I've discovered much to my chagrin that I don't like it very much fresh at all. I take my newish bottle out daily and stare at it to bully it into aging more quickly.

I have a strong suspicion something is not right with the recent bottles of Black Lace and Black Death from DarkDel. I have several bottles of Black Lace and the last one I received smells completely different. There are slight batch differences between my bottles but this cannot be a batch difference, I smell apples and that's just something that shouldn't be present in Black Lace at all. At first I just thought is was my bottle, but I noticed a BL review that describes apples as well. And there's a Black Death review with apples as well. Where are those apples coming from? Is it possible that someone accidentally mixed some apple scented oil in there? Are there more people with an apple problem?

I got a bottle of Black Death when it first came out, then picked up a backup bottle when it was restocked. The second bottle is really really really different to me as well. Very fruity. Could be apple, definitely.

I got a bottle of Black Lace with the second Black Death bottle, and I don't smell any fruitiness in it. Smells like a decant I got from about a month earlier. But I never smelled the original Black Lace to compare.

I don't think I've ever been disappointed with the Lab ... not even over the price hike. This though upsets me because I had my heart set on the original scent and had I known they changed it I would not have bought this. It's not horrible or anything like that it's just not what I fell in love with.

Yeah, I pulled a couple of decants from my original bottle and gifted them out, because I knew I had a backup coming. :\

I've been toying with emailing the lab over it, but I haven't done it. Technically I didn't buy it from the lab, but I dunno there is obviously something off with the second batch. Would it do any good, do you think?

Black Death HELP!

 

I had bought a bottle from DD for a Mod here on BPAL in a swap and when it arrived I opened it and smelled it and it was love. I posted a ISO on swappersonline (and BPAL) and swapped for a decant. The bottle and decant both smelled the same. :love:

 

So I found a bottle for sale and bought it the other day. It arrived today and when I opened it up it was like whoooa ... APPLE! I mean it smells nothing like the original bottle that came to me nor the decant. Maybe way in the distance if I inhale really deep but the top note here smells like apple. :banghead: Think of the apple in Agape.

 

Has anyone heard if there are batch variations? I'm soooo sad! I want the Black Death I tried before and thank god I still have the BD decant to compare it to. I almost frimped it out the other day knowing I had a bottle coming but at the last min. I kept it.

 

ETA: The seller bought it from DD along with Black Heart and Black Lace and she was selling all of them so I'm the second owner and it's full to the shoulder and she only opened to sniff it twice. I believe her. Could the lab have filled it with the wrong scent by accident?

 

Yeah, the batch difference between the first and the second stocking of Black Death are HUGE. The second one is so much fruitier. It was different enough that I thought perhaps I got the wrong scent as well.

Wow! This smells like a honey lemon cough drop! (The ones that are more like candy than medicine.) Very tart/bitter lemon and sweet honey, with a little of cardamom's spice.

As it dries, the lemony twang backs off and allows the cardamom a little more throw. The tartness really cuts through the sticky honey. Softly spicy, citrussy, and sweet. I really like this after about 30 or 45 minutes. Wearlength is pretty short, though. :\

Not sure I'd use a bottle of this, but it's a fun scent and I'll enjoy my decant during the summer, I think.

I received a fabulously aged imp of this. It is seriously thick and dark and just gorgeous.

Lust has three things I love (red musk, patchouli, myrrh) and one thing I detest (ylang-ylang). I was interested to see if my loves could whip my nemesis into shape. The verdict? No.

Gorgeous aged red musk, earthy patchouli, and sweet resiny myrrh. When I first applied it, I thought I had a winner. The ylang-ylang is a bottom note and was behaving itself fairly well. then my skin chemistry took over and amped it beyond all comprehension. Ended up cloyingly floral. And the sickening, opressive ylang-ylang brought out the worst aspects of the red musk, making it overwhelming and heavy and thick. I had to wash it off.

In the imp, I smell sweet candied floral, vanilla. Yummy, slightly foody, girly, sweet.

