Two Monsters

[sarada]

 

Two Monsters, Heironymous Bosch.

Oakmoss, vetiver, black musk, champaca flower, leather, patchouli, ginger, Japanese pittosporum, ambergris and white pepper.

 

This fragrance is a who's who of everything that I like, with the exception of leather, so I had to get it, whatever the cost!

 

This is a mellow, soft, leathery wooden scent with a gentle dusting of moss and a scattering of incense ash. Initially I think of what leather would smell like if it had been soaking up nag champa incense for decades, but there is also a breath of something very earthy and dark green, wafting in from outside. This doesn't smell like anything else I've tried BPAL-wise...I thought it would wind up being a bit like the King of Clubs, but it's not at all. That was very earthy-sweet and this is sort of leathery-green-incense, morphing from dark green to amber as it wears.

 

Ginger and white pepper prop it up slightly and keep the darker notes from closing in on themselves. The dark green moss, earthy brown notes, vivid champaca and soft leather all hang suspended around those high, lighter notes of pale amber and dusty white.

 

The overall effect when I step back from it, is the scent that comes off of one of my giant boxes of mixed packs of incense. There's the champa, strong and soft as always, and gritty hints of the other earthy fragrances but it's such a well-blended melange of soft, wild, appealing scents. I'd say it's a cousin of Geek, but other than that it's quite unique and I'm so glad that I took a chance on a whole bottle!

 

edited to add image - clover

[Eunice]

There's no way I can top Sarada's review but for my own records, here goes...

This is leather straight off. It takes a couple minutes for the other ingredients to come through. The musk is very light for being black musk. When I see oakmoss and patchouli listed I expect something a little more "here I am!" but both the oakmoss and the patchouli only lend a little bit to this. I'm a fan of white pepper in cooking and I really enjoy it as a scent in this. Everything is so light, no one ingredient overpowers another. Two Monsters is another Salon blend that is worth the extra money.

[lysithea]

Leather isn't overwhelming, but I can detect during all stages of the scent. Surprised that the black musk is only noticable when wet. This particular note translates very weirdly on my skin (black musk in Samhain '05 = whiff of Vapo-Rub!) Patchouli gives it staying power, but it's very understated. I can detect the incensy champaca flower that I like so much in Hellion. The white pepper adds that little extra something to spice it up a wee bit. Surprised at how close this one sits to the skin. Can relate to the reference to King of Clubs. I need to test it some more, but initial thoughts are that I like it.

[zenvodunista]

I've been looking forward to the Salons, and I bought my first one, Two Monsters.

 

Wow, is this stuff rich. I can't smell the leather at all, and at first whiff this is all hippie incense. Nag Champa and Sandalwood and Patchouli. A little too hippie for my taste in fact.

 

But on the resins and woods die back, and the Japanese pittosporum (common name Mock Orange) comes to the fore and this becomes a gentle orange flower, ginger, and white musk. It's all anchored by the other scents. This is so well blended that it's hard to pick out the scents individually.

 

And that's just against my skin.

 

When I sit back and smell, the throw (powerful!) is more resiny and woody -- and -- best of all worlds: this is a sandalwood that doesn't go to bad B/O on me.

 

I am so very thriilled! And if the throw is like this when it's a tiny drop on the end of a toothpick, I can't to smell it at full slather

 

Just gorgeous!

 

n.

[The Perfumed Ferret]

This is the only scent from the Salon Collection, that made me swoon. I love the white pepper note. I tried this one on at the lab, not having read the description.

 

This is heavy smoke, dark patchouli, murky vetiver, sharp leather, and a teeny bit of spice. It makes me think of an opium den, dark and smoky with a haze of insanity.

 

10 out of 10 baby! I love it.

[Blood onmy hands]

In the bottle, this smells like an incredibly sexy, musky men's cologne. On me... this manages to be both sweet and cleanly musky, while also being very dark and heavy on the incense. In the drydown, I'm getting even more smoky sweetness. There isn't any one note that I could pick out of this blend, other than the sexy black musk. It's very complex and well-blended.

 

This is mainly a smoky black musk scent. Dark, clean, and perfumey. Definitely too masculine and too simple for me to wear, but I could see a man pulling this one off much better than myself.

Edited December 5, 2006 by Blood onmy hands

[sookster]

I am finding all of the salon scents extremely decadent and this one is absolutely,

without a doubt, going to be a long time favorite with me.

 

At first sniff from the bottle this is a thick smoky and bitter scent.

 

Once applied it sweetens up into a resinous and heady perfume...every note

compliments one another in the most elegant way. The vetiver, black musk, leather, patchouli, ambergris are all distinct. Extremely long lasting

and achingly gorgeous.

