Nocnitsa

[wolfwynd]

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

Sweet pine, almost sickly when wet and from the bottle. Mellows down a bit after a while but not enough for me. Too sweet for me, it amps up the wrong things and it isn't something I'd wear despite me loving pine.

Off to swaps

[erraticprophet]

I've been dying to try this one. It sounded so interesting to me. I love earthy smells and resins love me, so I thought this would be a match made in heaven.

 

First Impression: moss, trees, earth, air. It's just as the description says..

 

On Wet: still moss and pine, but something sweet and candy-like is popping out. Lovely. It feels cool and moist, like a soft breeze.

 

On Dry: it's berries! The berries are coming out stronger now, and there's more of a fresh air smell, the moss, pine and earth are still there in the background. This is gorgeous!

 

Final Impression: This is like the best nature walk ever! I love love love this! It's very soothing.

 

Rating (on a scale of 1 to 5): 5. I have to have a big bottle of this.

[steffanina]

Nocnitsa-

 

In Bottle: Pine and earth!

 

Wet: Ooh, such a nice earthy scent. I'm hoping the pine doesn't turn Pine-Sol-ish, which doesn't usually happen with BPAL scents but this one seems like it could be close.

 

Dry: No, it doesn't become Pine-Sol! It's stays pine-smelling in a way that's stronger than some of the more pleasing pine blends that I like (Talvikuu, Jolasveinar, Knecht Ruprecht) but it's interesting, and I like the earth combined with it. I may have to try this again.

 

Overall: Interesting, will try again.

[ralenth]

A frimp from the lab:

 

Wet: Dark and mysterious. The pine jumps up and something darker creeps behind it.

 

Drydown: I feel like I'm rolling around on the forest floor at Christmas time. I am getting a bit dirty, mmm, but I smell like holiday. Not sure this was intended, but my sleep deprived brain likes it.

 

Dry: Mmm, there's some sort of berry sweetness in addition to the pine now. I don't smell like household cleaner, how delightful!

 

Overall: I'll definitely come back to this. It's so neat.

[waternight]

In the imp: Mossy and woodsy, faintly piney.

Wet/Drydown: Mmm… fir tree! Light, fresh, sharp, natural, and true. It smells sappy and piney, but not overpowering. Fir sap and wood. I’m swooning. I’m in a forest and I love it. Now a bit of the earth note is creeping in, and it blends SO WELL with the fir note. The earth note is lending a bit of dryness to the blend. Another green note, probably the mosses, is making its presence known. All in all, this is very well blended.

Dry: Vaguely tree-ish. Unfortunately, Nocnitsa dries down to a very faint, vague, non-descript scent. I wish she had stayed true from her wet stage.

[funkmoppet]

Okay, this is stunning. I had to try it just because it's a Slavic blend, and the description is just breathtaking. And wow.

 

Wet - dirt! Wet, upturned earth - how does she do it? Oddly, the pine is barely noticeable in this blend for me. Given how it usually amps, I'm amazed. Instead it's like the smell of tree bark. I completely get the night-time woods in this. The mosses are sweet, not herbal. It's glorious!

 

Dry, there's a sweet berry coming from somewhere. It goes momentarily floral, then the pine kicks in, and now it's berry. Berries in a wood with sweet night time air.

 

Completely unexpected and unique. I love it!

[ribcaged]

Mmm! I got this frimp off the_witching_hour in a swap!

 

I have been looking forward to trying it for a while, I love the name and the soil note is such an aphrodisiac for me, hehe.

 

First on this smellt very green, herby and medicinal with a strong dirt note. It was wafting around me very very strong, almost had a clearing efect on my head.

 

20 minutes later it softened and sweetened now I am smelling a shiney soft incense-y berry scent beneath a dusty layer of pine with a hint of soil. It's quite warm and comforting now, a nice, warm glittering burgundy as opposed to the striking green siren it first started off as. I like both stages equally!

 

 

Will need a bottle, I hope it doesnt fade too quickly!

