Bengal

[rhubarb3point14]

A sultry and unruly blend that emulates the ambient scent of the markets in ancient Bengal: skin musk with honey, peppers, clove, cinnamon bark and ginger.

I can't handle this one. It's far too sweet on me, and the excessive amount of pepper and spice burns my sinuses.

The contrast between this and Morocco, which I wore yesterday, is huge. Morocco has similar spiciness, but is soft and creamy and not cloying.

[theredkilt]

Upon application: burning cinnamon, even my nose started to itch

 

10 minutes later: still cinnamon, less intense, but biting.

 

Ain't gonna wait for some development. Disappointed

[Alia Kaitan]

I was frimped this by an awesome forumite. So, my imp is probably a little aged.

 

In the imp, I wasn't sure what to think about this. It had a strange, plastic-spice smell. Hmm.

 

On wet, ah ha! It's honey, which fortunately smells like honey once it gets on my skin. Aaaand, I think I might amp honey, because the spices are taking a back seat here. Not that I mind. It's all delicious, musky honey. But where is my cinnamon? Where is my ginger?

 

Dry, oh, there's the spice. Mmm. The cinnamon is very much a woody cinnamon on me, like the cinnamon bark itself as opposed to food with cinnamon in it. Some warm ginger bite. The clove is not distinct on me, and yet, this does smell a lot like Chai tea without the milk. Mmm, the honey is still quite strong but it is not oversweet; like a thick, raw honey with spices on top instead of pollen and honeycomb.

 

I would say that this is somewhat foody, as huffing my wrists is making me crave Chai. It's a very warm scent, maroon and saffron and burnt orange in color. It's definitely pretty sensual, but in a more chaotic way than say, Morocco or Bastet.

 

I have fairly sensitive skin and did not react to this, so YMMV as far as if this causes a problem.

 

Definitely keeping my imp, and will likely replace the imp when I run out, but this does not top my other favs to become a bottle.

 

Emoticon rating:

 

(eta because I can't spell.)

Edited January 20, 2012 by kaitan

[lohengrin]

In the imp: Musky and spicy.

 

On skin, wet: Musky, spicy, with occasional whiffs of plastic or maybe play-doh?

 

On skin, dry: Musky cinnamon, and a little more of that plastic/play-doh note.

 

After an hour: About the same as the initial drydown. Dang.

[KittyHawk]

I had to resist the urge to scrub this off when I first applied it; the Lab's cinnamon note has a tendency to drown out any other notes and leave me with a sharp, screeching heat that I don't find appealing. But I've come to the conclusion that initial heavy spices often morph into something soft, sexy, and wearable if I just give it a few minutes (Othello and Snake Oil are prime examples).

 

That said, I'm so glad I waited this out. After about an hour, the cinnamon burns off a bit, leaving a musky, almost doughy sweet cinnamon scent. This really does smell like cinnamon buns without icing. I really like this. I'll have to wear this a few more times to decide whether it's worthy of a bottle, but I'll certainly use up the imp.

[Maleficium]

imp: spiced honey and cinnamon

 

wet: cinnamon jumps to the forefront and drowns out everything else. Smells exactly like those little red candies that I've always hated.

 

drydown: after drying a bit, honey reappears but is still overpowered by cinnamon. After a little while longer, a wild ginger appears.

 

verdict: I strongly dislike both cinnamon and ginger, and these two scents are amped to high heavens on my skin. Not for me.

[GoddessChaos]

In the bottle: Honey and peppers.

 

Wet: SPICES!

 

Drydown: Spices and the pepper makes its return. Whoof. This is like bell pepper/chili pepper, not black pepper.

 

Fully dry: The honey comes to the forefront once again, calming down that pepper. It's now just a sharpness balancing out the sweet honey. It smells like chai tea, with no milk.

 

After a bit: The spices are back, with a hint of sweetness from the honey and sharpness from the pepper. It's like sweet cinnamony musk. The first time I tried this I dabbed it on with a bunch of other things (in different spots) at the same time and I thought I smelled a weird plasticky note... but it must have been the pepper not been playing well with something else. I like it; once I get past the drydown phase, it's very nice. I'm not sure yet if I need a bottle. I'll definitely use up the imp though!

[virusq]

While Bengal was wet, it was very, very cinnamon. I felt like I had just walked into the holiday clearance aisle at a craft supply store. It wasn't horrible, but it was distinctly clearance aisle.

 

It mellowed out into something smokey, however. Like smouldering incense. A nice, settled, ashy/smokey flavor with a hot mix of clove/cinnamon in the background.

 

It's not bad: it has meshed well with my skin chemistry and it hasn't killed anyone I've walked past in the hall. It's not particularly memorable, either.

 

Didn't work out for me.

