Pontarlier

[whitsunweddings]

The legendary birthplace of the Green Fairy. Swiss ferns, lilac, blackcurrant, Gallic rose and lavender with a dollop of sugar and absinthe.

In the imp: Absinthe, lavender, something green that I take to be the ferns.
Wet: Lavender and absinthe. Oddly reminiscent of mushrooms.
Dry: Licorice and cat pee. Not a fan!

[neuilly]

This is 98% fern on me - the whole time. That's not really a bad thing, and it's a very nice green scent, but for me it's more of an atmosphere scent then one I'd want to smell like personally. There is a softer note in the background which I'm pretty sure is the lilac. Ferns and softness.

[JazzieCazzie]

Almost finished up with the P segment of my alphabetical testing tour of all of my BPAL collection, this tester review brought to you via my own decant from a 5 ML bottle of Pontarlier purchased right around its release.

 

IN THE IMP: A deep fruity purple floral.

 

Dabbed on wrist and in crook of arm.

 

WET: This is like being in the shade of a tree covered with fragrant blossoms, somewhere on a hill, when the weather is warm but not hot. It's a fresh and sweet scent that has so many different notes to it. It reminds me the tiniest bit of my memory of first trying Glasgow, one of the very first BPAL scents I tried when I received an imp of it with my very first order ... (I would not have ordered something with blackberry and heather, and yet it worked for me the way this does). There is even a slightly aquatic note, something that usually does NOT play nicely on me but with Pontarlier they all work.

 

DRYDOWN: It remains a scent that is PERFECT for Wanderlust ... it is evocative of places I've been and places I've never been. It quiets down to a cool purple scent that makes me feel like I'm sitting by a mountain lake. It's a foreign meadow where I want to run barefoot.

 

OVERALL: I guess this review probably doesn't help anyone who is considering trying Pontarlier, LOL, which probably defeats the purpose of a review. But it is so BPAL in how it's just complex and complicated and makes you feel and see and imagine things, rather than just smell like something. Or maybe the Green Fairy is blowing my mind.

 

On a scale of 1-5, a 4.3 or so.

[Magycmyste]

Stash rec.

 

In the imp: Is it weird to describe this as a pleasant sour floral note? Because that's what I'm getting, and I like it. I think it's primarily the rose.

 

Wet on skin: Same as before.

 

Dried down: Ooh, this went to sharp rose place. I was really hoping to get more sugar out of this (and maybe a little of the absinthe), but I'm not getting that at all. There may be a bit of lilac in the background, but that's not softening this up enough for me.

 

Throw: Not a whole, whole lot, which is probably a good thing. I can smell it on my wrists, but I think I would hate being surrounded by a cloud of this scent.

 

Verdict: ** I like the description, but this scent really doesn't work for me. Which is a little surprising, because rose scents usually do pretty well on me, so far. As do sugar scents. Ah well, swap pile.

[ih8perfume]

Shockingly pretty!!

 

This is a perfect springtime fragrance. Very soft and green in a damp, misty kind of way. Fresh and verdant and just a bit earthy.

 

Aside from the cool, powdery fern, the notes meld together into a harmonious and happy whole and I really can't pick one from another.

 

I do get the occasional whiff of a resinous lavender floating around in the air, but I can't pick it up when I smell my skin.

 

The scent does skew floral which makes it lean toward the feminine side of Unisex. It brings to mind a fresh faced Swede with blonde milkmaid braids and ruddy cheeks.

 

While this isn't my usual scent style, I could see reaching for this during the Winter and early Spring when I'm longing for those first few green buds.

[Veronica]

Interesting. I get mostly blackcurrant, which smells like berries and chocolate gone slightly off and dry, the the floral notes and something purely sweet. This is an almost gourmand floral on me. After a few minutes of drydown, the blackcurrant disappears and this is a clean, green floral. Very fresh smelling.

Edited March 10, 2015 by delighted

[andabri]

Starts off very much black currant, ferns, and absinthe. I can smell each and every one of those things. Sweet and deep with a bit of green. As it dries down the sweetness recedes. The lavender shows up and the rose peeks out. The ferns grow in number. This is very aptly name and described! Just... green and herbal and floral hillside English garden. Very quietly beautiful.

