Czernobog

[Brianne]

Created in honor of the Slavic Black God of the Dead. A nighttime god of grief, evil, chaos and woe, he is paralleled by his twin brother Bylebog, god of light, joy, order, and good fortune. A combination of three musks, with splashes of dark myrrh, vetiver and mullein.

In the vial:
masculine and cologne-like

On me:
Ends up very incense-y but masculine on me. It's a classic warm, slightly sweet incense scent with a very dry spice from the vetiver. I could see a woman wearing this one, but it honestly makes me think of a man. The musks are just lovely in this, and if it weren't for the masculine edge of this, I would wear it myself!

Final note:
If incense scents are your thing, you'll like this one. It's very nice, rather classic smelling to me.

[BlackWingedRoses]

oh poor Czernobog, I just can't like you.

 

sharp and strong and musky.

I get a strong disinfectant smell (like the kind they use in public restrooms).

 

Musks totally take over on me. I had to wash this off right away, but even after that, I could still smell traces of it on my arm for hours.

 

can't win 'em all.

[Naamah_Darling]

Musk fronts this, a hard blast of that coca-cola smell. This is thick, dark musk and indeed the oil itself is a tarry brown-black. There's a waft of incense underneath, but just a hint.

 

This is unusual on the skin. The vetiver has its usual ruthless edge, but the myrrh is a trifle sweet, and the mullein is a cedary herbal note under all of it. This smells very close and personal, a body-odor scent that is almost but not quite off-putting. Truly, a dark scent for a dark god.

 

It settles to an almost musty odor, pleasant but very strange, a combination of the musk's depth and the vetiver's grassy rasp.

 

Good for those who like faintly dirty scents, which I do, but this is a trifle dirty even for me. I like it, but I don't know that I'd wear it.

[maijasu]

I didn't expect to like this at all but decided to give it a try anyway. It's actually surprisingly pleasant! I'm not getting the dirtiness from it that some do; I think my skin really likes the musks in this. It smells clean and fresh but still sexy, if that makes any sense at all. It's also a little bit sweet.

 

An unexpected keeper!

[Antaria]

After trying some of my chosen imps from my last order which turned out to be ... well ... not that nice on me, I decided to try a frimp. Whoever packs the frimps into the orders seems to know me better then I do.

 

Czernobog is ... well "funny" on me. It starts pure Coke! Simply Coke. Then it starts to turn into a really nice and wearable Coke-scent with a nice warmth and something so grown up! Really nice, somehow I can see me wearing Czernobog while wearing a beautiful gown ... what I want to say: While this is Coke-based on me it is not childish at all. It is simply wonderful.

 

Can't pick up any musks, dark myrrh, vetiver or mullein - besides I still don't have the nose to be able to discover and recognize them.

[penemuel]

I think I'm really glad I didn't read the reviews here before I ordered this imp They would have scared me off and I'd never have tried this.

 

In the imp -- Y HALLO THAR VETIVER!! Which, in its own right was nearly enough to scare me away from it. BUT, the prospect of dark musks and myrrh was enough to make me gather my nerves and put it on.

 

Wet on skin -- the vetiver fades pretty quickly (thank gods) and the musk and myrrh starts to come out. It's a slow transformation but it becomes something darkly sexy and animalistic. There's still something else there (might be the mullein, which I wouldn't know if it bit me), and I can kind of see where some people are getting the Coke scent from, but it's mainly dark and musky and mmmm...

 

Drydown -- I'm sniffing my wrists every few minutes. It's a delicious dark and wicked sweetness now, all musky and spicy and I can't help thinking of this scent as Sylar from Heroes -- evil and still so incredibly hot.

 

I don't think I'll get a bottle, but I may get an imp or two from time to time. I wonder how the scent is after it's aged a bit. Hmmn...

 

Edit almost a year later. Um. Yeah, I bought a bottle. And oh my goodness this improves on aging and is even darker and sexier and YUM. Definitely a winner!

Edited April 16, 2008 by penemuel

[LadyCrow]

This is probably the sweetest patchouli I've ever smelled, from the Lab or elsewhere. Really, given the listed notes, there is no logical reason why this excellent scent -- indeed deep green on me, as others have pegged it -- should be so sweet. But it is! It goes on, and remains, extremely earthy, extremely foresty. This is Czernobog as Neil Gaiman sees him, the one you could have a cup of coffee with, not the one from Fantasia. It's like taking a hike into the deep woods, which again makes no sense, but that's just the picture Czernobog evokes.

[Ishtar]

Czernobog is a scent that has always scared me - yes, scared, for it has vetivert and, well, vetivert is just plain evil on me.

However, since the Lab very kindly added an imp of it to my latest order, I decided to be brave and try it anyway.