[steelfaerie]

Nocnitsa smells like pure pine on me with a sort of underlying sweetness. I wear it constantly, as the tree smells are some of my favourite notes. I was apprehensive about it turning into air freshener, but no, it stays moist and wet-pine smelling. It's absolutely fantastic, and the longer it's worn, the sweeter it becomes.

[Eemia]

I tried an imp of this because I've been interested in trying out more earthy notes lately. It started out as a very soft and pungent earth smell, with a dankness that I liked. It felt deep and slightly green, but not grassy. The wood note that I expected to be the strongest was actually very tame. It was a lovely living wood scent instead of a wood that felt aged or dry. As it was in this stage it felt timeless.

 

But as soon as it calmed a bit it turned sharp and surprisingly sweet. Very perfumey, which I assume is the nighttime air acting out on me. I might have liked that crystalline quality, but with the moist earthiness underneath it just didn't work. The sharpness was too overpowering and felt like it was boarding on chemical.

 

I wish this had stayed true to the wet stage. But I will have to pass my imp onto to someone who can truly appreciate it.

[aquazoo]

Dusty fruity. Cherry orangy. Not the grabs-you-by-the-nostrils fruity, Just light and there. With a hint of cinnamon. It’s growing on me

[ImperatrixMundi]

Huh?

 

When wet this smells like mint and pine with something sweet. A really nice smell.

 

As it dries it starts to smell of berries.

 

Berries are all that is left after half an hour.

 

After four hours only a whiff of something sweet is left.

 

This breaks my heart. At first I blamed it on my skin, but after reading the reviews and dabbing it on a piece of cotton wool with the same result I have to admit defeat.

[valentina]

I received Nocnitsa as a frimp, for it's something that I wouldn't typically try. Any sort of woodsy smell is usually way too woodsy on me, so of course, that's what I expected here.

 

On first application, it was pine. Pine-pine-pine-pine-pine! Not bad, just rather, uh... piney.

 

After about 15 minutes: What the hell? It's pine, but with a very nice sweetness. I'd almost say it was honey, and maybe a wee bit milky? It's a bit like Dana O'Shee, gone to the pine forest. Pretty, not as masculine as most piney scents can be on my skin.

 

After an hour: Mmmm! To me, it smells like pine, with some sweetness, and a big dose of patchouli. This dirt smell is more a dark patchouli than the dirt smell in other blends. I love patchouli, so this development makes me quite happy.

 

While wearing pine is not my #1 choice of ways to smell, I see myself hanging onto this imp and wearing it as the season moves into winter, because I do thoroughly enjoy the way this scent morphs. I end up smelling the way I think I'd smell if I had a sweet patchouli scent on my body and was out hiking through a pine forest, and that's a lovely association for me.

Edited October 16, 2007 by valentina

[Kimiko]

Imp: This smells yummy.... Hmmm

 

On my skin: I feel like it's Christmas, lots of fir but there's something else there. A sweetness perhaps.

 

I think this is one that I'm keeping, I like the way it smells on me.

[FallDaze]

In the imp this is absolutely gorgeous! The fir is there and it's lovely and soft nighttime air.

 

On it's very pretty. A very soft, moonlight night woodsy scent. A little sweet though...

 

Overall, an absolutely gorgeous scent, I just really can't see myself wearing it It's very sweet and piney like sugar coated pine.

[silver_dollar]

I haven't written a review in a while, so bear with me here.

 

I really like this. In the imp it just smells like straight pine, but on it bursts into this bright winter fir top note that is not quite pine with pleasantly sharp moss and a tiny hint of dirt grounding it at the bottom. This is only, I think, the second time I've been exposed to this particular note, and I'm pleased to note it's not overwhelming buttery as in Penny Dreadful. In fact, it's not buttery at all. Sadly, the fir fades on me quickly, but I like what I'm left with almost as much: a sweet, dark, musky green scent. It's hard to decsribe it other than that, but this is really good and is definitely going on my bottle list.

[Emera]

IN THE IMP: Strong pines, slightly sour.

