Bengal

[ringmaster-red]

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.

 

This is probably the only BPAL perfume I’ve tried so far (I’ve tried many) besides Inferno where I can ACTUALLY SMELL THE SPICES. It’s sweet and warm with straightforward spices. It’s like there’s an actual pile of cinnamon powder in front of me. Where Inferno is bitter, Bengal is raw and sweet. There’s some decent throw. The honey softly wafts in and out. I can’t stop sniffing my wrists. I might get a full bottle.

[dementia_divine]

In the imp: Very potent cinnamon. I think it is the same cinnamon note found in Plunder. I hope this one doesn't burn!

Wet: Cinnamon bark reigns at first, but I can smell the skin musk underneath it. Then, the skin musk starts to become more prominent. The cinnamon bark isn't as strong as it was in the imp (thankfully). I think the skin musk is helping to soften it.

Dry: The scent is sweeter now. The spices never burned my skin (huzzah!). The skin musk (accompanied by the honey) dominates now (and I believe it is the same one that is found in Les Bijoux), followed by the cinnamon bark. I love clove, but I didn't really get much of it on my skin. It is hard to pick out the other spice notes beneath the cinnamon.

Verdict: I like this. I don't think I need a bottle, but it is nice.

[Veronica]

This smells lovely in the bottle and I love skin musk, so I had high hopes for this despite the dubious nature of all the other notes. Wet, this is close to the skin, light musk and sweet honey, all with a cinnamon--but still on the plant and green. The cinnamon is very dominant in this one. After awhile this is just cinnamon.

[Inscrutable]

Oooooooh my goodness. Where has this been all my life?! This is exactly what I want to smell like, day in, day out, 24/7!

 

The spice kick is oh so deeply satisfying. The honeyed smoothness is downright decadent. My imp is aged and I detect a slight animalic je ne sais quoi, just naughty enough to put this beauty on my bad girl shelf. It's perfect.

[agirlnamedfury]

Testing location: right inner wrist.

 

In imp: black pepper and other spices

 

Wet on skin: sweet spices, lots of cinnamon. Hoping this one doesn't burn my sensitive skin!

 

Dry: no skin burning, which is great because I love this. It's mellowed out into something subtle and sweet but still a bit exotic.

[LizziesLuck]

I tried Bengal, in 2005 or so when I first started collecting BPAL. My notes only said, "nope" so I ended up swapping my imp. But then I re-read the notes and wondered, why the heck was that a no??? So I reacquired it for another proper test.

 

Wet: Sweet, slightly creamy, fiery cinnamon. I love cinnamon, but this is sort of the "cinnamon hot hearts" variety that I'm not really big on.

 

 

Dry: This mellows out a lot. Becomes creamier. The cinnamon calms down and loses it's edge. I can actually start to detect the other spices. It's sweet, but not overly so. A comforting scent. I will keep the imp this time!

[d0gbones]

In the imp: Spicy, warm but not all that sweet.

 

Wet: Honey and cinnamon. It's warm, but not as sweet as these blends usually go on me.

 

Dry: I can pretty much smell every note at the dry stage, and it's wonderful. Musks don't work on me 90% of the time but this is such a winner.

[stellamaris]

This one always smelled very medicinal to me wet, but today I tried a very ancient imp and wow the dry down was all beautiful honey and musk. I usually am a huge cinammon fan so I am glad I gave this one another shot. I may have to buy a bottle and age it!

[Myrrha]

Ooooh, honey and musk! Sweet warm spiciness from cinnamon. It is the slinky quality of the skin musk and honey combination that makes this scent so lovely but there is a fair amount of cinnamon and, I think, ginger as well. As it dries the spices become less prominent in the wafting scent but still prominent when I sniff my wrist directly. I wonder if it might be stating either "Christmas"'or "Old Spice" to people smelling me. It makes me feel confident but it really isn't one I would wear regularly.