Wet on: I agree that this reminds me of Dorian, and that I would have sworn there was tea and white musk in here. A little bit of lemony vanilla, sugary sweet pea, white musk. I cannot smell sandalwood at any stage. I think that's the amber grounding it with a slightly resiny powdery base. (VERY slight. As in, I wouldn't have been able to put a name to it if it weren't in the note list.)

As it dries, it goes the route of Dorian. Soapy. :\

I can see why this one is popular, but it wasn't really a "me" scent even before it turned to soap.

First on, this is a beautiful pine/vanilla, with maybe a touch of juniper behind it. I love love BPAL pine, but I've never tried "white" pine and this is gorgeous. It's almost like a mentholated pine? I don't know how to describe it, but it's all the zing of pine without the greenness.

It gets so soft and beautiful as it dries. The pine, vanilla, and the amber mesh to create this golden resiny softness. Amber can sometimes be really powdery on my skin, but I feel like the pine and juniper are keeping it in check here. And juniper in too great a presence is always too sharp and masculine on me, but there really is just a breath of it here. Underlying everything here is this lovely soft woodsiness. I've tried "rosewood" blends that smelled of rose, but I can't detect that here.

I really adore this! Softly woodsy, just a little creamy and sweet, with tangy pine. It could definitely be worn by a guy, but it's also that kind of masculine that is dead sexy on a woman.

In the vial, this smells like sweet, flat cola with lime and cherry.

Wet on, the vetiver flares for a few minutes, but then settles back down into just a little dirty smokiness. The cherry smell settles into a nutty sweet almond.

Fully dried, nothing really pops out here, it's a good blend. Sweet but not oversweet. It has that powdery resin kind of feel, overlaying an almost baked-goods kind of base. Just a little bit of smokiness and earthiness.

I really like this!

I got a bottle of Black Death from the first batch, and it was super heavy on the clove and bay, kind of dry and spicy, with heavier patchouli. I picked up a backup from the second batch (I think 2nd. After a reorder at DD.) And this bottle is insanely different. It's so much fruitier... the lemon peel and the lime are much more prominent. The bay has taken a definite back seat, as has the patch. The clove is stronger, too. At first I thought I didn't like it, but now I'm thinking I'd like a balance between the two. I'm tempted to mix a half-and-half imp of the two.

This was totally worth the wait and the hassle to get my grubby little hands on it.

The vanilla is syrupy, heavy, and sweet. There is none of the plasticky whang that fresh vanilla sometimes has, this is rich, golden, and deep like aged vanilla. The patchouli is black and rooty and earthy. The hemp is kind of dry and herby.

It goes on super sweet and syrupy, and just a touch medicinal. The comparison to Goblin was apt, as it does remind me of that a lot when it's wet. It dries less sweet (but still pretty sweet) and warm and earthy and just... YUM. So good.

Fresh smelling, a little herbal and a little tart. But above all: soap. Probably the soapiest-smelling BPAL I've ever put my nose to.

Perfumey, sharp, floral, and sour. Blech

Frankincense and ginger are the top notes. Sharp, resin-sweet, and a little citrussy. I don't smell the cream exactly, but there's something there tempering the sharpness of those two top notes that could be called "creamy." (But it doesn't do what a straight-up cream note does on my skin.) I can tell there's more behind it, but I can't distinguish anything in particular. It's reminding me a bit of what I remember Sudha Segara to smell like, but I don't have any SS on hand to compare side by side.

As it dries, I can detect a sharpish-smelling woodsy component. Asuhi is likened to cedarwood, so that works. The ginger bite fades to just a nippy citrus note. The frankincense is still out front. Orris and leather have yet to put in a solid appearance.

Tobacco and clean leather and a little bit of dark smooth wood. Those sound like warm kind of fuzzy notes, but this actually strikes me as very clean and almost watery. The tobacco here has a different kind of characteristic than I'm used to with BPAL tobacco. It is golden and slight and very lovely. I want to search out blonde tobacco in other blends now. Leather can go very bad and a little cloying on me, but whatever kind of leather this is I could actually appreciate and wear it. I really can't note any cognac at all.