 

ON MY SKIN: For the first minute or so, damp, dark forest soil and strong pines – some more resinous, some almost minty. Then, as always on me, the pines take over and turn into a super-sweet, almost fruity Christmas-y smell. Sigh. Not for me.

 

LATER: About 4 hours later, it’s mostly gone, just a sweet, smoky, piny trace – I quite like the smokiness, but not enough to wear it for the intervening four hours. This was a pretty pleasant surprise in that it didn’t share the wood note in Ulalume and Yggdrasil that goes horribly wrong on me, but still not my thing. The search for the ultimate forest blend goes on!

[lookingglass]

This smells like the love child of Lurid and Black Forest. I do very much like it. It smells like hunting for X-Mas trees in TN where the ground is often soft and decomposing but the air is crisp. There is a delightful light sweetness on the drydown, and it is not as sexy as Black Forest. I love the earth note...it really hangs around.

[suki]

in the imp: fruity and spicy. i see where the christmas conotations are coming from.

 

wet on skin: more fruit, but in a faint, dusty way. this isn't foodie.

 

dry down: fruit mixes with bay and a touch of cinnamon. if i'd had this for the holidays, i would've worn it.

 

in all: it's worth having for all the long winter months ahead!

[Rosaleen Dhu]

Lovely! Definitely captures the woods at night. It isn't an "earthy" scent, as in I don't get much dirt, but there is a deepness to it that I really like. The fir wood stands out on top, but unless I put my nose right up to it I don't smell like a christmas tree.

[Brianne]

I was utterly amused when I received Nocnitsa as a frimp from someone today - I have literally wanted to try Nocnitsa since I joined BPAL years ago. I just never did get around to it and I eventually figured that one day, she'd make her way around to me. And here she is finally!

 

Right away I can say that Nocnitsa is not what I expected - I was thinking it was going to be very dark, very piney and probably very "wet" smelling. But instead it has a nearly fruity quality to it (as fir sometimes does in my opinion) with a sort of lightness about it. It has a definite herbal atmosphere to it and the fir isn't so overwhelmingly woodsy - the end result is something mossy and unusual with a slightly masculine edge to it. It's very pleasant and without smelling anything like it - it reminds me a lot of Luperci in that it's very unisex but leans more towards being masculine and has a strange comforting feel to it.

 

I don't think I'd wear this enough to warrant a bottle, but the imp is definitely being kept!

[laforetnoire]

In the bottle, it reminds me of a pine forest on a foggy day. The scent is rather sweet, and mysterious too. I like it very much!

 

Unluckily, the scent doesn't last for very long, for about 2 hours on me.

[CrazyPretzel]

To confirm what others have already stated: yes, this is a very *wet* scent. I can smell fir trees but the earthy scent is much stronger, and it's very dark and damp. Nocnitsa won't be replacing Black Forest as my favourite pine scent, but I will be using my imp on days like today when it's just on the edge of storming and it feels right.

[Arcy]

Bottle : Piney, very evergreen with with wet earth.

Skin, Wet : Christmas tree! Sharply so.

Skin, Drydown : Still very much just the scent of the trees. Very green. Perhaps a bit of moss and earth trying to come out but they are overpowered.

Skin, Dry : Moss and earth finally appear a bit, but still a very green and foresty scent. Very pretty really if you like the scent, but not my type.

[maribouquet]

Very piney at first with a whiff of dirt, but this dries down into a gorgeous, lightly-sweet scent. Wintry and warm at the same time. Hanging on to my imp!

[donnatron]

Imp: Sweet pine. Like someone really wanted pine candy and did a weird thing.

 

Wet: PINE! OMFG PINE! This gets very metholated on my skin and just starts acting up... all... pine-like.

 

Dry: Still very pine-y. I associate pine with headache remedies and cough relief, so I can easily see slathering this behind my temples or on my collar bone. But only when I'm already suffering a maledy.

 

Throw: Pretty good.

 

Overall: For me, it smells medicinal. If you like pine, you will probably think otherwise.