 

This tiny treasure is an olfactory fantasy

Edited July 14, 2006 by sookster

[shelldoo]

in the bottle: vetiver. strong, and deep.

 

wet: still mostly vetiver, but i can smell the patchouli, pepper, and musk also

 

as it dries it softenes the vetiver lets others join in on the fun. it becomes a soft incensy sexy blend. very nice.

[Aredhel]

Rating (on skin): 4/5

Summarised in a word or two: Surprising.

 

Pre-review thoughts: Given the reviews and the notes, I'm thinking this'll be a disaster.

 

In the imp: Alas, black musk, you waste no time.

 

On skin, wet: How strange, that the black musk should become so much lighter. This is very sweet, warm and musky, but doesn't reek of Death as black musk-heavy scents tend to.

 

On skin, dry: There is indeed something cologne-y to this, but not such that I don't like it. The leather, musk, oakmoss, ginger, patchouli and ambergris dominate the blend, and given that, I'm struck dumb, as I quite like it! Far too dark and heavy to find its way into my daily (or even regular) routine, but I could easily find occasion to wear it, and I can think of several darker-perfume-loving friends that would like it as well.

 

Conclusion/Notes: Very nice. Every Salon oil I've tried so far has surprised me, and I've loved them all so far. I don't know if I'll hunt down a bottle of my own (I only tested using a teeny drop from one of the empty bottles), but I may track down a decant or two to keep around.

[Heavenlyrabbit]

Two Monsters- not scary at all! I'm going to guess that the patchouli and vetiver play the part of the two individual "monsters" while the leather refers to their common bestiality

 

This is the surprise hit of the Salon scents so far.

 

First up comes the Patchouli, ususally my nemesis, but absolutely compelling in this blend. It's hand in hand with the Champaca.

 

Then comes the Vetiver, a favorite note that i like to sniff in the bottle but seldom enjoy in perfume blends.

 

Then, the Leather, restrained and surrounded by the rest of the lovely notes which go on to a rather laid-back-sexy, earthy skin scent. I think Two Monsters, the scent, has a bit of the whimsy I see in the artwork.

 

Within a few minutes this moves into a gorgeous blend.

 

I can rarely wear Patchouli, Vetiver or Leather and yet have fallen in love Two Monsters! Yes, it's a touch masculine but that is fine. This will be a big bottle very soon. Perfect for fall and winter.

Edited July 19, 2006 by Heavenlyrabbit

[blackheartedangel]

First, I smell the black musk (it smells very much like the dark musk in enraged orangutan) and the vetiver. I can also pick out the leather, ginger, pepper and a slight bit of champaca. Honestly, this is so well blended that I'm having a hard time describing it. To me it's a beautiful spicy, smooth, dark leathery incense! I don't know how much I would actually wear it, but yum, it does smell pretty good. I could see this being a great blend for guys as well. A bottle will be under consideration.

[parrot_suspect]

To my nose this is definitely a masculine blend. In some ways it's almost similar to the finest commercially-produced men's colognes. It smells like something a wealthy investment banker would wear on his extracurricular excursion to a fetish club A bit spicy, powerful, commanding, confident, yet slightly corrupt. And very, very sexy. I'm going to try this on my DH.

[quikslvr]

This strikes me as very faint at first, and rather on the fougere end of things. Light, light leather and oakmoss predominate, but mostly this is just very well-blended, to the point where it's hard to discern notes. There's certainly musk here, but it really doesn't strike me as black musk--I would've thought white, frankly. But I suppose if there's just the right amount, black musk might be very light. I'm no expert here, though. \

 

This would fit right in at a high-society function as a light, beckoning cologne. It's got an amazing drydown, where the darker end comes through (vetiver, etc), but still gives the impression of lightness. Definitely a keeper.

[Tesseljoan]

This scent is mischievous in my perception. On my skin I get a dark Leather note. I can smell musk and ambergris, and the teensiest ginger twist. Once again, a salon scent which is anything but straightforward but hard to describe. But this one is nice.

 

Half an hour later I get a crossover between perversion and hellfire.... (which is good imo)

[Lycanthrope]

Whoa! Peppery! Spicy!

 

Leather... musk... *slap!* it's racy! Raunchy!

 

Now it's rich and heady, with a wicked fang. Oh my. Musky leather and smoky patchouli. Not much ginger though... I love the white pepper freshness.

 

This is a bottle consideration.

[crazyredhead17]

I woke up with a very light wheeze today. Did I take a puff of my inhaler? No! I put on some BPAL with vetiver!

 

I'm not the best at picking up notes (in this blend, the only two things I am sure of are the vetiver and the patchouli).

 

I didn't jot down any notes this morning while it was wet, but I remember it being earthy and floral - but not too floral, and a bit sweet.