This blend is not rich... it has a sparse feel to it. Like a modern chair carved in sleek wooden curves with a leather seat. It's a pleasant scent, but not really me.

Goes on VERY winey with a superfruity sweetness, backed by dark smokiness, and almost a tinge of rot or decay. Very aggressive.

It starts morphing almost immediately after touching my skin, The fruit wine backing off and a heavy smoky rose-ish incense gaining strength.

Dried, this is really hard to describe. Very well blended. Smoky and red-fruity and a little sweet. The fermented winey vibe is gone. I can maybe pick out a little bit of cherry, but the fruitiness is mostly indistinct red sweetness. There's a little aura of dark woodsiness about it. I think I can detect a little bit of rose, but it's very well meshed and non-offensive to my floral-hating nose. This blend ends up surprisingly soft and gentle, considering how it came out of the gate swinging.

I think I might come to love this. Very compelling.

Goes on very green and planty, with a bit of that "mildew" note familiar from other BPALs. It's very cologney right now.

The cologneyness of it eases off as it dries, and the dusty fungus aspect gets a little more prominent. The super-greenness of it morphs into a more woods-and-plants kind of smell.

It's ok. Not offensive, but not outstanding to me. It definitely falls into the category of stuff that I like, but it lacks that something that would make it a standout.

Wet, it's very strongly quince. I must confess I wasn't familiar with quince, but here it reminds me a bit of apricot.

It settles as it dries, but quince is still the predominant note. It makes me think of a quince liqueur because it's boozy and very sweet. The mandarin is very clear now, but as a supporting note to the quince. The honey and vanilla are pretty meshed here, and they are gorgeous and golden and sweet. The tobacco is subtle to me, but I love tobacco and can't get enough of it as a note.

It really starts to get good after about an hour, when the quince/mandarin liqueur has backed off into a supporting role of the honeyed vanilla tobacco. But at that point, the whole blend is very faint on my skin. But MAN is it good then. I have my nose glued to my wrist.

I would be very interested in seeing how this one ages. Quite possibly, it could go the direction that it does on my skin after a while.

Goes on very citrussy, but in a perfumey way rather than, say a fresh-fruit kind of way.

As it dries, though... this lovely smokey muskiness starts to come out behind the citrus. I know that khus=vetiver, but I never smell even a trace of it... just this lovely soft smoke. The citrus is always the top note, but it changes to very much the 'rind', with just a touch of bitterness. Lovely!

In extended drydown, that "perfumey" ness reasserts itself lightly. I don't smell the gardenia or white musk exactly, but I would almost guarantee they are the culprits. Nary a blackberry could be detected.

I liked the burnt mandarin rind, Indian musk, and khus very much. But the other elements turned this into something that, while pretty, isn't for me. It's just as well, because my skin ate it up and it was almost undetectable within an hour.

What an interesting blend!

In the imp, the vetiver is very off-putting. (As is its wont.) On the skin it immediately calms. Vetiver and patchouli mingle to be earthy and a little bit scorchy, sweetened and freshened up by this lovely grapefruit note. I'm not crazy about the smell of grapefruit, and vetiver can be pretty scary sometimes. But it feels like their bitterness couples here to bolster the good aspects. After about 30 minutes most of the scorchiness has burned off, and it's just lovely and earthy. The grapefruit is tangy and a little sweet, but it doesn't actually smell like grapefruit at this point. I would have guessed some other kind of fruit.

Rhinotoros is earthy and rich, a little scorchy, bitter, a little sweet, a little tangy.

If you're a vetiver-hater, I'd avoid it. But if you're like me, and on the fence about vetiver... give this one a try! I'm not sure if I'll get a bottle, but I bet I'll enjoy my decant.

2010 decant

Red musk like whoa. Sweetened and slightly boozy red musk. It smells good, but I think it needs to sit in the dark and do its thing for a good long while before it reaches its peak. It's a intensely sharp and perfumey (and a little plasticy) right now.