Nocnitsa

[grashopper8]

... Her scent is that of a lightless fir wood, nighttime air, wet forest mosses and upturned earth.

This is pine, for sure, but....there sure is some other stuff going on, softening and sweetening the pungent note into something wearable. It's almost like a sweet, piney floral.

I wouldn't wear it again, but fans of pine scents should definitely try this, because it's really nice.

3.5 out of 5 Edited April 16, 2008 by AEris

[fairnymph]

Sniffed in imp: Dirt, fir, air. Very slightly sweet. The air scent is pretty amazing, but I don't like dirt.

[savage_rose]

I normally like pine, but at first in this blend it combines with the dirt to smell a bit like pine air freshener covering body odor. And then it morphs into...it's almost a holly-pine scent, with a hint of berry? I have to be imagining that, right? It's okay, it's just not what I was expecting.

 

ETA: Nope, that's berry. It smells like a lighter version of Yuletide after about 15 minutes, which I like, but I like Yuletide better.

Edited May 5, 2008 by savage_rose

[gchris]

In Vial: pine and moss

 

Wet: Pine, and a sweetness that is very nice.

 

Dry: sweet pine and dirt. This is too manly and outdoorsy for me, but its not bad.

[thatpirategirl]

At first this smelled like very candylike grapes and pine to me. But now that I've read the description, I can identify the grapey smell as an odd kind of lime. I always associate pine with winter, but this has a definite October feel to it, to match the description. Almost like instead of one fresh pine tree, we've got a dark, wet, earthy forest of them, with a very witchy herbal-sweet scent on the wind.

 

Overall I like it a lot. It'll be just the thing for autumn. And it might just work on a guy too, although it seems a little on the too-sweet side of the fence.

Edited June 11, 2008 by thatpirategirl

[galahad]

In The Bottle

Lightly resinous fir and damp cold air. Nice.

 

On Application

As above but with more power and i can pick up quite a bit of the damp earth scent. This is lovely.

 

Dry Down

I find green scents difficult but I am loving this. Very fresh without blasting the sinuses. This has attempted to turn to a berry scent at several stages but gets pulled back to the piney fir. Finally the berry scent wins. Shame

 

Rating (0-5)

2.5

[angharad]

This one starts out dark and dirty. I really don't like it in the imp, but after hitting my skin it slowly starts turning into a sweet evergreen forest scent that I adore. I have to be in the right mood for it, so this is definitely not a bottle-worthy scent for me, but when I am in the right mood...Nocnitsa is beautiful.

[caffinatedangel]

I received this as a frimp from my very first order of 6 imps. I read the description, and fell in love. I was searching, actually, for fresh wet dirt smells and this looked to be -just- the one. Yay!

 

In the bottle: High hopes soar. It's green, lush, and smells like spring.

 

Wet on skin: Dirt. Wet forest dirt. Moss, I assume. And that "nighttime air." I inhaled and loved it.

 

Drying, stage one: Fir. Fir fir fir. And dirt. A dash of "air" left, keeping it light but yet darkly delicious. Different, no longer spring. But I could get used to this.

 

Drying, stage two: Gag me. What happened? Fir just kept building and building. The dirt smell turned into musk. A deep, sexy, sensuous lovely lust. With fir, turning into this bright fresh scent of lovelieness as well. Together? A cloud of toxic fumes never meant to touch. I wait, maybe they'll blend.

Drying, stage three: I can't bear it anymore. I find myself dashing to the sink and my sister squealing that she "loved the fir tones, what happened?". I'm not sure what happened. The two scents didn't mesh. They both developed awkwardly on my skin and may have been ok on their own, but together become a monster. I can pick out many of the scents: Dirt, moss, airy something, fir. But the fir becomes acidic, the dirt becomes MUCH too musky, and the moss is doing the polka on air's deathbed.

 

Or, I ran through the perfume isle in sears and was attacked with every old-lady scent they had in stock. I was overwhelming, decaying, mossy but lime moss... It was bizzare and hurt, making me dizzy and not at all pleasing to me. ;-; My hopes were dashed. -wail-

 

Overall: I smelled like an ancient decaying tree. With limes thrown on top. Sadly, this scent failed horribly on me, and assaulted my nose enough I felt overwhelmed and -had- to get it off..

 

I think I may try again at another date in the future (unless I venture into trades and get stolen away), but this was a failure on my skin I guess. My sister will be trying it tomorrow, as our skin types appear to be dramatically different. I want to smell this scent in a delicious manner. Maybe it will bloom on her, and not decay and rot off.

 

ps: I never noticed berries, or anything sweeter than a lime.

Edited July 11, 2008 by CaffinatedAngel

[innocent]

Interesting... I got this as a frimp from the lovely lab! I never would have expected Nocnitsa's fresh, almost sharp, smell from the listed notes. Like many reviewers, I'm getting a light, sweet pine with a touch of berries, no moss or soil notes. This blend verges on the soapy and is not really my style. I think I'll give my imp to one of my friends who enjoys clean scents.