 

Edit 10/16: Re-tested and am finding it less Christmas-spicy. The skin musk is gorgeous but it still seems like a fairly light, sweet, scent when it dries down. It isn't heavy and seductive. I am definitely putting a bottle of this in my next order.

Edited October 25, 2016 by Myrrha

[Soupy Twist]

Cinnamon bark in the bottle. mmmm cinnamon. Some clove comes in, and it starts to smell like cider. I really like this. If it doesn't burn my skin it might supplant Inferno. Continues to dry down to more of a cidery spice, with a round creaminess which is probably the honey. Unfortunately this finishes as baby power. Dang, it had so much promise.

Edited April 8, 2016 by Soupy Twist

[Casablanca]

Bottle: Slightly musky honey, cinnamon and clove. I think this may be the lovely musk from Coyote.

Wet: Lovely spicy honey! Honey first, cinnamon, clove and a little pepper.

Dry: Tasty spiced honey that slowly turns to cinnamon. A rich golden-brown scent streaked with reddish-brown.

I love this, but should note that the cinnamon and clove, as skin irritants, turned my neck red where applied. My wrist was fine.

[roseus]

In the imp: smells like a nice cup of spiced chai

 

On wet: spice bomb. Super heated, mostly clove and cinnamon but also getting ginger

 

Dry: the spices smooth out, still very present though, but over a nice base of skin musk and just barely sweetened by honey.

 

This is everything I wanted it to be and will probably be a bottle!

[Kay Torres]

In the imp: Smells like spice with something very sharp that is reminding me of curry. Weird.

 

Wet: Cinnamon, cinnamon, cinnamon... oh, and ginger...

 

Dry: This just screams exotic to me. The honey opens up and that musk kicks in. They sweeten the spice so that it actually smells like perfume, and not some weird dinner experiment. Creamy, spicy, bold, sexy. This one is a win.

 

Totally unrelated but I layered this over Godfather Death and then threw Two, Five & Seven on top of it all and it made THE most delicious scent EVER. I love Bengal enough that I don't need to layer it, but just an fyi, it layers extremely well.

[sisterbastard]

First impression: Spicy, assertive, almost a wall of scent.

 

Wet: Smells like rooibos and black teas, with spice underneath. Rooibos tends to smell papery to me, but not in a good way. It's never quite agreed with me in smell or flavor. Curious to see if fades on skin. Honey is definitely present.

 

Dry: This doesn't play well with my skin chemistry. The musk and honey are drying to a play-doh smell, which is blunt and unpleasant. There's a brief period about 20 minutes in where I can pick out some of the spices and it's kind of nice, but then it fades back into the bluntness...and gives me a wicked headache. Yeah, this one is really not for me. It's the first one I've ever removed with vinegar.

 

Damn, I really wanted to like this - I'm usually all about dry, desert spices.

 

Edited for formatting!

Edited March 15, 2017 by sisterbastard

[Pave.Gurl]

Lush used to have a bath gel called Skinny Dip that I loved, and I keep trying to find things that give me that feeling. Over the years, I've ended up with Bengal in imps a few times, but they always seem to get lost before I try them. The notes make me so optimistic!

 

Thoughts: This is somehow warm, but not dry feeling/ smelling. it makes me feel as though I'm coming across the desert, but I'm also getting a breeze from the souk across the dunes with the tiniest bit of moisture. I'm getting the spices that are in the stalls, and the honey keeps this from feeling dessicated. It's very close to the skin on me, and I think... I think it's already gone. (I never trust my thought that it's disappeared, though, because my nose acclimates quickly to scent, and I don't want to fumigate my office)

 

[a little later]

Oooh! Now that it's been on for a while - even though I can't smell it - I can feel the contact point. Interesting! It's a very mild burning sensation for me, but I can definitely tell the exact place I applied.