 

As it dried (and sporadically throughout the day) I'd get little whiffs of soap, but overall this is a wonderfully dark earth scent with floral overtones (and no florals that totally killed me). It's almost like Malediction's younger, more relaxed and playful sister.

 

Whiffs of soap aside (my time of the month is very soon, so I'll happily try this again in a couple weeks), this is a wonderful scent on me. Usually florals go over the top flowerpower on me, or remind me too much of the flower case at work, but this is just right on me. I think I've finally found a floral scent that I can wear.

[filigree_shadow]

In the bottle it smells a little bit like ginger, but dark.

On my wrist: I smell like I accidentally got into my husband's cologne.

 

This oil smells almost singularly masculine to my nose. Many of the masculine BPAL blends are ones that I'd wear myself, but there are a few that I wouldn't wear. It's not that I don't enjoy the scents, but they seem like they would be more at home on my hubby. (And thankfully he looooves BPAL, so getting him to wear the oils is not a problem.) If I wore Two Monsters, I would feel like all the women I pass in hallways would be thinking to themselves, "Tsk-tsk, the poor thing doesn't know that's a men's cologne."

 

That said, this oil smells absolutely fantastic. I am so thrilled to find a GC scent that can replace my hubby's Geek (his signature scent) when his stash runs out. This is exactly the kind of scent he likes -- the leather, black musk, and champaca seem to be prominent on my skin, and I can tell this will be earthy and powerful on him.

 

So far this is my favorite of The Salon scents.

Edited July 23, 2006 by filigree_shadow

[jj_j]

In the bottle, this smells like something I'd like to inhale when snuggling up to my husband. Definitely leather and oakmoss (which always smells like new money to me).

 

Once I put it on, though, ambergris comes to the front. A little sweet, with that unique scent that's so hard to describe. The leather fades a little, but it's a beautiful combination - the scent has a texture like softest, buttery suede feels to your fingertips.

 

After a couple of minutes, I get the final morph of Two Monsters on my skin. I can only guess that this is the tobacco flower combining with the "mock orange" a previous reviewer mentioned. It's a hint of fruity juice, rich tobacco flower, ambergris, and a touch of smokiness that is out of this world, and I love this final combination even more than the initial stages.

 

This could definitely be worn by either sex. On a man, it would seem clean but have depth and melt into a second-skin scent. On a woman, this would be sexy without being pure sex; I think of this as something a young and glorious Sophia Loren would wrap around herself like an aura.

 

Not at all what I expected from the description, and not at all what I expected when sniffing from the bottle. Definitely a purchase!

 

Thanks to the General Catalog circle for allowing me to try the Salon scents before committing to a full bottle!

[yeahbutnobut]

Two Monsters

 

In the imp: peppered leather, earthy patchouli with a hint of vetiver.

Wet on skin: patchouli and leather dusted with pepper over leather.

Dry on skin: ooh, this is quite sexy. Smoky leather warmed nicely by pepper and ginger, darkened by patchouli and vetiver, with a hint of something sweet, reminiscent of Hellion (probably a mix of musk, champaca and patchouli) and a soft light orangey floral-I wonder if that's the pittosporum? It is mock orange, after all-I do get a scent so slightly reminiscent of it. What an interesting scent-it has a feel of Geek and Torture King with Hellion but it's also very different, thanks to this mischievous floral flitting over the top.

After a while: this smoothes out even more and becomes almost creamy and a tad fruity. The black musk here is less like the sweet, deep, slick stuff, but more like Hellion's dark musk-less sweet and more smoky. The peppered leather lies underneath this thick smoky musk which seems to have absorbed the floral scent of either champaca or pittosporum and has changed it into something less bright and floral, and more like a shadowy, slightly fruity sweetness. I think I can smell the ambergris a bit now as well, sweetening and adding a slight oily scent to it all. It has a very autumnal feel and this smooth, fruity musk scent is very characteristic of BPAL-once you smell it, you know it can only be a Beth concoction. Vetiver smoulders underneath it all-deep and ashy but not overpowering-this isn't like the leather-vetiver of Highwayman at all. It's much more sombre now, not as bright.

The fruity-sweet stage doesn't last. At drydown, the leathery vetiver gets stronger, the patchouli-musk becomes even smokier and develops a haziness, and I get a woody scent to it all, which is odd but nice.

Verdict: this is a very nice, dark, unisex scent. Smoky, deep, swirling and smouldering, this scent is mainly about the pleasant interplay of leather, vetiver, musk and patchouli, often supported by the spices and ambergris. The florals lighten and sweeten the scent at times, before being dragged down and losing themselves in the darker notes. There's an overall earthy-incense floating over leather scent to it, which is really nice. I bet it would be even better on a guy-it brings to mind a less sharp Torture King, with the incense of Hellion. Not a favourite-despite it's light-hearted moments, it's a bit too dark and moody for me to pull off, but it's a very nice scent-I may keep the imp.

