Troll

[ami226]

A lurching, hateful, bitter scent. This is a gruesome blend of ghastly greens and blacks: vetiver, pine pitch, troll musk, black basil, clove smoke, and scorched cumin.

Didn't skin test. This scent is quite earthy. Not my kind of scent at all...

[Yozhik]

Hello all! First review, so please bear with me

 

I got this as a frimp from the lab, and was a little nonplussed by it in the bottle.

 

I don't think my nose is very well trained yet, but my initial notes say: "pine pitch, cloves"

 

I tried it on, though, and it did something wonderful! All of that acrid pineyness that I was sure was going to transform me into a walking pine tree instead somehow became spicy and yummy.

 

End result -- this may very well be my favorite scent yet! (granted, I've only dipped my toes in the BPAL supplies, but this is AWESOME!)

 

When I put this on, my boyfriend is always like: "You smell great! Is that troll?"

 

I want to get him to try it, but haven't been able to convince him that guys wear perfume . . . maybe I'll just have to use my newly-found troll powers to hold him down while I apply

[komakat]

Imp: This is probably the only one I've ever opened and exclaimed WOW at first sniff.

 

I was a little afraid to try it out. A strange foresty, mucky smell.

 

On wet: Piney, sticky, dark. Somehow a little more clean than I expected. Nose is now permanently attached to my wrist. I kept saying "I don't know," but at the same time couldn't get enough.

 

Dry: Oh there you are, vetiver. I knew it was in there somewhere, but it took a while to shine. Weak enough on my skin that it didn't overpower the pine, just complimented it. Definitely my new fall back. Very unique. Unlike anything else I've ever used.

[sarielswish]

 

In the vial, a little dry and acrid. Reminds me of dried leaves. Color, dark brown.

 

Wet on my skin, it's vetiver and clove and pine and I'm in love. All I can think of is early fall days at an SCA event when it's warm enough not to freeze but cool enough to have a good fire and not burn up.

 

10-15 minute drydown - Wow... it's very... pungent. I love the way it smells, but it's very strong. I don't know that I'd wear it as a perfume but it's one hell of a mood piece.

 

1 hour drydown - It's fall leaves and woodsmoke. At first, I didn't think I'd wear it much, but it's become one of my go-to scents, especially on bad days.

[Ashenrook]

Oh jeez... Troll did not play nice with me at ALL and while I would write up a nice segmented review for it, every phase of this scent can be summed up in three words:

 

DO. NOT. WANT.

 

While the smell of it in the bottle did seem slightly pleasant, if not rather overwhelming, it was anything but pleasant on my skin. The blurb I used to describe this to a friend is "It smells like I just bathed in Polo cologne and Pine Sol".

 

I did not pick out any of the lovely spices like the cumin, basil, or clove. It was just nothing but pine, pine, pine, more pine, a whole lotta musk, and a spear of vetiver lodged firmly in my cranium. The latter of that ramble saddens me because I normally LIKE vetiver – but in moderation.

 

This was the only scent, currently, that I have ever tried to remove before it naturally wore off. But it wouldn't come off and it only became WORSE as time went on. The longer it sat, the more acrid and fake it became.

 

No sir, I didn't like it.

[Reki]

This was a frimp from the lab.

 

In the imp: Delicious! It's a wonderfully light wet pine sap.

Drying: Same as in the imp. Joy!

Dry: pine sap and body odor - it must be the cumin

 

Verdict: Unwearable as is. I'm going to let this one age a bit. Hopefully the cumin will subside! It is similar to Jabberwocky.

 

Edit: I tested this as soon as I got it from the lab. After sitting for a few days it's coconut and mild (not sharp ) pine sap, and the BO is less noticeable but still there when dry. 2/5

Edited December 30, 2010 by Reki

[zmulls]

I was at a meet and sniff last Sunday and mentioned that I liked Troll, and got a wide-eyed response..."You wear TROLLLLLL????" or WTTE.

 

Oh my yes. I find that the three things that make my skin sing are musks, leathers and vetiver, and it doesn't hurt if there are some spices around the margins. So Troll is so full of win.

 

The vetiver has to be tempered to work on me, and there are so many lovely burnt and singed spices that my skin just dances to them. This is on my short list to get a bottle of sometime this year.

[Penance]

Origin:

 

Frimps from the Lab.

 

Preconceived notions:

 

I've had my eye on this one since I returned from my BPAL hiatus. It sounded good, but vetiver tends to take over scents for me and I've already got plenty of vetiver scents in my collection, so I put aside the frimps (I've gotten 4 of them from the Lab!) aside to test later.

 

In theory most everything in here should work for me. Pine and cumin are the only potentially iffy notes. Pine because I hate it when it's the astrigent, juniper-like pine that's in Loup Garou but really like it when it's the woodsier, deeper kind that's in things like Hexennacht, and cumin because I don't have much experience with it, so I'm not sure how well it's going to play out for me in new scents.

 

First sniff:

 

This smells like what I think of as "old school BPAL." It has that woodsy, dark, sinister smell to it that I always associate with the scents that were already in the catalog when I found the Lab back in 2004. Hard to explain, but that's my instant reaction.

 

I like this. It's woodsy, a little smoky and a little musky. I don't really smell vetiver here, exactly, just a subtle smokiness that could come from it or the clove smoke or cumin.

