Iago

[Vega]

Malevolent, dark and shadowy: sinuous black musk, wet leather and vetiver.

Sniffed: Leather upon vetiver. The black musk is so deep that I can't even smell it.

On skin: Iago is ferociously dominant, almost vulgar in the way it hits me over the head with its brazen notes. It's mostly a leather and vetiver show, with black musk the discreet base note. Burnt, acrid vetiver is initially prominent, but smoothens out in the drydown and mingles with the smooth, flat black leather note. And there the scent remains, dark and gritty and inorganic. Both notes are quite one-dimensional to my nose: black leather is flat and inorganic, vetiver is gritty and burnt. I get a visual impression of black leather, of both matte and shining varieties, layered next to each other.

Verdict: I never expected to like Iago, and certainly, it's way too inorganic, masculine and overpowering for me.

[Zii]

Wet: This is a vetiver punch in the face, of the angry deep variety. This is a bitter angry blend that is both scary and sexy all at once. It is staying wet much longer on my skin than most bpals do, but the musk is really starting to come out and play. And it has mega throw!

 

Drying: Finally the mega vetiver is dying down, leaving a sharp, smokey musk with a hint of what must be the black leather I love from Black Rider. It is sweetening, but in the total opposite of a floral. And it is still taking forever to dry.

 

Dry: Much more leathery now, but it hasn't morphed much from the wet stage.

 

I think I may have found a bpal too masculine for even me, which is something. It is incredibly sexy and I am so glad to have gotten to try it, but I doubt I need a bottle.

[keileya]

[Review from elsewhere, brought here for posterity.]

 

In the bottle: All I can smell, and I mean all I can smell, is the vetiver. Like, all. Yeeeesh, what is everyone talking about with the leather and sexy and stuff?

 

Wet on skin: OH THERE'S THE LEATHER. Um. Helloooooo, newly-tanned brown leather boots with a tiny tiny hint of green growing things underneath.

 

Five minutes later: I smell like a stable, but in the good way. Dirt and leather (leather leather leather) and I think I can even smell the steel of the D-rings on the saddlebags I can smell the musk developing around the edges. I love it on both me and my wife.

 

Four hours later: the leather has already stumbled home drunk and the vetiver has its coat on and is hovering around the door making its excuses. The musk is sitting on the couch with its feet up, having just opened itself another beer and confiscated the controller for another round of Grand Theft Auto IV. I was a bit worried about that -- I have trouble evicting a lot of musks once they've moved in and many of them turn to "exhibition hall fug on the fifth day of a tech convention" on me at the drop of a hat -- but this musk is the rare nerd that actually showers daily at a convention, so I don't mind it. The throw's almost entirely gone, but I catch the occasional waft of it, and sticking my nose right up against my wrist gives me five or six different layers of the musk, all of them incredibly complex. And drinking my beer.

 

...I may not have gotten enough sleep today.

 

Seven hours: The last remaining dregs of the musk is apparently an exceptionally happy drunk. It's gone all sweet and candy-ish, but a spicy candy from the penny-candy-bins era, like something Steve Rogers (Captain America) desperately misses in his new life.

[BoneBone24]

Wet: Leather soured by vetiver. Dirty in more ways than one.

 

Drydown/Dry: Heavy on the vetiver and leather, but ever-so-slightly sweeter and softer than you'd expect. Very manly. Rugged, in fact, but making an effort to appear civilized. Essentially, it smells like a grizzled lumberjack all dressed up for a job interview.

 

 

 

Ultimately too manly for me to wear, but it'd smell great on the right kind of guy!

 

7 out of 10 bones

[ralenth]

How have I not tried this until now?

 

Wet: Sinuous smoke curling around a sultry vetiver core.

 

Drydown: Slick black leather, and more luscious vetiver.

 

Dry: Sexy leather with a vettiver undercurrent. Iago almost replicates mixing Haitian Vetiver Single Note with my beloved De Sade.

[doublehelix]

Wet, very green musk. The musk is actually quite strong and the most dominant note here. On the drydown I get a bit of smoke, (maybe my nose burned from all the vetiver? ). Sadly I do not get any leather, which I was very much hoping for!

