FormerViking

IN HIS HANDS ALL THY CRUELTIES THRIVE Thou shalt blind his bright eyes though he wrestle, Thou shalt chain his light limbs though he strive; In his lips all thy serpents shall nestle, In his hands all thy cruelties thrive. In the daytime thy voice shall go through him, In his dreams he shall feel thee and ache; Thou shalt kindle by night and subdue him Asleep and awake. Gleaming black vetiver, bay laurel, opoponax, hiba wood, Spanish moss, clove, and leather accord. My bottle arrived today . I usually don't do reviews of scents until they've had a day or two to settle , but I couldn't wait to try this so here goes . And this will be a short simple review . CLOVE ! And not a whole lot else . At least , not at this time . So , I will be back to see if this changes in the near future . I certainly hope it does , cause this'll be a huge disappointment if it doesn't . And I'm back to slightly change my opinion . I do now get something more than clove , thank god . I now get some leather and definitely some smoke . Have to agree with others about the clove cigarette match . Maybe not as sweet as those though . I think if I really work my nose on this I might get a slight whiff of the wood and moss . But I may be imagining / wanting it to be there and am just hoping I'm actually getting those .

Just wanted to add one in case it hasn't gotten mentioned yet. Portrait of an Unidentified Man as Mephistopheles is a big bottle of win! It's in the Pickman Gallery section if you're having trouble finding it. Absolutely fantastic.

This is a fairly well aged frimp ( at least 2 years old , maybe 3 ) . And while I know it's not in the description , I swear the first thing I got was a blast of something much like patchouli . It was strong , smoky and dark . After not even a half a minute , it started to clear out and the more expected flowers came out . This is a nice , relaxing scent . Very soothing . Not a favorite , but not hated either . Falls somewhere in the middle of my BPAL appreciation scale .

Yum . This is some really wonderful , flowery stuff . It probably helps that I love both Lilac and Violet . But it's sooo green smelling too . Incredibly fresh . I do get the creaminess others have mentioned . Not sure I could pull off wearing this . ( 6'3" male with facial hair at times ) But man does it smell wonderful . It's nice because it does so much with flower notes . It goes way beyond the flowers and becomes so much more . Yum , again .

I've had this bottle for awhile now . When I first got it , it struck me as more " red " than it does now . Now it's almost more like The Black Rider to me . Not very red at all . Having said that I do still love it . Big fan of BPAL leather , so it's all good .

This is a fairly aged imp , I'd say at least 2 years old . And man , the patch is kicking ass all over the other notes now . But good god it's such a lovely patchouli . I am getting a tiny bit of something else , but it's not sandalwood . Or , if it is , the patch is so dominating it that it's not exhibiting the usual notes . It's so far behind the main note that it's honestly hard to notice without really looking for it . Having said all that , I love patchouli so this is a winner as far as I'm concerned . And very unisex .

Thank god the honey behaves itself for me . Because the rest of this is quite nice . First of all , I love red musk . And that is prevalent , especially at first application . I'll be frank , I probably would have enjoyed this more without honey . It's one of those things my skin amps . And I love all the other notes . So I know this would have been love without the honey . As it stands , it's more like a lot rather than love . Although I think it would be pretty fantastic on the right woman . It;s pretty damned sexy for sure .

Totally agree with strahlend . This is pretty fantastic . I find the rum to be just ahead ( but not by much ) of the tobacco . It's just enough to darken and soften the tobacco note . But this is all dark notes and polished dark woods . And I love it . Probably not very feminine , but I could imagine it working for some . I don't know how many ladies would get past the description to chance it . But if you like dark , boozy scents , give it a try . You more than likely won't be sorry .