[LightLikeKnives]

This is a cinnamony-rum, potpourri scent. It's fairly strong, but not really the whole 'spice market' thing that it's advertised as. After an hour, it becomes better blended, more integrated, softer, creamier, and well, dare I say it -- sexier. Then about hour five, it undergoes a slow dissipation as it turns vetiver, the arid kind of vetiver that suggests a desert. It's not bad, but it's not fantastic, either. I got ten hours out of it, with the last three as a skin scent.

[becca_s]

I can't believe how much this smells exactly like chai tea!

 

This starts out pretty strong - with a dry kind of cinnamon, and drys down into a chai like scent.

 

It's nice, I like the smell of chai But, I think it's a bit too foody for me to wear. I will hold onto it and test it again, there might be certain times when I am in the mood for wearing this kind of scent.

[brilliantcat]

Cinnamon and peppery, desert-dry and not foody on me. It stays the same as it warms, with perhaps a touch of musk adding to the general loveliness.

[alyelle]

The frimp that taught me to always, always check the ingredients before applying.

 

Imp: a mixture of spice, tiger balm and old wax paper

 

Wet: spices, specifically pepper and cinnamon. It was at this point that I remembered how my skin reacts to cinnamon scents and started hoping against hope for the best.

 

Dry: Alas, the best was not to be. After five minutes, a beautiful blend of honey and musk was starting to work its way to the surface but unfortunately, five minutes was all my skin could stand.

 

There were still welts on my wrists half an hour after washing this off, which is a terrible shame as I think I'd have really loved the end result of the dry down. I've tried it in a burner and a scent locket, but I prefer Autumn Cider in both for my cinnamon fix. As a fragrance blend, it gets 3.5/5, but if we're going on wearability, it's a 1/5.

[Fuhrankie]

A two month old imp that I bought on my Wanderlust spree. I loved the idea of this fragrance. The notes made me think 'chai!' though without the tea and milk, I expected it to be a spicier version of my favourite tea. I have to be careful where I apply this, as it brings up welts on sensitive parts.

 

In the imp: CINNAMON, BABY! Slightly peppery, with a sweet undertone (probably the honey).

 

Wet on skin: Cinnnaaaaamoooooonnnnn, pepper, honey. Maybe a hint of vanilla? Sooooo good. <3

 

Drydown: Woody, still very cinnamony. A background of something soapy that is fading fast- something greenly spicy (ginger?)

 

Dry: Cinnamon, honey, a slight background of a musk I actually like! Woody, foody, gorgeous.

 

 

I really love this scent. It's comforting and warm. I grew up on my mum surprising me every winter with fresh chai bubbling away over the fire. This is just delicious, and eventually I will upgrade to a bottle, but for now I'll add in an imp every few orders.

[ladymeag]

I was excited to try this - a cinnamon and ginger scent would be amazing and pepper, clove, and musk are all on my favorites list. One problem, though, the honey note.

 

In the bottle, this is exactly what I wanted it to be - ginger spiced musk.

 

On Me: Wet and through dry-down this smells like red hots melted with an apple Jolly Rancher. Sticky-sweet, looses all spice but cinnamon, and adds a plastic-and-powder background. I think I might actually hunt down a scent locket for this one.

 

On Spouse: Spouse says, "black cherry cordial with pie spice." I smell honey and peppered spices. No musk, though, and certainly no ginger.

 

I still hunt for a good ginger but not ginger ale scent.

[mermaidsdream]

This is my second try with this imp. I don't remember off hand where I received it (that's in a spreadsheet I can't access from here), but judging by the label it's fairly aged.

 

In the imp: spiced honey. The honey is what comes out the most.

 

On the wrist: I still get lots of sweet, sticky, spiced honey. 5 minutes later, however, the skin *burns* due to the cinnamon. It's all I can do to not claw my wrists, my neck where I've applied it. This happened the last time I tried this scent, and I wanted to be 100% positive that's what was causing it before putting the imp in a trade box.

 

 

Dry: I still get lots of soft, powdery honey. It's sweet, without being too sweet. If it weren't for the problem with the cinnamon, I'd be keeping this, and maybe buying a bottle of it for those days I feel sweet. As it stands, though, my wrists still throb a little from where it was applied. Alas.

 

ETA: I'm still on the hunt for a 'Wanderlust' scent that works on me. So far, they've either been "um, no" or "it's okay" or "it fades too fast on me".

Edited January 28, 2013 by mermaidsdream

[Atrous]

In the bottle and wet on the skin this is all honey, as in a bit too much.

On the dry down, The musk peeks out and blends nicely with the honey and CINNAMON comes out strong. After a while the cinnamon dies down quite a bit. Ginger makes a appearance. I can't detect any clove or pepper which is a shame because I was hoping for something really spicy. After a few more minutes this scent dies out almost completely. If I sniff really close to my wrist, I get beeswax with the faintest hint of cinnamon. Too bad, because all the notes in Bengal usually amp up on my skin so I don't understand where this went so wrong. It's a pleasant enough scent while it lasts but I'll stick with Morocco instead.