 

Bracing myself for sharp, gritty, bitter vetivert, I almost could not believe my nose when I smelled a nice, fresh, classic cologne a la Roger and Gallet in the imp. Definitely a much more promising start than I expected.

I dabbed the tinest bit on my arm and quickly had to come to the conclusion that my skin does not always hate vetivert, after all! Huzzah! This is a very nice blend that dries down to a fresh, almost pine-y scent. On the masculine side, but not so much so that I could not wear it.

It reminds me of a softer Yves Saint Laurent Pour Homme, which I used to wear when I was a teenager.

 

As unexpected as this is to me, Czernobog is a keeper!

Edited June 15, 2007 by Ishtar

[shadesong]

In bottle: Hm! Splash is the right word! The myrrh is stirred with the musk, and I get little lightning-flashes of vetiver and mullein.

 

On me: So much sweetness, with a nose-tickling musk behind it. ...wait. Is there fir in this? Fir's not listed, but I'm picking some up, I swear.

[willowtreeling]

i like it, but it smells so much like Imp on me...like Imp's brother, or something...

[The_Merf]

In the imp: Myrrh and black musk

 

Wet: This is the most hippie-headshop BPAL I've ever tried--even more than Urd! I would swear there's patchouli in here, but I guess it's a combination of the myrrh and vetiver.

 

Drydown and wear: This is a much, much less threatening/scary scent than I had been expecting. As the oil dries down, the black musk-ness actually fades away for the vetiver. I don't know what to do with this one, as I do 180 degree turns on my opinion of vetiver with great regularity. The musk does provide an interesting blend here (and the headshop patchouli goes very early in the drydown as well), and about 20 minutes in, this takes a very menthol edged turn and even reminds me of Vicks a bit. In fact, that is where the scent stays!

[workedtodeath]

In the bottle it smelled like cherry coke. I'm not sure why. Wet, it smelled like heavy musk and pine. Drydown the pine smell went away. I really like this one.

[Sara]

Ok, allow me to preface this with the fact I've had this sample of Czernobog for like eight or nine months now. I remember trying Czernobog years ago and swapping it away because it had a) red musk & b] possibly civet. So here this lonely little imp (last of the bpal stash) just kinda killing time with the rest of my perfume oils, but mostly being forgotten.

 

With the seasons changing I'm feeling the urge to change as well and none of my current fragrance stash has anything new to offer me. So with much hesitation, I lightly dabbed Czernobog on a forearm. Now, I hate red musk, most especially bpal's red musk, with the kind of crazy endless passion I save for child molesters. Yes, it's that kind of deep hate. And to add to an already overflowing pile of loathing, is civet - aka animal shit - aka public latrine - aka..well, you get the point. Civet isn't actually listed in the ingredients, but I'd be incredibly shocked if Beth were to butt in and say "umm...yeah, you were way off", because there is definitely an overwhelming "howdy, I'm civet, ya'll" aspect. It could very well be a few notes that when mixed together achieve the same effect....

 

Sniffing: Yep, there be musk up in here. It's definitely not a punch in the nose like I remember Czernobog being the first time around. It's like time has smoothed everything out so that I really can't get much beyond a smooth (god I hate re-using words, but there is no more apt description) muskiness backed by something animal.

 

Arm swipe: Hmm...here's the test, has my body chemisty and nose moved beyond wanting to vomit at the mere hint of red musk? Can the civet keep from becoming a gooey wet turd on my arm? Well, it certainly doesn't seem so bad. I'd honestly forgotten how strong many bpal oils are. There's nary a drop (droplette?) on my arm, a foot and a half from my nose and I'm getting scent loud and clear. Alas, I haven't been wearing much fragrance (does lightly scented buttcream frosting lotion count?) and this is almost too strong for my sinuses (and stomach) to deal with.

 

Drydown: Ok, I didn't let this dry down completely, as in hours; but it definitely had a good twenty minutes or more to make its point. The musk stayed under control and a lovely, almost smokey, incense wafted around my nose. I can definitely get the "head shop" references with this one, but I really feel time has smoothed it out so that, yes, it's still borderline "too goth/headshop", but I think the right person can pull it off. This should appeal to those who like deep scents and can pull of civet without smelling like a public toilet.

 

Overall: I think the key to appreciationg bpal oils is to apply them someplace just out of direct reach of your nose. I've always had such shit luck when it comes to smelling bpal with my nose directly to my skin. The base oil/components are highly icky to me -- very "common/old lady/borderline playdoh" and just really gross. However, if I can keep it out of my nose reach (i.e. - the back of my neck), then I can't smell the baseline ingredients and can appreciate all the stages of the oil unfolding through sniffs here and there. The oil isn't blasting at my sinuses, threatening to turn my stomach, and I don't smell the grosstacular "after drydown has come and gone" stage that is inevitably left behind. Today I wore Czernobog on the back of my neck for...well, I suppose it's been about seven hours now, and I can't remember the last time a scent made me feel so, for lack of a better word, sexy. It's so depthy and deep with a splash of smoky incense that I can't help but feel like men should be falling at my feet with desire. If the rest of the imp goes as well as today did, this could possibly be a bottle worth investing in; you know, for those days when a gal just wants something heavy and noticeable.

