Pulcinella & Teresina

[sleepingdahlia]

Labdanum, cedar, teak and red rose.

 

I am this stage still unsure whether or not I like this particular blend. Am a fan of rose, but only done in a certain way (love Rose Red for example) but sometimes it can take over and be too cloying. What this strikes me as whiffing the bottle a similarity to Ventriloquist's Dummy, that slight metallic tang.

 

Having it on a few hours now I'm really getting the cedar scent strongly and just a faint bit of the rose. What is odd that it reminds me slightly of cedar and wet newspaper with the touch of rose. Really not sure how much sense that makes, but certainly heavy on the cedar chip scent. Also reminds me of the rose flav. of turkish delight candy! Having repeatedly sniffied the wrists I think I'm warming to this quite a lot, perhaps not an everyday scent but very glad to have it.

[arabella]

First Impression: A faint rose and labdanum.

 

Dries down to: The rose is still there but I can't detect the cedar or the teak at all. A

 

dditional Comments: I'm astounded that I don't get any woods, they're normally shouting to be heard. Rose amps up on me 90% of the time but here it's just soft and lovely. I guess they counteract each other. This is okay but nothing I'd kill for.

 

Lasted: A few hours.

 

Rating: 2.5 out of 5

[alsatia]

Expectations: Incense burning over a bed of woodchips and rose petals. I think it might be too much wood and not enough rose for my tastes.

 

In vial: Strange. Kind of a waxy furniture polish, maybe.

 

On skin, wet: Whoa, woody! *snickers like a 12-year-old boy* It reminds me of woodworking class in middle school.

 

On skin, dry: Oops, got distracted and missed this step. I haven't noticed obvious changes since it started drying though.

 

After time: I can tell there's cedar, but it's not as fresh as pure cedar. Not smelling any rose, which is a disappointment.

 

Conclusion: I keep wavering between "that's a tolerable smell" and "ick, get this crap off me". When in doubt, ick.

[Indigo78]

In the imp: I get what smells just like Cypress to my nose, and hints of cinnamon.

 

Wet on the skin: Spicy Cedar

 

The blending of these notes is amazing - I can't pick anything out when it's dry! Cedar and Cinnamon and Cypressy Laudanum..I like this blend. Each note on it's own is kind of *eh* on me, but the mix is pretty and evocative of the imagery it represents.

[lilacea]

This is a very strong, sour teak, the rose is gorgeously subdued. Woody with a hint of sweetness around the edges, it reminds me of rosewood on the drydown. The cedar adds a little more woodiness and keeps the sweetness of the rose from dominating on my skin. It has a very old fashioned, almost antique feel to it.

 

Edited to add: alrighty, after a while wearing, this has dried down to oakmoss, plain and simple, almost like oakmoss single note.

 

And again today, something new has popped up. Valerian!

Edited July 20, 2008 by lilacea

[innocent]

I loves me some rose, but cedar and I do not get along - I amp both. In Pulcinella & Teresina this results in a painfully sweet, strong blend with a faint hint of... pickles? Not exactly pickles, but the "something sour" that other reviewers mentioned.

 

This one is not for me. Which, honestly, is just as well considering the number of CD bottles I already want to get with my August order.

[birdiefu]

As a note this oil is from when the CD first opened, so it is aged.

 

Anyhow, when first putting this on it is very sharp and bitter. I mostly get the woods, and they are very strong with what I could swear is some vetiver in the background. No rose at all, which is surprising and delightful, as rose usually amps to rotting-petal floral death on me. There is no labdanum according to my nose.

 

As it dries, the sharpness does mellow down a bit, but it is still very dry and bitter for my tastes. I too get a pickle vibe, oddly enough.

 

Once it has been on for over an hour, the bitterness and dryness mellow out too. The labdanum finally comes out to play, and it is a thick, sweet resin with some woods in the background. Much nicer; however, at this point the scent has faded so much that I can barely enjoy it.

[brsis]

Initial thoughts: Woods + Rose = DEATH. If I wasn't so fixated on collecting the entire set, I would have skipped straight over this one.

 

In the bottle: SWEET MARY MOTHER OF GOD.

 

THAT is what rose is meant to smell like! None of this fuzzy-wuzzy floating pollen nonsense - that is what the great, heavy, thick-petalled, so-red-they're-almost-black damask roses I used to crawl under when I was a wee one used to smell like. I think it's the combination of rose with the woods and the labdanum which is giving it that dark, potent, sultry scent instead of the 'fuzz' I'm used to. This is getting used to scent SOMETHING even if it doesn't work on my skin!

