Bengal

[Julilla Regina]

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.

Yummy! Super spicy, cinnamon and ginger really come out at first, then it smoothes into a spicy honeyed musk. This is a fave, for sure. It does die out on me after an hour or so, so I'm going to age this little puppy, because it can only get better!

[olympia301]

 

I wanted to love Bengal because everyone was squeeing so hard about it when it first came out. Sorry, no luck. It hits my skin and turns into styrene plastic. Boo hoo. After drydown it does have a tea-like almost floral component but that stays waaaay back in the background. The plastic is what forces me to fight through it to get to the good part. My loss is someone else's gain, though, and I am glad I got to try more than just a tiny dab's worth from an imp.

[hepkitten]

I have one word to say about this scent: OUCH!

 

It burned both my arm and my nose, particularly at first. At drydown, the scent mellows slightly, with the honey scent coming to the fore. However pretty it is at that point, though, I can't go through the wet stage to get there. I feel like a wuss saying this, but Bengal is too much for me...there's just more spice here than I can handle.

[yeahbutnobut]

Bengal

 

In the imp: oh my goodness. Chai. Sweet cinnamon pastries. Gingerbread. I'm in spice heaven!!

Wet on skin: honeyed spice! Yummy yum yum…

Dry on skin: mmmmmm. Spicy honey, chai tea, faint whiffs of pepper and ginger, cinnamon bark, cloves and sweet skin musk. This is so delightful! The honey's stronger than I expected but that's no bad thing because I love honey, and the spices are really nicely balanced in this. It's sweet, warm, comforting and just plain wonderful.

After a while: this stays really consistent on me…it's still a fabulous mix of sweet spices with a generous dollop of honey, and just the barest hint of musk giving this a nice soft background. I want to eat myself, I smell so yummy…and I have to say, the cinnamon here is divine.

Verdict: wow, this really did exceed expectations. I thought Three Witches was my holy grail of BPAL spice scents-but this one might dethrone those wily witches! This is a perfectly blended spicy scent…it reminds me of chai tea, desserts and spice markets simultaneously, all the spices in here are nicely balanced and sweetened with a twist of honey and a smooth musk base. A fantastic and well crafted scent, ever so delectable, this one will be perfect for the colder months, and I now feel compelled to gnaw on my wrist. I need a big bottle of this!

[feline.by.design]

Bengal, at first sniff in the bottle and while the oil was still wet on my skin, smelled a lot like honey. I love honey as a food, and this particular honey note in Bengal smells a lot like my jar of Tupelo honey. However, on my skin, Bengal quickly morphes through the variety of spices in its repitoire; the peppers, ginger and cinnamon ooze by on a slow cascade of honey.

 

The honey note, or perhaps its reaction with my skin or with another note, turns to plastic syrup on me. The honey note goes from golden Tupelo gorgeousness to the honey that's in those little plastic containers on the side they give you at diners for your toast. The spices shriek away in horror at this meld of plastic and inferior diner honey.

 

Damn. There may be some salvation for Bengal in becoming a room scent for me, but my skin chemistry did battle with the honey note and lost big-time.

 

-doreen

Edited October 15, 2005 by feline.by.design

[isyche]

On my skin, Bengal is a light, powdery, sweet scent with a bit of peppery-ginger kick...it makes me think of opening a baking-supplies drawer with powdered ginger, cinnamon, sugar, and flour. It does remind me of chai, but it's not what I was imagining for this scent at all; it's soft and white on me where I had pictured bold, hot, and red-gold.

 

I do like it, but I have a bottle of Sudha Segara already for a light sweet ginger-milky scent, so I don't need more of this.

[Freyja Lux]

Maybe I got a bad imp, but I don't think so. Smells rotten somehow, and sickeningly sweet. The pepper is a confusing addition to this blend. My nose reacted very badly to this one! I think it's the pepper that did it to me...

[Galen]

ooomph! this little imp turned my entire order's box sweet and heavy. It's a heavy musty honey smell while still in the imp

 

when freshly applied on my skin I can see why it's touted as a chai blend - it smells like a deep wooden chest that's been used to store tea leaves and numerous spices and a HUGE jar of honey, and the smells have permeated the wood, so when you open the chest you are hit with a spicy musty heavily sweet smell. Far too strong on me!

 

As it dries down, it's a similar but much less in-your-face smell - still spicy and honey-like but much less confused, and I can only smell the pepper if I sniff closely at my hand for a while.