 

So having made this "eureka!!" discovery, I'm ready to bring on other oils I've glossed over because they could contain something icky like civet or red musk.

[Lunaratu]

Phew is this musk—masculine and piney musk. It’s definitely making me want to rinse it off almost pronto. There is something very astringent about this—clean but in a very strong way with definite musk, almost like an aftershave of some kind. It calms down to a deeper, darker musk scent but it’s still a tad masculine on my skin.

Rating: 2.5/5

[MaidenGenevive]

Czernobog

 

I picked this out in my search for masculine scents that might work on my husband. This does lean masculine, although there is a sweetness to it that keeps it gender-neutral. Initially, this scent was on the dark and gritty side, but that feeling has all but vanished. Now it's warm and somewhat citrusy sweet. It's hard to explain, but every so often my brain registers candy, like gummy worms, perhaps. That's fleeting and on-and-off. Overall, it's warm and quietly masculine.

 

[3 - Like] I do enjoy this, but I'm not so sure my husband would. I'll have to get him to check it out. It isn't really me, however, so if he doesn't like it, I'm not sure what I'd do with it. It's one of those scents you like, but wouldn't wear yourself.

[BohemianWeasel]

In the imp this smell instantly brought back vivid memories of art school, or rather the studios there. Very odd.

 

On the skin, first 10 minutes: smelled like warm cat and strawberry chewits which resolved into a mildly fruity, tangy musk.

 

After an hour or so it was musk - not extracted from an animal, but from a candy store. Candy store musk. Interesting. Not quite what I was aiming for though...

 

After a few hours it settled down into what I thought was a pleasant, sweet, if slightly generic 'cologne' smell - and thought this would be an imp to pass on to someone else - BUT, the throw! Oh my god, the subtle wafts of throw this thing had were just gorgeous! If I sniffed my wrist directly, cologne. But left to its own devices to just 'waft' at will, utterly gorgeousness!

Edited October 19, 2007 by BohemianWeasel

[Sealgair]

Huh, I thought I'd posted this here already, but I guess not. Czernobog comes to me via the Civet Evangelism Sniffing Circle courtesy of Innana9.

 

in imp: sweet & bitter musks, lemon?

on wet: 12:15 - musk, vetiver? lemon - is that mullein?

drydown: 12:35 - if it weren't for that bitter top note that my nose interprets as lemon, this would be a really nice scent! Dark dry woods & musks - and then that bitter lemon top note. =/

1:01 - wafting scent is myrrh & lemon rind... hug scent is bitter musk. Actually, this is a very bitter scent, with lovely wood undertones. drat. This could have been lovely, if not for that... I dunno, mullein? whateveritis that adds the lemon-ish bitterness.

[dirtytrip]

Ooh, you're a bad little scent, aren't you? I'm surprised that there's no civet in the stated note list, cause that was the very first impression I got. As it dries, it gets a piney-resin thing going, and the myrrh doesn't turn all gross like it usually does. Czernobog has a dirty edge to it, kind of like I thought Luperci might have had. Unlike Luperci, there's no sweetness. I'm on the fence about whether I'd wish to smell like this all day, but that said, I do like it.

Edited January 22, 2008 by dirtytrip

[GingerGunlock]

I'm still pretty new at this, so I don't know what scent "does what", but apparently, anything with a hint of pine is amped on my skin. In Czernobog's case, I'm going to think this might be the mullein? It isn't too sharp or overpowering, and is actually rather nice. I think part of what reins in the OMG pine is the vetiver and myrrh, which seem to play together very well and steer the already laid-back pininess towards something that I don't have the scent-words to describe. I've tried, but not reviewed, Two Monsters, and there's a very slight similarity that my little nose detects (and there's a musk in Two Monsters, anyway).

 

ETA: I can't believe I left out the most important part of this review: the Czernobog is hot. Not "hot" in the context of cinmamon, but "hot" in the context of "this is sexy and wonderful and I love it".

Edited March 28, 2008 by GingerGunlock

[gchris]

In Vial:thick dark oil, strong, masculine

 

Wet: mmm, very sexy I think its the musks. The vetiver is just a hint in the background to give it a subtle darkness, but nothing overpowering. Very nice, not as masculine as first sniff.

 

Drydown: Ok so it's more masculine again. Smells woodsy, Autumn woodsy with a bit of deepened sweetness.