[mymymai]

ITI: Strong cinnamon, clove, and honey comb body butter.

 

Wet: It smells like cinnamon oil, beeswax, and honey comb. It reminds me of a really pungent candle I once rolled by myself when I was a more crafty person.

 

Dry: Cinnamon steeped in thick honey comb and just a touch of clove. It's interesting and reminds me of Golden Priapus a little.

[BoneBone24]

Wet: Cinnamon Toast Crunch! Sweet cinnamon with a buttery and crispy bite.

 

Drydown: The very best cinnamon paired with glowing honey. Perhaps a pinch of clove too. Spicy-sweet and delicious. How is it that people don’t rave about this more often?

 

Dry: The musk enters in, tempering the foody elements a bit. Warm and spicy cinnamon-musk sweetened by a subtle drop of honey. Musky and golden with a fuzzy spiciness. There are moments where the musk tries to do a weird plastic/play-doh thing, but the cinnamon seems to fend it off for the most part.

 

 

 

 

6.5 out of 10 bones

Edited July 11, 2013 by BoneBone24

[kaberett]

In the imp: more in the direction of sweet cassia than Al-Shairin, which I tested shortly beforehand, but unsurprisingly similar given the number of notes they share!

 

Wet: spice cupboard. Musk starts to peek out but is SMOTHERED BY THE SPICE CUPBOARD. Nearly overpoweringly-sweet cinnamon bark.

 

Dry: ... yeah, to my great disappointment I'm not getting either pepper or ginger out of this; it's just ALL THE SWEET VIETNAMESE CINNAMON ALL OF THE TIME. Which is nice enough, don't get me wrong! It's just that I prefer it in pho to on my wrists.

[fufu_berry]

Wet: Cinnamon and honey

 

Drydown: Clove and some of the peppers are coming out - very warm, earthy, spicy. Liking it so far.

 

Dry: More ginger, yay! This is sticking very close to the skin, and it smells awesome. Not too sweet, just spicy and golden and warm. Love it!

[lucycat]

In the imp and wet, this smelled like spicy chai.

 

It made my skin burn and turn red for about an hour, probably because of the cinnamon and pepper. After that it settled down into a warm, well-blended spice. I couldn't really pick out the clove, which I have amped in other blends, or the honey, but something was there under the spices, sweetening them.

 

I already have and love Morocco, which behaves better on my skin. However, I think Bengal is worth another test in fall or winter weather.

 

ETA: I'm glad I made that second test, almost exactly four months after the first. This time, I had no burning or redness. That may be because the imp has aged, or because the weather is about 40 degrees cooler than it was four months ago (I think being sticky and sweaty makes my skin more sensitive,) or a combination of those two factors. Anyway, Bengal was much more wearable this time around. It also smelled different; it dried down to a musky cinnamon.

Edited November 22, 2013 by lucycat

[bubastis]

Apparently I love any bpal blend with a good dose of honey in it This actually reminds me a lot of sudha segara, it smells of gingerbread cookies and somehow vaguely creamy. But where sudha disappeared on me in under ten minutes,Bengal is a much stronger scent. This will no doubt end up in my top ten, maybe even top five

[icecreamcone]

Bengal smells like thick syrup honey, made from spicy flowers.

It isn't bad - just not my type of scent.

It also faded really fast on my skin.

[fisharescary]

Smells almost like a really delicious chai tea, but just a little less foody! I don't normally keep a lot of foodie/gourmet scents around, but this one is just beautiful enough I'll at least have to keep this imp!

[Teaker]

I'm so pleased with the scent! Every bpal with honey I've ever tried becomes unwearable after a few hours- salty play-doh, it's just gross. The one exception: Bengal! This is definitely heavy on the honey, and smells sweet and sticky, but it remains wearable FOREVER and I never get a hint of play-doh. Awesome!

 

Aside from the honey, this smells spicy and cinnamony. The "pepper" doesn't seem to be black pepper, there's nothing sneezy about it. I think the pepper just adds heat, and this blend does reminds me of hot desert winds.

 

The cinnamon isn't candy-like, it's cinnamon bark. There's almost a touch of woodiness to it, it's just exquisite.

 

The best part of this blend, for me, is the skin musk. After several hours this dries to the most gorgeous smell- heated skin with sweetness and spice. It's just delicious and sexy! It also lasts an unbelievable long time, I put some on in the afternoon and the skin smell was clear as a bell the next morning. You would only be able to smell it on someone if you were up close and personal, though.

 

In conclusion: warm, sweet, spiced honey, with the dryness of woody cinnamon, that lasts forever and smells like sexy skin wen it dries. WIN!