[Malista]

Bengal

 

Deer Lowered, this is beautiful! Honey doesn’t go extra sweet on my skin – I tend to suppress sweet and amp bitter – so honey notes are quite complex and somewhat astringent on me, but still sweet enough to be easily identifiable. Here the honey and spices (fairly evenly balanced ginger and cinnamon, slightly less clove, and a nice bite of pepper) all work together to make a warm, golden-reddish-brown scent that goes nicely with my hair. The musk anchors and smooth’s the blend. It doesn’t change much on me except to become less enthusiastic as to throw as it dries down (wet, the throw is quite ferocious). It does smell almost exactly like the chai I drink, which is made with tulsi (holy basil). Like the tulsi chai, I find it both energizing and calming, and foresee a great deal of use over the Winter months.

 

I bought a 10ml bottle of Bengal on the strength of a single wearing from a frimp, and I am not sorry.

[Orodemniades]

I, too, will be ordering a 10ml bottle of Bengal on the strength of a single wearing from an imp (thanks to Lady Ravenglass!). It's soft and spicy and, surprisingly, quite sweet. Honey isn't normally a scent that works on my skin, but that's exactly what Bengal is on me - spicy honey. I suspect I'll have to do some serious slathering if I want it to last, but, y'know, I'm okay with that.

 

Just wanted to add that unlike Morocco, which is the epitome of dry, Bengal is very very very creamy and luscious.

 

ETA 12/2/06 - Over time, Bengal becomes even creamier and, happily for me, very long lasting. Need another 10ml to ensure that I never run out...

 

Oro

Edited February 12, 2006 by Orodemniades

[Laurel the Woodfairy]

I am so excited about this one! Lots of etailers do some version of Chai, but Beth is always the virtuoso.

 

Pretty tiger-orange color in the imp. Whew, and this tiger has some BITE! The honey comes out very strongly on me, along with the cinnamon--and somehow it does smell like the *bark*; it has a raw quality that is not about tidy spice-racks (maybe because of the pepper?). The musk is under there somewhere. This is sweeter than I expected, but really farking sexy. It's like a spicy-hot version of "O"--a perfect sexy scent for autumn.

[atomic*orange]

In bottle: Very nearly chai, just missing the cardamom.

 

Wet, on skin: Ginger and CINNAMON! The cinnamon immediately intensifies, and it's all I can smell.

 

Dry, on skin: I seem to be leaving a trail of atomic fireballs in my wake. Occasionally I'll catch a whiff of something honey-like around me, but when I put my nose to my arm all I'm getting is yet more cinnamon. This mofo is strong!

 

Oh how I wanted musky honey, but this is just one-note on me.

[stardreamer]

First impression: Amber? Sort of a honey/amber scent, a bit like O but not as heavy.

 

Fresh on: Now I'm getting the spices. This is nice. There was a bit of a kerfluffle, as I had waited until I thought Russ was headed outside to dab it on -- and then he walked back into the room, saw what I was doing, and snarked at me about it.

 

Drydown: I like this, but it's not one of the "OMG fantabulous" scents. I think the "skin musk" must be the amber-like note; honey and cinnamon and ginger are definitely there, but the clove and peppers stay further to the background. It's actually a smoother mix than I'm making it sound -- without looking at the ingredients list, my nose just says "spices". A bit lighter than the true amber-based scents, which can have its advantages. Staying power is hard to judge, because I ran around all afternoon in a hot car, and that always skews the test. Bottom line: it's a keeper, but I might not buy a second imp after I use this one up -- and if someone else tried it and fell in love, I could part with it.

[pekeana]

Close to the skin, all I smell from Bengal is dusty spices, but far away, I smell sweet honey and cinnamon.

 

Nice, but I'll have to douse myself in it.

[Nadirah]

I'll have to agree with the folks who say this smells like CHai tea. Its is absolutley beautiful! Its like a honey'd cream sweet vanilla chai with all the spices that make it good! Its ginger and cinnamon crisp at first and then it warms up on your skin into a sweet and spicey cup of chai! This is perfect for fall and winter, it warms you up very nice! Glad I have a 10 ml of this it is a work of art!

[Sistinas]

a review of Bengal

 

Vial ~ Mmm sweet and spicy, but I think the sweetness is sticking out more.

 

Wet ~ The spiciness is coming back, definitely the peppers, clove and ginger.

 

Drying ~ The honey really stands out, but the spicy notes temper the

sweetness, I would have to say the strongest of the spicy notes is the

pepper and ginger. You can detect the cinnamon but it is not as predominant.