[CrazyPretzel]

It's a foresty scent, who knew?! (OK, everyone knew who read the reviews and not just the description, like I did.) The initial scent of this when wet is something sharp, like juniper berry, layered over musk and civet. I'm one of the lucky ones who can wear civet, so on me the musks come off smelling dark, smooth, and sexy. No eau de loo here

 

My only issue with this is that the forest element of the scent (what I think smells like juniper; could it be mullein?) does veer slightly towards bathroom cleaner, same as shelldoo said I definitely want to keep my imp though. This would be an interesting scent to compare with Black Forest.

[LadyLuckDoubt]

In the Bottle

Uh-oh: it smells all incense and patchoulli. And I'm not really the hippy type.

 

On Me

Transformation! It's complicated, dark and brooding-- I'm still getting wafts of incense and patchoulli, but they're getting balanced out with a musky sweetness, and I'm assuming cloves. And there's something smokey in there, too. Yum.

 

...About half an hour later? This is GORGEOUS. It's also seriously sexy. If I ran into someone wearing this stuff, I'd be all over them. By this stage, the patchoulli has died down and I'm just getting lovely clovey-tanniny goodness and ...lime? Vetiver? Not 100% certain. By this point, my mother (who'd previously said, "You smell like a hippy trippy shop!") is saying, "I can't believe how much that's changed: it really suits you." "Not at all hippy shop?" "No... it smells like a completely different fragrance!"

 

A few hours later: still lasting, still beautiful. It's got strength as well as an odd kind of beauty. It's not pretty, and not instantly appealing-- it's dark and heavy and complicated. And man, do I love it.

 

I bought myself a 5ml bottle on my next order.

[Elilara]

Czernobog wears his sunglasses at night, while slinking through the shadows and alleyways. Or, he's Loup Garou drinking a rum and coke. A little of both. I say Loup because I keep smelling that same dark, deep, warm, forest kind of pine I get from Loup. Odd!

 

Dark, dark, dark musk. I can't get enough of the stuff. The Myrrh and Vetiver do a dark little dance to add something slightly gritty, dusty, dead-grassy to it. That rises and falls as it drys down, but it keeps the musky, faintly piney, and Coka Cola undertone. Now, I hate Coka Cola, except in one situation. Waffle House Coke. They do something differently there that keeps it from being painfully sweet, and it keeps this nice, thick, slightly bitter undertone. That's the kind of soda smell I'm getting here. Mmmm.

 

It is such a strange scent, but I absolutely love it.

[savage_rose]

This scent is a great example of why I can never just rule out vetiver. It smells mainly musky, but the mullein mellows it out a bit and the myrrh lends it a bit of somber sweetness. I think one of the musks is powdering out, but it just lightens the blend and keeps it from being too sharp. It's just a nice, sweetish, dark scent.

[butcherbaby]

i initially got an imp of this for my husband to try, since he really likes scents that are piney, earthy, woodsy, leafy, etc.

besides i've always liked the way ol' czerno is depicted in fantasia.

hubby tried a dab and said it was too "regular man cologne"-ish on him. *snuff* yup, he's right.

 

soooo i try a little dab too :-)

 

WOW!!!! i am immediately struck by how GORGEOUS this is!it's heavy, for sure, but sweeter than i can possibly describe. not foody or sugary though- it's a deep incense sweetness (is that myrrh?) that just gets dreamier and sweeter as it dries down. i can totally see the snake oil connection, though SO is vanilla sweet where czerno is just the musk & myrrh sweetness of incense. i think titus andronicus may be somewhere in the family tree too. the hint of green i'm getting must be the vetiver. it's so lovely that i count myself lucky to have such the perfect skin chemistry for this! and i cannot stress this enough- it goes in resiny and SWEET and the sweetness just gets deeper, smokier, and SWEET SWEET SWEETER! and it is somewhow also bright and even refreshing!

i don't get even the slightest whiff of the rank scents that some people have described (poo, BO, bad breath, urine, motor oil etc.)

 

belatedly sniffing the bottle, i can clearly pick out what must be the mullein mixing with the vetiver- piney yet not, menthol yet not, minty yet (thankfully*) not. other reveiwers have said antiseptic, pine cleanser, or air freshener (like those tacky little tree ones, to me) and i get those connections to, but not in a detrimental way at all. i'm the mullein/vetiver interaction must be the refreshing, uplifting note i keep gettng waft after waft.

 

i've given this a try at various times of the month which doesn't seem to affect it at all. it goes on strong, quickly settles into it's yummy groove and stays that way til it fades, many hours later.

 

this is a new favorite and is already on the big bottle list. :-)

 

 

 

*i hate/loathe/despise the scent or flavor of most mint with a PASSION. yes, it does make finding toothpaste rather difficult. i pretty much stick to tom's of maine fennel flavor.

Edited April 20, 2008 by Shollin
Removed Lab description --Shollin