[GlowJob]

The scent is very fitting for the character but it's just a big fat NOPE for me. It's a generic department store men's cologne layed over something acrid and smoky. I'll try it on the man-thing to see if it works on him but I'm thinking it will end up in my frimping pile.

[gentle-twig]

This starts out as an overwhelmingly LEATHER scent on me. It's a little bit tough to get through this phase for me, even though I love leather, but after about a minute the vetiver starts to come out and add some subtlety. As Iago dries down, the musks become more and more dominant until I'm left with a delicate (this word is somehow inappropriate and yet totally not) mixture of musk, a slight smokiness, and the hint of leather. Honestly, I wasn't sold on this but my boyfriend loved it on me so I bought a bottle and now I am so glad I did. The overall result feels cool (as in both hip and frigid, which is unexpected for something this smoky) and cruel and basically makes me feel like a badass. I'm not sure if the makeup of the oil has really changed that much over the few weeks I've been using it or if I've just gotten used to it, but I basically love it now. It's not an everyday scent for me (too masc, I guess?), but it's great for the right occasion.

 

EDIT: I forgot to add that this lasts FOREVER. I basically need to wash this off before I can stop smelling it on my wrists. For me, that is a plus.

Edited November 22, 2014 by gentle-twig

[Veronica]

Vetiver and leather. Yuck!

[Lunasariel]

In the imp: Yup, that's vetiver right there, leavened a bit by leather. I don't have the "OH GOD NO GET IT AWAY" reaction to vetiver that I know other people do, but it's far from my favorite scent out there. Right now I'm getting the "malevolent" and "dark," but maybe "sharp" instead of "shadowy."

 

Wet: Wow. That's um, a lot of smell right there. This is probably the strongest vetiver I've ever smelled - sharp, acrid, and just a bit of the scent of burning tires. The leather is also making itself known and the musk is anchoring everything, but overall, I can't say I'm crazy about this, at least for me. In fact, this is almost exactly what I imagine Famine or Pollution from Good Omens to smell like - sophisticated and powerful, but dangerous. And not in a sexy-dangerous way, either. Bad dangerous.

 

Dry: Thankfully, the vetiver calms the hell down after ~15-30 minutes, and reveals an actually rather pleasant musky leather. It's still pretty austere and VERY masculine, but I could actually see this working now. I don't think I'll ever love it (for a good manly scent, I prefer something with a bit more slink to it), but it's definitely gone from a 2 to like a 6.3 on the Do I Like This scale.

[DoktorDandy]

This sent was my first BPAL sent ever, and will be my first review here.

In the imp: The first impression is a strong, strong dark leather sent. There's something deep, very dark and wet-smelling. It may be the Vertiver. Overall, powerful impression, but not what I was expecting somehow. Leather is all I can sense.

Wet: Honestly, the first impression when it hit my skin was a slight lurch of nausea. The sent is strong, very strong at first- like a hand over the face. The blow to the senses is like the feeling when you get a burn- everything falls away, and all of your attention is fixed on the strong, strong sensory input. It demands all of your attention. I can't think of anything else for a moment, and it causes an automatic grimace. Leather and something sickly and strange are all I can detect.

Dry: Iago on me is a strange sent- pleather. Schoolbus seats. In turns it is interesting and sniffable, then mildly nauseating again. It's dark in color, green-black, leaning towards black. Pleather though- an artificial tinge keeps haunting this. I got none of the sandalwoody, floral sort of notes that my mother got when she tried it on simultaneously. It was really not bad on her, and she loved it, and may end up with the imp eventually. She said something in it reminded her of Narcisse Noir and a few other perfumes from her childhood that she can't find anymore. Very different than what happened on me.

Overall/later: Iago is a comforting sent, and unsettling at the same time, like unpacking something with memories attached, maybe clothes or toys and then finding that they do not smell the same as they once did. I really wanted to like this one, as it is my first sent, and I loved what I heard, but I am on the fence about it. It's a contradicting smell- there's something old about it, almost musty, but something very new and sharp with uncomfortable edges- like brand new leather, plasticy and bright, gleaming black. Strangely, It seems to actually leave a bitter taste in my mouth- no clue as to why. It faded fast on me, though it's haunting the edges of my attention- I get a whiff now and then when I least expect it.