Ok , first of all I get not leather at all , which makes me a sad puppy . Or maybe I do and it's not in the manner I expected . Now that I'm really putting my brain to it I guess I am smelling leather . Funny , before I started looking for it all I got was sweet smells . A lot like spiced honey . I assumed that was the other notes covering up the leather . I can't tell you how bizarre this is to me . I swear I never noticed the leather before just now putting it on today for this review . Maybe the little bit of aging it's had has helped . So , the important stuff . Do I like it ? Now that one of my favorite BPAL notes has come out to play , hell yeah I like it ! It's much more ( fighter in armor-ish ) like I wanted it to be when I ordered it with that wonderful note coming out . Before , without that note , it was just too sweet / cute for my liking . But now I smell the hard edge to this warrior it has been missing . I'd give it a 4 out of 5 rating . Not a contender for my favorites , but a solid second tier bottle that is good to have for a change .

This is such a sexy , masculine mix of citrus & dark notes . It's funny , before I just read the description I wouldn't have picked out the citrus , wouldn't have been able to say just what it was counter balancing the dark leather & rum . Having read it , it all makes sense now . I've had this bottle for a couple years now & it just gets better . To me the dark notes stand out above the lite . Especially after dry down . But for my liking , that's not a bad thing at all .

Simply a wonderful warm weather scent . Very green , lite & a bit ozone-ish as well . Blended so well no one note really overwhelms me . Lovely really .

There's a lot going on here . Can smell the sandalwood but this is more of a " dark " scent to me . Quite a fantastic blend happening . I'm not a big fan of amber , but this works well in the mix . Just getting a little vetiver , mostly covered by sweeter notes . But it is there if you dig for it with your nose . This is mostly the sandalwood with floral notes and a bit of musk . Very nice but not a every day kind of scent to me . This would be the kind of thing I'd wear to change up my usual choices .

Yum , tasty leather matched with slightly sweet notes . I know that when I first got this imp the leather was massive . It's calmed down beautifully . And the blend is masterful , as usual . Wonderful and I'll have to plan on getting a bottle next order .

Funny how much difference there is between folks opinions of this one . I'm in the " it smells really green " group . Maybe a little leather behind it , but not a strong note at all . After drying this is much less green/soapy . It's very subtle . Really have to hang my nose right over where applied . I like it but once again I think I'll have to slather this a bit for full effect . I like the combo of green/brown/vegetation notes . Just very laid back . Now I have time I need to go through more of these frimps I've acquired over the last few years . Who knows what else might be here I missed first time through ? A few hours later . Really like this . Getting much more of a palm oil vibe from it now . Not so much green now , more brown probably from the leather underpinning the scent . Very nice & possible bottle needed in the future .

Mmmmmm , Me likey ! This is from a frimp I've had at least 2 years . First out of the imp impression was SMOKE ! But it immediately calmed down to a more subtle note . This is kind of like if Umbra had a little sister . It's smokey but not a burning smell at all . Much less in your face compared to Umbra or Djinn . Very nice , and yes I do get a yellow / brown color impression from it . Slight dirt / ground note as well . I really like this .

I really love this blend , but it is pretty weak as far as carry / time it exists on my skin goes . I guess it'd work better if I was more of a slather kind of guy . Beyond that problem , the way this smells is fantastic . Excellent warmer weather scent . Lite and not too sweet . If someone were to ask , I couldn't tell them that either patch or vetiver were in this . It's that smooth / non aggressive . I am a fan of most of the Labs musks , so that does go a ways in explaining my love for this . I'd say if you like Embalming Fluid or others like it , you'd probably enjoy this as well .

When I first got this bottle months ago , I was kind of like " where's the patch " . Because it honestly wasn't as strong as I expected it to be . However , now it's pretty much what I expected it to be . Serious in your face patchouli . Very dark & wonderful indeed . Now then , I'm not really getting the other notes . When I first bought it , those were all I got , oddly . I suppose others may get those still . Maybe my body chemistry is hiding them . All I know is I do really like this . Not quite love , but serious like for sure .

