The Black Tower

[Kimbernunk]

A sepulchral, desolate scent. Long-dead soldiers, oath-bound; the perfume of their armor, the chill wind that surges through their tower, white bone and blackened steel: white sandalwood, ambergris, wet ozone, galbanum and leather with ebony, teak, burnt grasses, English ivy and a hint of red wine.

I don't know when I would have gotten around to picking this out for myself, so I'm thrilled it showed up as a frimp. This is Tintagel's darker, morose, long-haired brother. When it's wet I can't distinguish anything - it's like a loud clamor of amazing on my skin. Dry, I can pick out the ambergris, ozone, lots of wood and leather and a touch of the wine. It's powerful, masculine and amazing. It's too masculine for me to wear by day, but would be great for a date when I want to feel powerfully sexy and seductive. LOVE. Edited July 31, 2008 by Kimbernunk

[Iceblink]

I had to try this because the description's so cool, but I don't think I can begin to describe what it smells like! Wet it's almost...stony?? Sharp. Metallic. Dry I'm getting a tangy red wine note with...a lot of other notes I can't really pick out. It's completely different wet and dry. Unusual, to say the least, but not something I could wear.

[maika]

In the imp, all I can smell is the red wine.

Wet, something almost spicy...the sandalwood, I think. And the ivy is there too. This so far is very promising.

Dry, the ozone is obvious, and the leather is creeping in underneath. This is amazing! It's haunting, and it's as sad as the description suggests...but it's totally compelling. Ultimately, while it says it's gender neutral, on me it's quite masculine - leather, wine, etc...but it's not so full-on that I don't want to wear it. It's definitely got the potential to grow on me.

[sirsaber]

This reminds me of empires crumbled and gone. I smell the ozone,leather and a hint of the wine along the other scents which just make this rock. This is yet another autumn scent for me as it reminds me of the days of old. And the dead have their day....soon.

[tacey]

I may just not be an advanced enough sniffer to fully appreciate Black Tower. It'd definitely growing on me through the day. I get the cypresses and incense at the beginning, with the incenses strengthening and going smokey later in the day. There's a hint of sweetness to the incense. But the rest of the notes make no impression. I can't say it evoked the poem for me, but I did like it.

[grifyn_whiffs]

This started out as beautiful, warm sandalwood, but the ozone note (like it has several times before) killed it for me. After about 20 minutes, it just smelled like a herbal remedy and went dusty on my skin. I never got the sweet that happened for anyone else.

 

Not for me...

[Lethran]

In bottle: Mostly ambergris and grapes with incense. Wet: Much more complex on the skin as all the more delicate ingredients come out. The grapes smell way more winelike too. This is my last try at wine scents and the most successful of them, likely because of the way ebony and ivy interact with the wine. It still doesn’t work quite with my skin chemistry, but it came close. Dry: The sandlewood and ivy slowly become dominant turning the whole thing much drier smelling in a pleasant way. The wine stays present, but gentler.

[rayvn1]

This was a wonderful frimp from a forumite! I get a very wet ozone smell straight from the imp and on my arm. When it dries the perfume of flower and grass and a dusty layer of sandalwood come through as well. Fabulous!!

[ImperatrixMundi]

A very complex scent with so many notes. All the notes can be picked out if I make an effort, it is like the blend rotates through all of them. Unfortunately the hint of red wine is a lot more than just a subtle hint on my skin, it soon overpowers everything else. Which is a pity.

[anastasia]

I cannot get enough of this on me. I may throw some in my oil burner so I can have more, more, more. This seems to be many things that I like all in one place.

On a simplistic level, it smells of dry vermouth and honey. I don't know where the honey is coming from... maybe the wine? But I am picturing a fine silver powder of all the things listed in the description poured into a cup of honey wine. Silver-grey and floating. Swirling slowly into shapes of ships and towers and battle imagery. Like scrying history in a cup of wine. I wish it were stronger but since it is a memorabilia sort of concept, the faintness is appropriate. It is warming up now and I can smell the leather, ebony, teak and burnt grasses. I am sad because all I have at this time is an imp and I want to make my whole world smell like this. Also if i were more of a gamer, this would be very useful for some characters. This definitely smells Medieval. It doesn't really take much to do this to me but boy does it make me wish I were a man. Not because I shouldn't or can't be wearing it as a woman but it is like a glorified advertisement of the high points of manliness - kind of like really good propaganda for the military.

[Lucretia]

This sort of smokey and sweet on me. I can smell the wine and some other notes I can't quite figure out. This is pleasant but doesn't really do anything for me. It remind me a little of Queen Alice. I think I need to accept my inability to wear scents with wine.