I'll be keeping it, aging it a few months at least and trying it again. Without a doubt interesting enough to keep and try again. I worry that it ultimately won't work out though... I'll be sad if that happens. I want to be able to wear this.

[DiesMali]

In the imp: Burnt dirt?

 

Wet on my skin: Bitter, burnt dirt and grass. It smells like the old remnants of a wildfire.

 

Dry: Still smells like the old remnants of a wildfire, with a bit of hot leather mixed in. It's an exceedingly masculine and dark scent, and I think this is the first BPAL scent I've found that is just TOO masculine for me. It's very interesting, though, and I know JUST who to pass this on to now that I've had a chance to try it!

[nathanielhebert]

This is a tough review to submit to, because based on the strength of the imp alone, Iago had catapulted into my proverbial Top Ten. Sadly, the bottle purchase is not the same beast that I had grown to treasure. This is the first time I'd been genuinely disappointed by a BPAL purchase. (oh, the folly of expectations!)

In the vial, Iago was dark, viscous, very sharp, and uncompromisingly dry. Crude, rude, vulgar—yes Iago was all that, but the fascination with the grotesque kept luring me back. The black leather and vetiver felt like a slap to the face, and the musk lewdly conjured up images of mares in heat. Even the tiniest dabs would waft up like a sinuous curl hours after application. While hiking through the woods in winter, I was genuinely afraid I’d have to lock heads with the bucks who’d been seen roaming through the forest.

Fast-forward, and the bottle is like a musty, muted version of my treasured scent. I skeptically slathered some on before a bike ride, only to be accosted by a blast of something sacchrine that I kept picking up on. Oh no, Iago was now cloyingly sweet to the point it began to turn my stomach!

This was a Iago who really let himself go. He’d traded in his leather pants for something a little more comfortable with an elastic waistband. His stomach for woman had been usurped by a love of cake, and he was now flirting dangerously with Type 2 diabetes. The black musk which seemed rather unobtrusive and sensual before, now reeked like sweet-smelling urine. This was no pleasant slice of gateau, instead it came across as cake that had been vomited up—equal parts sugary and repulsive. It says something about its lasting power, as it took several showers to wipe away the scent until it was nothing but an unpleasant memory.

I’ll let it settle, and revisit Iago at a future date, but until then I’ll cherish every last drop that is left in my imp.

[Malaena]

In the imp: Chemicals + leather.

 

Dry: It starts off with a scent I cannot identify but I'm going to gamble that it's leather mixing with vetiver. It goes to leathery baby powder.

 

Verdict: Dark musks and vetiver always work but every leather I've tried has been a fail.

[LexieBlom]

Iago imp

Wet/Bottle - Black musk and vetiver, some of my favorite notes. A hint of leather, also a favorite note of mine. I think we'll get along just fine.

Wet/Skin (5 minutes) - Dry, sexy and dark -- exactly what I expected. Slightly sharp, which I don't usually like, but this really works.

Dry/Skin (30 minutes) - A little sweetness here and there, but still as dark and commanding as before.

I'm torn, guys. I absolutely love this and want to rub it all over my body, but I also think this would be so well suited for my DOM due to how strong, dominating, commanding and dark it is. I'll let him try and see if he likes it as much as I do.

[d0gbones]

In the imp: Almost alcoholic, masculine. Me and vetiver really don't get on :|

Wet: Leathery

Dry: This actually dries to something wearable. Pretty much everything in here usually smells terrible on me, but this is like a soft, musky leather with a bit of sweetness. Probably not a keeper, but surprisingly good.

[radiantfracture]

(Imp direct from lab and aged about a year)

 

In the bottle: delicious. Sexy and intriguing and indeed sinuous and tantalizing. A golden oil.

 

Wet on skin: Oh, no. My skin seems to have eaten this. I get almost nothing except hickory smoke. Maybe black musk is one I can't smell?

 

Drydown: This falls very close to the skin on me. Very smoky leather, vetiver, and a hint of beef jerky. Dammit.

 

Hey. Some of what I liked in the bottle is coming back -- that sinuous snaky leathery smell. The smoke is still a little barbecue-y, but I have hope.