[gentle-twig]

This starts out very green and bitter. I think it is the ferns (which I am not familiar with) mixing with the black currant, which I blame for turning Bordello a little too bitter on me. However, once this dries down, the bitterness all but disappears and the greenness steps (slightly) aside to let the lilac shine aided oh so subtly by the rose. I find that rose doesn't work well on me as the main note in a blend but can be a great supporting player (see also: Spooky Action at a Distance) and that is certainly the case here. The greenness sticking around almost feels like I layered this scent with The Dormouse, to give a comparison. I'm not sure that I can detect the sugar or the absinthe at all. Lilac and rose both tend to be sweet florals and that is true in this blend, as well. However, this isn't really any sweeter than I would expect it to be and the ferns keep the sweetness from being overwhelming. Absinthe may be a part of the slight bitterness that remains in the background, but it definitely isn't identifiable (not that that would be a bad thing, for me). This isn't really my thing, but I'm glad the lab sent me the frimp and I'll definitely wear it when I need a dash of heady springtime air.

Edited May 5, 2015 by gentle-twig

[d0gbones]

In the imp: Sophisticated ladies' perfume, a sweet floral at the end.

Wet: Soapy Chanel No.5? It's nicer though, softer.

Dry: Wow, completely different. Lilac, first and foremost, backed by a blend of notes that I can't distinguish. It's not very "me", but I can see my mother loving it.

[LizziesLuck]

wet: minty absinthe and soft white florals. Pretty

 

Dry: nose to skin, this is slightly sharp floral with quite a bit of absinthe. The waft, however, is gorgeous lilac. This is really pretty and would be lovely for spring.

[freyasfae]

I think it might be the fern and the lilac that just isn't work for me in this. Usually, lilac goes soupy on me, but wiith other favorite notes of mine, it can usually be overlooked. I think the fern brings out the soupy, acquatic quality that doesn't work for me. Pretty and definitely feels fairy-ish, but not for me.

[Cali]

Interesting! Very green indeed, with the absinthe and fern on the foreground, but also getting big whafts of the lilac and lavender.

Clean, fresh with a bit of garden dirt. Bit of a weird sweet note in there when it's dry; no idea where to place that. It's nice, but not for me.

[joopjoop]

This is pretty! Starts off very green with the ferns and lavender strongest.

 

As it dries down it still smells very fresh, but becomes primarily a lilac and anise scent with just a touch of sugar.

 

I like it a lot, but it fades very fast. After a couple of hours I can hardly detect it.

[lizabelle]

This was pretty much number one on my to-try list for ages because I love the smell of absinthe. I'm not even sure why, but I could bathe in BPAL's version and after trying several other company's versions it just seems to be one of my things. In fact I was so excited about the absinthe note in here that I forgot it was a fougere, which almost always hates me--but somehow this one doesn't.

 

It's much softer than the notes would suggest, both in feeling and in throw. Softly minty with a touch of anise and sugar, as expected, with a green herbal quality (ferns, but quite a bit softer than I'm used to) throughout that pretty much takes over. The lavender and lilac aren't too obvious on my skin but they keep it from being too masculine or green. They're slightly soapy but not overwhelmingly so. The anise and sugar amp on me over time, as they usually do, and I'm left with a sweet green scent that's unlike anything I've smelled before. I actually really like this, considering how far outside of my usual it is.

 

It's a very perfumey blend, and a well-blended one. I have to really think to parse out the notes. There's definitely the feeling of an old village somewhere beautiful out in the countryside to this. I bet it would be lovely on a hot day.

[Lucchesa]

Pontarlier is absolutely lovely on me. It's green, green grass, green foliage, herbal lavender, a hint of one of my favorite florals, lilac, and a breath reminiscent of mint and lime that I think is the absinthe note. I'm not getting rose or blackcurrant, and the absinthe isn't taking it into dark Bohemian nightclub territory; it's more Maria spinning wildly in the glorious Alps singing "the hills are alive..." Sadly, my skin devours this within an hour.