 

On the wrist, wet: This is a bit more like the rose I'm used to - still grounded and darkened deliciously by the woods, and with sweet but sickly labdanum - it's also quite potent, with a fair throw.

 

Drydown: I have massively underestimated this. It's amazing. It's dark, heady, the slightest bit of sickly-sweetness - it's a bit too 'grown up' for me, is my only problem. If I had another ten years on me, this would be the perfect powerful sultry evening scent. Heavily floral, yes, but hardly girly.

[jewelbug]

Imp: A sweet woody blend with a bit of rose around the edges.

 

Wet: A lovely sweet wooden blend. I think its more teak than cedar, and the rose compliments in the background (its not amping, i'm so shocked!)

 

Drying: the woods get drier, more dusty, the scent has a sweet almost creaminess to it, and its really pretty.

 

Dry: This shifts further and further into an incense blend as time goes on. A woody, dusky incense blend. It settles into a dark, sweetly woody incense and stays there for hours. Very enjoyable!

Edited October 1, 2008 by jewelbug

[maika]

In the imp, this is very woody. I can't smell the rose at all.

Wet, still woody, but an almond note is coming out, it even reminds me of Snake Oil.

Dry, now I smell the rose...very softly, in the background. The labdanum is I think responsible for the almondy note I was getting, and it's still just there, but the woods are just smooth and balanced and beautiful. I smell wonderful!!! Definitely one to hunt for more of.

[Czarina]

In the imp: cedar and teak.

Wet: cedar and teak. Hint of rose.

Drydown: rosy-incense cedar and teak.

 

If you like this try: Intrigue.

[TereFaerie]

I can't believe I have yet to review this one! This and Faiza are my two must-haves from the CD.

 

It has the barest hint of rose on my skin, but it is the labdanum (yes!) that takes center stage. The teak is so warm and woody, too. The throw is low, but it is an intense scent that I like to keep close to the skin. This is one that works very well with my own musks, so it smells like there is a musk in the blend, as well.

 

This is a nose to wrist smell, and evocative of an old wooden chest full of memories or an old wooden toy, plus that special bpal je ne sais quois.

 

I only wish it lasted a tiny bit longer on the skin, maybe a few hours, though the "muskiness" stays all day.

[zankoku_zen]

I get a rosewood kind of smell. The teak and the cedar are pretty dominant, but the rose is fragrant. Fragrant wood. Yes, that's what this is.

 

If you like wood and you like roses, this is a must-try.

[heathercaley]

Woooo Nelly this one is potent!!

 

As soon as it hit my skin it went all like "HEYGUYSWHATSGOINGON!" Down boy...er..girl...

 

So it's like old polished wood wiped down with rose scented oil. Like an old bookcase with a bowl of fresh dewy roses chillin about on it. It's unique and when it dries down, it ain't so bad.

 

It's very uni sexual and quite bold. This isn't the rose a man would feel too froofy wearing. It's a mans rose... the kind that doesn't take no for an answer and will protect his friends teak and cedar and stand up for them until the very end. We salute you Mr. Rose... You aren't as girly as we thought you might be.

 

man.. this stuff is potent!!

 

Nice but maybe a bit too gender bender on me.

[jencallisto]

In the imp: Syrupy, spicy rose.

Fresh on the skin: Bitter-fresh-woodsy almost-rose.

5 minutes later: Spicy-sweet teak; rosewater had spilled across it a few weeks back, and while most of it had been wiped away, a tiny amount soaked into the wood. It also smells sort of like pickles.

10 minutes later: Okay, all the woods and rose got beat up in the schoolyard for their lunch money... by pickles, a whole gang of them, including a scratch-n-sniff version. I'm not sure I'm going to survive this stage.

20 minutes later: Still all pickles and spicy teak. Grah.

1 hour later: My idea of fun does not include smelling like pickles! I even like eating some pickles, but this is ridiculous!

4 hours later: Okay, finally, it's calming down to more like woods and less pickle. Thank goodness.

7 hours later: And now it's basically gone.

 

Verdict: So not for me, and in a totally confusing way! I guess my skin chemistry just doesn't work for one of these notes, and the only thing I'm certain of is that it's not the rose that's the problem -- heck, usually I amp rose and I could barely detect it.

 

One word: Pickles.

 

 

[LunaClaire]

Funny how chemistries differ - no trace pickles!

 

A soft sweet labdanum with hints of rose. Absolutely beautiful - and I didn't expect it as many of the Carnaval scents don't work as well with me as other scents.

 

Upon drydown, both the rose and the labdanum become fuller, sweeter, and musky.

 

I think I'm in love.