Emoticon rating:

If you like this, try: Les Infortunes, Hellion, Omen, Voodoo

Edited September 28, 2006 by yeahbutnobut

[portalkat]

I tried this on, smelled my wrist, read the reviews and quickly checked the label on the decant to see if I had picked up the wrong vial. On me, it smells so different than any of the reviews, but after I re-read the description, I think that I know why. My skin will initially amp up any florals so what I was smelling early on was the champaca mixed with the ginger, oakmoss, vetiver and white pepper. I don't know what the pittsoporum smells like, but that could have been in there, too. Those notes never really go away, but are joined by the leather, musk and ambergris after about half an hour. It is a beautiful fragrance, but so unlike anything that I was expecting. It's very light and I'm wishing that it was a bit stronger. On me this is a light spicy floral.

[cranberry]

Initially, this is all leather on me. This reminds me a lot of Geek (good to know). As it wears, the oakmoss comes out. It gentles and softens the scent. I only put a little of this on, and it’s a softer scent than I would have thought based on the notes. It is more on the masculine side. There’s nothing candy sweet about this scent, the sweetness is more a musky softness with hints of rich soft leather. This would smell amazing on a guy. On me, it’s as if it’s melding with my skin scent. It’s very subtle and a skin-scent in the way that EOM becomes a skin-scent. I can imagine burying my face in the nape of his neck or under his chin and just inhaling. Delicious. This is a 2-day beard type of scent.

 

I just might have to gift my honey a bottle of this.

[LittleGreyKitten]

Champaca flower may be a new nemesis. It ate Khajuraho much to my disappointment, and indeed it's the ingredient that makes me want to wash this one off, I think (though I don't mind it in Hellion, go figure). The leather, patchouli, and vetiver are all noticeable to my nose, blending to make a deep lovely scent. But then there's that syrupy champaca note, icking me out again. This does linger, but unfortunately the champaca never mellows on me, it stays topside the whole time. Same experience I had with Khajuraho, unfortunately. If you can deal with the champaca its definitely a gorgeous deep blend, no doubt.

 

I have had no luck with the Salons sadly. Too bad since I really love the idea.

 

On me this is a 2.5 out of 5.

[Syzygy]

First of all a thousand thank-yous to quikslvr for running the Salon decant circle that allowed me to try some of these blends without my credit card spontaneously combusting.

 

This stuff smells worth the extra money even before it's on the skin. Just sniffing this in the imp, you can tell Beth means business. I applied Two Monsters with the same sort of anticipation that a guitar geek would feel watching Hendrix about to rip into a kickass solo.

 

Unlike that guitar geek, I can't give you a note-by-note description, but I'll do my best.

 

The base of this scent is dark and rich. I can't pick out any one note with the possible exception of leather. The patchouli is behaving itself rather than making this go all head shop, for which I am grateful. After a little while a spark of orange appears (must be the pittosporum, as someone else pointed out) and blossoms, incongruously cheery and whimsical against the deeper, darker notes. Hello orange! What's a sunny, friendly little note like you doing--ow! Here comes the white pepper, adding a sharp little bite just when you least expected it. Maybe this isn't so friendly after all. Well, what did you expect? Bosch didn't call the drawing Two Fuzzy Puppies, you know.

 

This is the scent of someone dangerous and charming, someone who can be so much fun to be around that you forget (at your peril) about their notorious temper. This is someone funny, quick with a smile and a snarky joke...and just as quick to take your head clean off without a moment's warning if you're not careful.

 

Its a spot-on olfactory representation of the artwork: "Watch your step. We may look cute, but we are, after all, monsters."

[theshapeshifter]

Gorgeous, just gorgeous.

 

In the imp, I thought it might be a trifle too musky, but on skin, it just blossoms into something amazing. It's hard for me to pick out notes since it's so well-blended, but the overall impression is SEXY MAN. Leather, incense and musk, yet not at all a "cologne" sort of scent, more like the general smell of wrapping your arms around a rock'n'roll bad boy sort of guy.

 

This would smell outstanding on a guy, and yet it's not SO masculine that I feel weird wearing it. This is definitely going to require a bottle, stat.

[aine]

Two Monsters is delicious.

 

Reading through the notes when this blend was released was like a raunchy encounter with a soft kid-leather paddle.

 

Leather? Oh yes

Patchouli? Harder...

Vetiver? *moan*

Ambergris? Right there baby

Ginger? Oh god...

Oakmoss? Huunnngghhhh

 

Well, you get the picture . This is a sensational scent, sweeter than I imagined, but for that leather note, I will forgive it anything.

 

Bottle. No question.