 

Dry ~ The combination is glorious. I love this scent, the sweetness is there

but the spices blend with it so well that it is hard to tell anymore what

they are seperately. Yes there is some cinnamon, but it is by far no more

prominent than they others and the honey is not over done either.

 

Fade ~ Over an hour later and the scent is still remaining on my skin as

wonderful as it was when it first dried.

 

Final thoughts ~ I totally lurve this scent and will definitely need a bigger

bottle of it. I think this fragrance could work as both a daytime and a

nighttime scent. On a scale of 1 to 5, I would give it a 5.

[Stumbeline]

In the imp this was screaming pepper and I was so, so scared for my skin. When I applied it, it was screaming pepper for about twenty minutes. I was getting really, really frightened that my body chemistry was going to amp up the pepper in this blend to the point of being completely intolerable.

 

Fortunately, that did not happen.

 

After some time, when it's dry, I get creamy honeyed cinnamon. It's a sweet second-skin smell on me. Slightly spicy, warm, and inviting. It's an autumn scent for me. I was having my doubts that the Lab's honey note worked on me, as almost every other honey blend has turned to sharp plastic on me. But the spices round this out and make it very cozy and wearable. Oh how I love spices!

[dreadeddragon]

In the bottle: Cinnamon, honey, pepper, and a hint of clove & musk

 

First on: Mostly cinnamon, the honey isn't really distinguishable as honey, but it adds a sweetness to the cinnamon that's not too cloying. Pepper is also there, and just a hint of clove. The musk gives it an animalistic touch wihtout screaming "Hi! I'm musk!"

 

Drydown: Mostly musk and cinnamon, with clove, then honey.

 

Several hours later: Now the musk is the most prominant, with honey and clove. I loooove cinnamon, but it tends to fade after a few hours. Pepper is usually gone on me within the first hour. This is lovely, and may constitute a big bottle at some point.

[merivelle]

I really love spicy, cinnamony scents and was very saddened at the loss of Three Witches, so someone suggested that I try Bengal. It was a good suggestion! I love this fragrance. It's a lovely honey, cinnamon, ginger, and clove scent. It's sort of like Chai tea. My only complaint is that it doesn't have the best staying power, and I have to re-apply every few hours. I suggest it for anyone who likes spicy, Oriental scents.

[quikslvr]

Eee! Spicy-strange at first. The skin-musk is a bit strong on me, I think. Or maybe it's the honey-musk interaction. It does dry down to a bit of a chai scent, but it's a chai that's awfully strong--very little milk in there. It settles down more and adds a little vanilla into the mix, but I'm not sure it's enough.

 

I was surprised not to be sold immediately on this scent, but it may yet be one that grows on me.

[LyndaM]

I'm torn about Bengal. I adore chai tea scents, and my favorite perfume in the world has very similar notes to Bengal. And I loved it in the imp. The problem is, I get a strange note out of it once it hits my skin. Almost a plasticky note, and I can't figure out what it might be.

 

I'll definitely try it again, it may just be fluctuating chemistry issues.

[amrita]

Wet, Bengal smells a lot like baklava to me-- honey drenched phyllo with spices.

 

The honey note in this is so good! It smells very sticky, sweet-- like real honey-- syrupy, dripping, and thick. I'm also getting a lot of clove (and I really like it).

 

After a few hours, the spices have disappeared and this dries down to mild honey, with something faintly floral and sweet-- as subtle as the floral note you can taste in wildflower honey. It's very much a second skin scent on me at this point. I normally have bad luck with the light musks, but Bengal is just perfect!

 

I love this.

[Rock Goddess]

I love Bengal! (Thanks to LyndaM for the gift imp.)

 

In the bottle, this one is mostly cinnamon and clove to me, and I love them both.

 

Wet, it was a sweet blend of the spices, really lovely. Once it dried down, it when through a Cinnamon Red Hots faze, which didn't bother me at all, it was very spicy. Eventually it became the sweet blend of spices (cinammon still predominant), but blended with the skin musk.

 

Bengal is absolutely beautiful with my chemistry, the balance of spiciness and sweetness is just right. It's definately on my bottle list.

 

~ RG

[tinyvulture]

this is O sprinkled with cinnamon. it’s a little like chai, but it's also sultry and exotic. the spices are complemented so awesomely by the sweet golden honey and warm musk. it envelops you in rich, luxurious goodness. a bottle of this will be perfect for cold winter days.

[gingersnapp]

I was a veritable walking spice rack. Cinnamon and cloves were the strongest. I didn't get any musk out of this at all, or the honey. Just spice spice spice.