 

 

 

[milo]

Vinegar and wood. This actually reminds me a lot of Anne Bonny.

[rayvn1]

I've been hemming and hawing on whether or not to try this one because it seemed like it could go very, very wrong. Wet on skin I got a light rose scent heavy on synthetic wood polish. Now that it's dried though, I get the slightly sour labdanum (yum) and rose with the two woods warming things up. I don't think I'd wear this one often, but I am glad I gave it a try.

[Invidiana]

This is very, very sharp and peppery on me. I know pepper isn't listed in the notes but it really does seem like there's pepper in this, at least on my skin--the background is sweet and sinister, two things I love, but the peppery overtones my chemistry gives this are just too strong for me to wear. It does quiet down after it's dried down for a while and takes on a lot more of that sweet and sinister quality I mentioned before, but there still is some lingering sharpness--I'll have to try it again, maybe in a smaller dab this time.

[Tess]

In the bottle - Wow, is the labdanum strong in this. It is mixing right with the rose and giving it a sour scent. The teak isn't helping matters, either. It's a very, very strong and almost medicinal scent. In fact, if I close my eyes, this smells exactly like the dentist's office I went to as a child. An interesting vision to bring up via a scent, but I'm not sure it's one I want to walk around with.

 

Wet - TEAK. Wow, so much teak.

 

Drying - I'm getting almost no cedar from this at all, but that smell of a very well combined labdanum/rose/teak is right there. The teak is stronger in the front, at least, and the rose is much softer than in the bottle. We'll see if the teak in general works with me, in particular.

 

Dry (4 hours) - Teak and cedar and... that's it. Dry wood. At least it doesn't smell like a dentist's office anymore, I guess.

 

Overall - Very not for me.

[Drarra]

After overlooking this scent for ages, I read the list of notes. And tracked down a partial bottle immediately.

 

In the bottle: I smell the resinous nature of the labdanum (much-loved from Gaueko), floating over a delicate rose and wood.

 

Wet on my skin: This started out very bitter - maybe the rose objecting to my rose-hating skin? Sometimes my skin is such a hater, and I can certainly see why the rose would object. After bitterness, it morphs...

 

...into OMG wood.

 

Dry: I don't know if it's the teak or the cedar or the rose combining with the wood... but this is super dry wood chips. I swear there are pencil shavings on my wrist. There's a touch of the labdanum left, but it can't compete with the great and mighty shaved pencil.

 

Overall: This was too much like pencil shavings to wear as perfume. I'm not entirely sure where it went wrong, because this should have been win for my skin. After some experimentation, I used it to make a salt scrub. It was great used for this!

 

Please, tell me this isn't what teak smells like. Because want to teak!

[Innocuousmold]

Pickles on an old wood bench.

 

This is a very sour, vinegar-like smell on me. I do get a bit of rose in the background, but yeah... pickles and cedar when wet. After it dries it's less intense and I get a nice cedar, which I love, but I still smell pickles floating around in there. Not for me, but fun to try.

 

Edit: Man, I really wanna love this. It's like I can smell past the pickles to the beautiful rose and wood. Like I sat down to watch Pulcinella and Teresina, and the lights dim and a hush falls... but them some dude is smacking on a Vlasic right next to me and I think, "Seriously? Do I have smell this the whole show?"

Edited March 8, 2012 by Innocuousmold

[Velvet Lilly]

My nose got confused! I kept thinking..... incense and patchouli.....and something more...... but now reading the notes, it must be the wood and rose combination that fooled me.

I love this in a dark way. It smells......dangerous to me. It's got sharp edges among it's beautiful notes and it warns anyone that dares to get close: BEWARE.... I am more than I seem and I may be deadly.

 

At first smell I imagined incense, patchouli...the allure of soft night air, a whisper of booze and the promise of adventure.

 

I get zero pickle.....but the resin around the wood is a bit sour, yet so balanced it reminds me much more of that wonderful unique scent of old, faded solid perfumes from your grandmothers hope chest.

 

I almost got two bottles.

[Ohyeathat]

In the bottle it smells very overpowering. All wood and resin with no hint of the rose.

 

Wet on the skin all the notes blend perfectly. No note overpowering another. Earthy and floral.

 

Dry this smells like an antique hope chest that has been well loved, kept polished, holds a dried rose bouquet, fond memories and dark secrets.

 

I adore this!

[Teaker]

Extremely strong wood with a hint of soapy rose. The cedar is so strong on me it almost smells medicinal, like Vics vapor-rub. This scent does have warmth and depth to it though. If you love strong wood scents, are a huge cedar fan and can wear rose I'm sure you'll love this.