[Lucchesa]

This is one of those quiet, warm, radiant desert spice scents I love so much, that give you the feeling of traversing the Sahara on camelback... Musk instead of myrrh here -- I love skin musk! The honey isn't overpowering, and the cinnamon, ginger and cloves are spicy but not foodie, more like coming across a caravan of spice traders among the sand dunes than making pumpkin pie. No throw; this one lies close to the skin but it lasts quite a while. Very nice.

[sarandipitee]

Oh, I love this one. It's a 10ml bottle so I'm unsure of the age but it's so, so glorious. I love cinnamon bark and clove and spice and honey so this is perfect for me. It's softer than it should be from aging and sticks a little closer to my skin than cinnamon normally does, but no complaints here. It's an old favourite and I'm super happy to have a big stash. I need to try it fresh again just to compare the differences. Bengal is a little like Pickled Imp from the CD line but not as sweet.

 

I feel like this is an unsung hero of the GC line. I never really hear much about it, tbh. Everyone should try it once.

[Bones613]

Bengal dries down to a nice cinnamon blend on me - almost like a sweet cup of chai tea. My skin chemistry boosts both vanilla and honey, but the spices don't get overwhelmed by honey, which is a first for me. Finally, a spicy scent I can wear... Also, it doesn't have an edge to it and doesn't give me a headache at all, so overall, I really like this scent.

 

EDIT: Two hours later, this has turned unpleasantly musky and a little chalky. Ugh! Nevermind, I guess.

Edited November 27, 2017 by Bones613

[ramblingrambler]

This is spiced chai tea without the tea. I think a nice tea base of your choice layered with this would smell exactly like a cup of chai tea. I have to pass mine on, however, because every time I smell this, I am reminded of the unused $45 Chai from Teavana sitting in my pantry (I am honestly chai’d out).

[thebarricadebabe]

This is going to be fabulous during Alabama summer. Light enough to be wearable in the heat, spicy enough for me to actually like it. Love it!

[Darkersolstice]

This had so much promise, but not nearly enough payoff. Sniffing the imp, the spiced-honey scent seemed bound to end up a favorite. But after Bengal dried, there was literally no throw. Oh, if I stick my nose into my wrist, there's the vaguest sort of whisper of sweetness and cinnamon, but that's not enough for me.

 

I may need to retest and edit, but for now? I'm kinda disappointed in this one.

[fizzbangdangcharade]

In the bottle: Very strong honey- the kind that's been sitting in the cupboard for ages now, darkened and a little too thick.

 

Wet: That same aged honey scent, but now I'm getting a touch of spice and something mildly medicinal.

 

Warming: The spices are starting to warm, and the honey is getting lighter (it smells closer to honey you get that's still a pretty golden color, no weird crystals or extra thickness.) The light medicinal smell has gone.

 

Drydown: This smells like you dumped a bunch of honey in a saucepan, threw in some lovely spice (cloves for sure, a touch of cinnamon, not sure if the pepper is there or not) and let it simmer. Something reminiscent of the medicinal smell came back, but it's not really medicinal. It reminds me a bit of the way caramels smell/taste after they've gotten a little too warm and then cooled - the barest hint of cherry but mostly something that bites. I'm not sure what note this is that's giving me that, and it's not entirely unpleasant, as it's an undercurrent of the honeyed spice.

 

This one is nice. Not necessarily something I'd want to get a full bottle of, but definitely one I'll hold onto (I'll be interested to see how it ages.)

 

Weird side note, I showered and after noticed that this one was a bit more stubborn in coming off- however combined with my soap, the remnants turned into straight play-doh. I've had other scents that stuck around after showering, but this is the first that went gross on me.

[h_yeti]

I was pretty nervous about trying this because cinnamon and musk can both be a bit iffy on me, plus I seem to amp them to the high heavens, but I'm so happily surprised! The stand out note for me is actually the honey and it reminds me a lot of O. Actually, this smells like if you mixed O and Morocco and then sprinkled the result with a heap of black pepper and cinnamon. The dry down is pretty much spicy honey on a background of warm musk and I like it a lot. Yay, I think this the first spice blend that's really worked on me!