This from a frimp I've had so long that I'm not sure when I got it . Initially , honey & not much else . I've let it sit on my arm for a bit now & I'm not really getting tobacco so much . Honestly I'm not sure just what I'm getting . Some honey for sure , but not dark & sweet . And the tobacco may have tobacco flower with it . Which isn't a bad thing , but it needs to be said . I must admit , I've never really " done " tobacco in any way shape or form . Smoke , chew , whatever . It isn't for me . But I do like the smell of certain pipe tobacco , and am aware that the unburnt leaves can smell nice . I'm really up in the air about how I feel about this . May have to come back later to try it again .

Whew , LOT'S of flowers here when first applied . Gonna take a while to let it calm down , I hope . Ok , a little less flower power now . But still more sweetness then I can take . I've discovered amber isn't for me almost as much as rose isn't . Yeah , while the flowers have calmed down to a nice level , this just isn't for me . Not really getting any musk or vetiver , and whatever sandalwood may be there is being held back by the sweet . Oh well .

GC-wise, Black Forest might be a good fit. Reviews are here. Many of the Yule blends have cold+woodsy notes. You shouldn't have too much trouble tracking most of them down on forum. I'm not super familiar with them, as I just got into BPAL toward the end of the last Yule release, but Woods in Winter and Faunalia were both masculine, winter woodsy blends on me. Well... I was thinking and I have three scents that I would like to try. They are not really "essence of winter" but I don't care. My choices are villain, tombstone and Fenris Wolf. What does everyone think? All are extremely good choices in my book . Villain & Fenris are two of my all time favorites . Tombstone isn't bad either , just not as much a winner for my nose . It's a little weaker carry wise , or my skin eats it up . One of the two , haven't decided yet . For something totally different you might try Mad Hatter , Crowley , Coyote , Golden Pirapus , or Fighter from the RPG line . All are fantastic . I am also thinking of getting Tezcatlipoca. I think ill just do the 6 imps lol Another of my favorites . It does have some leather to it , but the cocoa is fantastic & melds with it .

GC-wise, Black Forest might be a good fit. Reviews are here. Many of the Yule blends have cold+woodsy notes. You shouldn't have too much trouble tracking most of them down on forum. I'm not super familiar with them, as I just got into BPAL toward the end of the last Yule release, but Woods in Winter and Faunalia were both masculine, winter woodsy blends on me. Well... I was thinking and I have three scents that I would like to try. They are not really "essence of winter" but I don't care. My choices are villain, tombstone and Fenris Wolf. What does everyone think? All are extremely good choices in my book . Villain & Fenris are two of my all time favorites . Tombstone isn't bad either , just not as much a winner for my nose . It's a little weaker carry wise , or my skin eats it up . One of the two , haven't decided yet . For something totally different you might try Mad Hatter , Crowley , Coyote , Golden Pirapus , or Fighter from the RPG line . All are fantastic .

Just won this bottle from the Lab on EBay . Must say it's more floral then I expected it to be upon first sniff . However , after only a minute or so on skin , the leather comes out . This is lite and will be a lovely summer blend for sure . And I'm a guy who doesn't mind lilac at all . Rose is another story Don't think I'd wear this often . But it will be perfect for dress up moments .

Oh yeah , this is a winner . As others have said , the patchouli is light and not all powerful . And because of that , I get a almost cocoa note from this . It reminds me a little of Lucifer because of that . I think the mix of woods are what keep things mellow . And what a lovely mix it is . Not really getting musk , maybe after aging a bit . Just a fantastic blend this .

Damn you Rose , damn you to hell ! Yeah , that's pretty much all I'm getting from this ( rose is the bane of my BPAL existence ) , which is a shame as the notes for this one sound pretty damned impressive . Ok , not just me , the GF is pretty much getting rose off of me too . Oh well , on to the next .

This is much more " flowery " then I expected . In fact , the leather & patchouli are probably the two notes I smell the least . That being said , I do like ( not love ) it . It's a very clean scent & I'd say very unisex . And the tea is strong , which for me is a plus as most of the labs tea based scents either are not , or my skin tends to eat them & they disappear shortly after application .