[Heeroluva]

In the bottle it smells like cough drops. Wet the fir comes out. Dry the fir is there, but with a nice earthy scent, and a tiny hint of sweetness. It's definitely worth trying again.

[Iceblink]

A dark and earthy evergreen, and surprisingly nice. I was prepared for a blast of Pine Sol but the earth and moss keep Nocnitsa from smelling like a cleaning product. I imagine this as a great room scent in winter.

[gingiemay]

Wet in imp - Yummy fir, night air and moss. Fresh and light without smelling of pine sol.

 

Wet on skin - Smells like a christmas tree, with moss and a little airy scent.

 

Dry on skin - The fir is first and foremost, but without that pine-sol scent that sometimes comes with pine/fir scents. There is a light airiness and a bit of damp. I'm not sure if I want to smell like a forest, however. I think this would be great in an oil burner.

[Delirium1009]

In bottle/imp: Pine with a subtle earthiness in the background.

 

Immediately on skin: Sharp but not too heavy pine… that’s the strongest note in this. Also along with it is what seems to be a light ozone note and a slight earthiness in the background.

 

After a little while: This has sweetened up a lot on my skin. It’s still very much a pine scent, but there’s a very fragrant berry or floral sweetness in there as well. The note is thick and compliments the pine well.

 

Overall Impressions: This is a very nice sweeter pine scent. It isn’t straight up pine, and it isn’t as heavy as similar blends I’ve tried. A girly pine, I’d say, but I think a guy could also pull this off. I’m so very not a pine person, so this won’t work for me.

[skepticism]

Frimp from the lab!

 

When I opened the imp I smelled evergreen trees and fresh lemonade. After wet application the lemon-lime notes came to the foreground briefly and dominated the evergreen notes with full-force. As it dried, the lemon-lime completely faded away and just left a sugary residue underneath the woody notes.

 

I'm someone who doesn't like sweet notes, and I actually found the sweetness in this scent to be favorable to the senses due to its pairing with earthy/woody notes. It's a really interesting blend, and I would never have thought that I'd like (let alone mix) these notes together.I'm going say that I like this for now and hold onto it for another try.

[modillian]

This was a frimp. Just to lay some ground, I'm not crazy about scents that are just woodsy. They're too dry and plain for me usually. Also, not crazy about pine/fir scents, because they all smell the same to me. I spent a lot of time climbing coniferous trees when I was a kid, and although I think it made me love the smell of resin as much as I do, it also wore me out on pine needles - they're just not interesting!

 

In the bottle: Pine needles and bark!

 

On the skin: Oof. Hit with the ozone-y note of "night air", which is interesting, sweet and floral, but strong. And...more florals. And more florals. Oh my, this is actually really pretty! It's not just pine needles, but the whole tree and the creeping parasitic plants on it and the nearby bushes in bloom on a cool dewy night. Reminds me of The Jersey Devil with the cool, fir scent.

 

Drying: The ozone dies back and more of the green scent comes through. I think I actually liked the floral ozone more than the green here. It's pretty but unimpresive, coming across more as a typical packaged "green" potpourri than something worthy of BPAL's complexity. It remains a typical green scent tinged with background ozone florals, which is disappointing, but the initial play was fascinating.

 

If you like fresh green scents this might be right up your alley, but I'm picky about my greens. I think the only one I've liked has been Hemlock, which is more of an acidic jolt to the brain than an actual plant. And I adore Destroying Angel and Death Cap, but those are more spicy soil scents rather than actual greens.

Edited September 16, 2008 by modillian

[ReikoSazanami]

In imp: Pine trees, dark and ancient. The scent of rain after it’s fallen in the woods on the edge of twilight as well.

 

Wet on skin: More pine and a menthol note, but wow! This stuff cleared my nose right out. There is a deeper, muskier note lurking underneath the pine, which smells like freshly-splintered spruce needles. The throw is crazy, a few drops and I can smell it from feet away.

 

Drydown: Is it Christmas? Throw in some cinnamon or cookies baking and I’d be fooled. It’s the perfect Christmas pine. It’s tickling something in the back of my brain under Childhood Memories, but I can’t quite place it.

 

Overall: A sweet pine tree, very true to life and much prettier than my one-note oil that I use for personal blends. I wish I could smell the mosses, earth and dampness, though. A nice blend, but not one I have to have this minute. I may save it for the holidays, though.

[ErinZ]

I smell like I've been rolling around in the sweet earth of an evergreen forest. It's wonderful!

 

There was a brief moment where it seemed to smell of some sort of air freshener, but that softened and morphed away until it was quite nice again.

[lilirose]

In the imp: strangely sweet- almost fruity, yet dry at the same time.