[Seismogenic]

This was sitting on my imp wishlist for a while, until septima_pica kindly sent some my way! I was intrigued by it mostly for the charred wood and grasses aspect, and also for curiosity about how some of the other concepts in the poem and description could be characterized in scent. At the time, I didn't realize that white sandalwood triggers my allergies liek woah, but I'm already medicated for other allergens, so there's no reason not to give this a try anyway.

 

In the imp: Somewhere between sweet and sour, with a little dust thrown in. I can't ID actual notes yet.

 

Wet on skin: I can tell there's white sandalwood in here because my nose is tingly, but I'm not sneezing or wheezing, at least! Overall, it's something vaguely sweet over a bit of leather, wine, and things that smell dusty and charred.

 

Drydown: Freshly dry, I'm starting to feel a little allergic. Curse you, white sandalwood! That said, this is still a dusty and vaguely charred scent over a bit of wine and leather and perhaps something metallic. At one hour in, the separate notes are melding together a little better, though this is unfortunately happening in a rather cologney way.

 

Five hours later: Still quite present! The white sandalwood's not bothering me anymore, at least, but the whole thing still smells pretty cologney. The wine stands out a little, I guess, but I get much less of an impression of individual notes now than I did early on. This also means less of an impression of dusty and charred and desolate.

 

End of the day: A little bit of the sour wine note is left, as well as something that smells like what would happen if you powdered cologne and spread the dust around.

 

Overall: Ah well. Even despite the white sandalwood factor (which did not twig my allergies all that hard in this one, but then again, I was medicated), this did not work as well as I'd hoped it would. The combination of identifiable (and distinct but intangible) notes in the earliest stages of wear was really interesting and fit the description, but this was a case when eventual homogeneous blending turned out to be a bad thing. It wasn't that it ended up smelling like nasty cologne. It was just too...I don't know, basic? Generic? Standard? I can't come up with the right word, I guess, but on me, it didn't dry into something that makes BPAL so distinct from commercial perfumeries. Of course, I've tried plenty of other BPALs and know that there are really light years between them, but Black Tower alone didn't give me that. Plus, yeah, white sandalwood. I really really wish that it dried to something as evocative as it was when wet, or as evocative as so many other reviews in this thread call it.

[jewelbug]

Wet: Woodsiness, and masculine.

 

Drying: Whoa, leather! Leather and smokiness, with a deep green undercurrent (vetiver-ish?). Still very masculine to me. Further in, a sweetness (green, fresh, almost dewy) comes out under the smoky leather. It’s a lovely balance. Kinda like the water weeds in shattered pumpkin, paired with a sweet smoky leather.

 

Overall: I like this, but think it would be better suited to a man than me.

Edited July 2, 2009 by jewelbug

[llhorian]

My first impression is that it's a very serious scent with a hint of sweetness early on, but with the promise of something deeper. Perhaps a hint of leather in there?

It's a very distinguished, adulst scent. Definitely masculine, I'd say, something to go with a fine suit. It's the sort of scent that I associate with (but doesn't _smell like_ ) leather, whiskey and tobacco; i.e. a scent to wear to a gentleman's club.

[Argentwolf]

Wow.

 

This is unlike anything I've smelled in quite some time...

 

There is leather, and ivy -- more like the dried tendrils of ivy still clinging to the grass-choked stone of a tower that has long since crumbled away to piles of rubble. Every now and then, the wind stirs up scents from the lives of those who used to dwell there -- their warm spiced wine, the wood stacked up in piles for their fire, their very spirit and essence, all wafting in in a ghostly way. It really is a very sad, wistful, evocative scent...a great sensory experience.

 

This is not quite for me. But if I were to come across it on a man, I think I would follow him almost anywhere.

 

Highly recommended for those looking for masculine scents.

[Kikkervisje]

Wear time: Around 8.5 hours.

 

Ok. I've tried two scents with leather, and sadly I can't smell it in either. My main impression of this one is an incredibly sharp, pungent "scent experience." I think this starts as overload more than anything for me, and not in a particularly good way (ozone?). Eventually, it dies down to baby powder scent on my wrists; and, where trapped against my skin (my collarbone area), a slightly green, wet, musky spice with, ok, maybe a tiny tinge of leather and some aromatic wood. It does indeed smell... overgrown and old, which is interesting. Actually, re-reading the description, it does fit the "image" quite well. But I can't say that I particularly like it as a personal scent. And I really don't like it when it's drying (that sharp phase). Nor when it "baby powders" on me. I'm beginning to think the baby powder scent may be my body's reaction to white sandalwood. More experimentation necessary for proof. (Anybody know what notes tend to go to "baby powder"? I'd love to learn.)

 

So, it's certainly interesting when dry but pre-baby powder phase. Nonetheless, my body chemistry doesn't seem to suit this scent. I find it interesting that so many seem to perceive it as masculine. I would go with gender neutral for all phases.