 

Dry: Still more of the smoke than I'd like, but the leather is tasty. I'll see how this wears.

[russetfox]

I love this oil so decided to make a review, Got a frimp from the lab a little over a month ago, then last week got an imp from someone So reviewing both as they are very much different.

 

Imp: the vetiver is more top note in the non-lab imp, where I get much leather with a hint of vetiver in the lab imp

 

Wet: about the same as in imp, with the other notes peaking around the corner as it dries down.

 

Dry: taking forever they appear to be reversing, in the non-lab imp the leather is coming out as top note and vetiver as top note in the lab imp

 

I really like this very much a boy scent which I am rather lacking Wearing this to work tomorrow to test how long it sticks around!

Edited January 29, 2016 by russetfox

[Cali]

Sighs, I wish I liked vetiver cause I really, really want to like this. Sharp, spicy, dark and deadly, in other words, leather, spice and everything not nice (imagine a wink at the end... Not from me. from someone you find attractive).
That said, there's something sexy about it too.

 

Uhuuu why can't I like this... Onto my swaps pile it goes! :c

[Casablanca]

Bottle: Smells exactly as described! Surprisingly, I smell the leather even more than the vetiver. How did she get the leather to smell wet? This reminds me of the wet part of the Druid "wet wool."
Wet: Wet black leather and, secondarily, vetiver.
Dry: Mega black leather. The faintest black musk as a supporting note.

I received this as a free sample. I had eyed it earlier but passed it over, figuring the vetiver would be the star and that didn't seem interesting. But I've since found that I really like the lab's "black musk" note, so I'm glad they sent me this.

This might be a love-it-or-hate-it blend. I feel both. It has me equally thinking of "dead-sexy dark-haired guy" and "black leather dude who rides his bike between lanes and needs a muffler." If you can imagine a little overlap between the two, there you find Iago. 

[Joyleaf_]

I cant believe I havent reviewed this!
Iago is one of my favorite scents ever.
On my skin the leather and musk dominate, it smells like a bad boy wearing a leather jacket who has just come inside from the rain. I get bare hints of vetiver, and as it dries down the the scent warms ever so slightly. I wear this when I want to feel powerful and sexy. I do find that it has more of a manly scent, but I tend to go for the more masculine scents.
I tend to reach for this one more often than not

[porcelaincrypt]

In the imp: My first cold sniff- Whoa, this is unlike anything else in my BPAL collection thus far! Something like tar, or a burnt smell, reminds me of an auto shop, with maybe some spices. The second time I smelled it in the imp, tonight, I again thought it smelled really interesting, and unique, this time I got the leather loud and clear and again an auto shop- there is something very greasy, and oily about it that is reminiscent of one.

 

I like it better on my skin than in the imp because a slight sweetness comes out, I'm not sure what note that is from.

 

Iago is not something I'd personally want to wear but it is a very compelling scent! While I probably won't get a full bottle I really like the imp and I appreciate how different it smells from the rest.

 

If anyone has watched Sons of Anarchy, I imagine this is what Teller-Morrow auto shop, and what Jax Teller would smell like lol. And it's interesting that the show was influenced by Shakespeare too. Anyway, Iago is a badass scent.

[roseus]

This is all raw black leather and vetiver for me. Dark, smoky, and rough. I can see why people love it, but it is definitely not for me.

[themeaningofV]

Well, darn. I like vetiver. I like leather. But together, they don't like my skin very much and smell extremely vegetal (dare I say... pickled). This has happened with other blends before (In His Hands All Thy Cruelties Thrive, Highwayman (though the florals saved that one a little)), but I was hoping the black musk would offset this a bit. Instead, it's just adding a touch of weird, sweet powder. Alas!

[lizabelle]

This was one of those that was at the very top of my wishlist to try, and now that it's on my skin I can't fathom why. This is 99% sopping wet, new leather, with the rest made up of blackened, smoking wood. I get no musk at all out of this, sadly--it might have softened it up a bit. Over time it does smell slightly less like a leather bomb and turns into a worn leather jacket with a tinge of very old cologne, but it's still too sharp for my nose. I'm sure someone would love this, but that someone is not me.