 

Wet on skin: this is the sweetest “woodsy” BPAL I’ve tried, even more so than my beloved Yew-Trees with its berries. Quite feminine, but somehow only seems faintly woodsy to me. Not getting earth or moss or ozone at all.

 

Dry: this doesn’t morph much on me. It seems somewhat high-pitched on my skin.

 

Verdict: about a 3.5. I don’t love it madly, nor do I hate it.

[V294]

So this imp is about a year old but I haven't reviewed this scent so here goes.

 

In the imp it smelt bright and...I'm not sure, something kinda lurking in there

 

wet it was DIRT...but a kinda warm sweet, slightly foresty dirt

 

It has dried into a nice plesant smell. I was thinking this might be a good scent to sleep in but after reading the description, I think that might be tempting fate. It will be good for when I'm in specific moods, though I don't think it will go on the big bottle list. It does kinda make me want to go out on a crisp fall evening and play the flashlight game we played as kids (I'm blanking on the name).

[Caerphilly]

In the imp: Sweet dirt, berries, maybe a little wood underneath.

 

Wet: The forest scent comes out. Forest in winter (Pine, evergreen, etc...). Pinecones maybe. No dirt anymore. The dirt note fades the moment it touches my skin, which I'm glad about. Not as sweet anymore.

 

Dry: Reminds me of Snow Bunny. But the womanly, adult, mature version. There's a sweetness, but it's faint. It's mostly pine(?). It's crisp.

 

Overall: Wasn't expecting to like this one this much. But I think this might be a big bottle for me! I love pine, fir, evergreen anything relating to a Christmas tree, really. And this is it. A more mature version of snow bunny, less astringent or minty version of Snow Moon. So pretty!

[tajana]

Not what I expected! In the imp, it smells like pine, sweetened with berry-flavored candy. On the skin, it turned to sweet pine. It was hard to place the sweetness, but it felt floral and fruity. Quite delicate, and not the least bit cloying. However, I didn't get any night-time air, dirt, or moss out of this! It was a pleasant smell, quite pretty actually, but in its later stages got to smelling quite soapy. Nice soap, with a lovely soft pine element, but soap nonetheless. It didn't have much throw and lasted only a few hours on me. I sort of liked it, but I'll try to pass it on to someone else.

 

ETA, months later: Trying this out with a new imp and in an entirely different season, I find that I'm smitten. It's true love! My chemistry seems to have shifted a bit earlier this year, and currently it's more forgiving. Since the listed notes for Nocnitsa are so amazing, and the Eastern European inspiration resonates with me, I sought it out for another go. Well, it's pretty much wonderful. A sweet fir forest, dappled light and shadows... the bright lime-y note adds the brightness, I think. When that burns off, I'm left with a totally awesome cold forest air note, a hint of clean moss, and pine and fir sweetened with juicy red berries. The berries are very natural feeling, not candyish, and after a few hours it's a soft berries and fir scent. There may be a hint of cinnamon in here as well. My only complaint is that the lasting power isn't very good. Nonetheless, this is awesome. A wondrous forest scent with a sweet, girly edge.

Edited August 31, 2009 by tajana

[zankoku_zen]

This one is a nice, dark pine/fir blend that isn't too Christmassy. The associations in this blend --- I think given the dirt and moss notes, is more of a dark Eastern European forest. The kind that houses things that go bump in the night.

 

It has enough of airiness and a touch of sweetness to make it a nice wintery blend without any holiday connotations. That dark, snow, trees and infinite air.

[CynicalPink]

Imp: Christmas at first. Then...something interesting.

 

Wet: Still a pine tree, but not like cleaning solution. Much more real.

 

Drydown:

Phase 1 - Oooo...Something sweet to go with the pine. Quite pretty, really!

Phase 2: Have you ever smelled a pine cone? Like picked it up when it's fallen right of the tree and sniffed it? That's what I'm getting here. Still a sweetness in it, too.

Phase 3: Even sweeter! This is NICE. I need to stop being so shocked at liking "earthy" scents...

 

Overall: What a nice surprise! I don't think it's an imp I'll be reaching for all too often, but I'm reluctant to send it to the swap pile. A definite recommendation for anyone who wants to give a "woodsy" scent a try but doesn't want to smell like a lumberjack. Unexpectedly feminine.

[rayvn1]

I can't believe I haven't reviewed this one! This was one of my first BPAL's and I love it. Night air and pine. Fantastic

[Kimbernunk]

Wet: FIR.

 

Dry: Very strong fir note, with dirt and moss. I can only smell the nighttime air when I get right up against my wrist, which is a shame because the lab's nighttime air note is one of my favorites.

 

Overall, I'm glad to have an imp of this as I could see myself being in the mood for it from time to time. I don't think I'll want it often enough to want a bottle.

 

Nice winter scent!