[milo]

My imp only says "Black Tower", but I couldn't find any scent descriptions of the same name, so I'm assuming this is just a typo on the lab imp. Wet, this is a winey incense blend. Dry, the wine disappears, and we're left with incense. I have plenty of these types of blends, some better than this, so I'm sure I'll just enjoy the imp.

[fairnymph]

In the bottle: Very pale yellow oil. Cold, fresh, sharp. Cologney, masculine. A bit musky and soapy. Sandalwood galore, galbanum, a tingle of ozone, and a bit of fresh leather. Green ivy too, but light.

 

Wet: Greener, more ivy and grass. Less dry and biting. More ozone and some tangy metal. Ambergris is powerful, musky-soapy. If I strain, there is a hint of thin, slightly sour red wine. I get some wood that reminds me of oak, but subtler - the ebony?

 

Dry: Slow to dry, and becoming more dry in odour, the sandalwood and presumably ebony amping. Less ivy, more grass. It's gone sharp again, though not bitter. Reminds me of expensive aftershave. I can't really pick out the teak.

 

Summary: Definitely a burnt odour, evoking those burnt grasses...VETIVER. And it has decided to amp. Red wine, where have you gone? A harshly dry sandalwood dominates, with bits of vetiver and teak and soapy-musky ambergis. A cruel, masculine scent. Good throw.

[n1k1ta]

The Black Tower is smoky, spicy and woody yet fresh during drydown. It's almost sharp with the ozone. Wonderfully earthy. A marine note starts to develop after drydown. I think it's the ambergris. It really adds to the perfume, giving it a depth.

 

As I expected, at about the three-hour mark, The Black Tower went all sandalwood on me. The throw is strong and stays that way, though. Even though I loved the first three hours, this is probably better for someone with a different chemistry.

[sparkleyturtle]

In the vial, it does smell strong of the incense and sandalwood with the sharp tones, which I can only take from here as the ozone smell. When on, the leather and smokier smells come out. Not liking this much. Oh well... there will be others.

[mhickle]

In the imp and wet on my skin, this is much sweeter than I expected. But once it begins drying, it becomes very earthy and almost completely loses the sweetness. I get the sandalwood, and definitely get the leather! It's pretty masculine on me, but I don't mind. Not sure it's right for the last days of June, but I will put this away for colder months, when it will be perfect.

[Monster]

In the imp this is leather! sandalwood! ozone! Oh my! Very nice...and interesting

On my skin this is really complex. It smells like a more rugged, masculine version of Torture Queen (also without smelling like CKone )

The dominant notes are leather, sandalwood and bright ozone. I'm really liking this so far. I wouldn't call this an "ozone scent", it's more of a clean, woodsy sort of perfume. Gender neutral.

As this dries the grass notes come out more. I was hoping for vetiver but this is just a lawn clippings smell...a very very nice lawn clippings smell.

 

The Black Tower does a perfect job capturing the imagery of the description. I'm not sure this is a scent I will wear too often, it does smell very good on me I'm just not blown away. I'll let this one stick around to see how it holds up though

 

 

 

[gypsyjolie]

I think this is more gender neutral than masculine, but then I love leather scents and dislike floral, so my definition of a feminine scent may be somewhat off kilter. This is brightened by a green note (ivy?) and the tangy red wine note, with the leather and sandalwood making a smooth & slightly spicy undernote. This is livelier and prettier by far than the description would have led me to believe! The ozone isn't sharp on me, it more makes the ivy scent like a freshly-rained-upon ivy. With wine.

 

I need a bottle of this!

[voodoocatwoman]

In the imp, it has quite a bite- very sharp. Might that be the wine note?

 

On application, I get sandalwood and ambergris, primarily.

 

Dry, no changes. Sandalwood and ambergris. I think this will be lovely for the fall.

 

[HamletsKeeper]

Oh goody! My first scent trial with a wine note. Lets just hope leather doesn't bludgeon it to death on the way out.

 

Bottle Sniff - Rich, woody, astringent and slightly green.

 

Wet on Skin - And here comes the leather, astringent, acrid and whiffing of boot polish. The white sandalwood is heavy in the blend but I smell nothing of the other notes.

 

Drydown - I think I need to resign myself to the idea that leather notes just don't like me. They become chemically acrid and intolerable for at least 20mins ruining every blend they appear in for me. They do settle down after a while but still dominate and it's just not a note that I can carry off. The amber and ambergris make an appearance after a while giving this a more solid basenote but it's just not a scent I'm keen on.

 

As others have said it's extremely masculine and you'd need the kind of skin that loves leather for it to smell good on you. This scent just swallows me whole and makes me feel like a victim of a perfumery experiment. Non-evergreen chypre lovers though may adore it. I think I can categorically scrub forest scents off my list of things to try.