 

Wet on skin:

 

Yum. Troll is apparently one of those scents that smells better on me than in the bottle. Not that it smelled bad in the imp, but it didn't smell as good as this does. On me, the pine pitch is pretty strong, but it's got a deep, dark, slightly resinous smell to it that's worlds away from the astringent pine in Loup Garou and the like. I also get musk (not animalistic musk and definitely not red musk, just...musk, fairly heavy and not at all powdery) and a little touch of spice from the clove smoke.

 

Dry down:

 

I seriously can't stop sniffing myself. This smells amazing on the drydown.

 

The pine pitch is still dominating (I may have to find more scents with pine pitch now that I know I love it), but the musk is putting in a strong appearance and the clove smoke (which gives both a touch of spice and a soft smokiness) and blac basil are here, too. I still don't get vetiver specifically, but I think it's combining with everything else to give a dark, menacing background to the notes that are coming through loud and clear.

 

The bottom line:

 

This smells so good on me. Dark and beautiful. I thought I would like it when I first sniffed it (but probably wouldn't wear it often), but it really works with my skin chemistry and blooms into something amazing on me.

 

I can see from reading reviews that Troll's not a popular scent, but that doesn't surprise me. I tend to like scents that aren't crowd pleasers (although I do enjoy a fair number of the mainstream favorites), but I think that there also might be some skin chemistry variables at work here, because Troll smells noticeably different on me than it does in the bottle.

[milo]

I've been wanting to try this for a long time, so I was to find an imp in one of my recent orders.

Wet, strong vetiver. As it dries, it becomes more 'earthy', and the patch just is so warm and comforting. The pine makes it's presence known after a bit, and it's the kind of pine I grew up with, the wonderful sticky pine pitch of the ponderosa, so this kind of reminds me of home. This is the kind of blend that I'd like the wear at home, as it's very earthy and comforting. Not sure if I'd ever wear it out in public, as it is not your mainstream 'pretty' scent at all, kind of masculine. Still, this is nice to try, and I'm sure I'll use my imp from time to time.

[Ella LaRose]

This is a nice sweet earth blend, I the sweet woods, pine, vetiver, after drying for a while the sweetness fades and the woods come out more. Very nice. would be great on a man!

Edited May 10, 2011 by Ella LaRose

[achromance]

I have to admit, this is one of those scents I was determined to get just because of the name. In this case it's so I can hopefully have this exchange one day:

"You smell lovely."

"I smell of Troll."

That being said, I really like the sound of the notes as well. Let's go!

 

In the vial: Ooh! Murky, murky boreal backwoods, where the troll has built a hut out of moss and branches in which he is cooking a nasty, green stew. Even if that image might not translate to "I want to smell of this", Troll is actually really pretty.

 

On my wrist: My skin translates Troll into a cool boreal haze during a forest stroll, if that makes any sense. Upon drydown it becomes more and more herbal. It's a good scent and I'm happy with the way it reacted with my skin. I don't feel like I smell of Wunderbaum in the least.

[ajansuz]

I've been wanting to try this pretty much ever since I read about it last year and then kept getting distracted by other scents first. What surprised me was how light it smelled to me in the imp, almost a touch of lemony/citrusy pine with patchouli and something kind of bitter lurking beneath it.

 

Wet this turns really lovely on my skin. It's the same pine I adore in Golden Priapus, high and light. The vetiver is little more than the impression of smoke, with a very earthy patchouli grounding the whole thing. The spices so far are faint. I'm glad. I like clove only in tiny doses on my skin. It can burn or go spice candle, and so far it's not at all.

 

Dry down, the pine is playing very nicely with the earthier tones. Whatever musk is in this is playing really nicely with my skin, no baby powder, no animal in heat, just something a little feral. I love this scent more than I expected to, and I expected I'd like it quite a lot. I can't wait to layer this with Tricksy bath oil.

[KatharinaNordh]

I was looking forward to this - it was the very reason I Found this site at all (Googling on "Troll perfume", for those who saw my first post)

 

In the Imp it smelled suspicious, and I was sort of taking out the disappointment in advance - but still put it on for a 6 hour drive to help a friend (or whatever) move.

 

(He, on the other hand, got a dose of Fenris Wolf on him)

 

Troll smelled Very strong at first, spiky and in-your-face, and a bit ...much.

 

And then, oddly, it calmed down - it became round and soft and almost - dare I say - Cute.

 

I was a bit stunned, because to me, trolls ARE small and cute and have bushy hair and wiggly tails - and Troll smells just like that on me; friendly forest with soft ground and cuddles.

 

Especially the cuddles; to me, Troll smells like lazy, vaguely sensual cuddles with someone you really like, in a warm late-summer forest - maybe that's where people got the idea of BO from, no idea, but I Loved it <3

 

This was exactly what I was looking for - spot on - and I am Very pleased. Bottle next time

[WidgetAlley]

I'm all about this except for the vetiver! So let's see what trolls smell like.

 

Imp: Hmm, thick sticky pine pitch and a haaayooooge hit of dark burnt vetiver like the kind in Highwayman, and stroooooooong bitter basil like the kind you've let run to seed. It smells like a more sour Hurricane to me at this stage.

 

Wet: Uh-oh. I think I smell black musk. That could be a deal-breaker here. But I also smell a lot of cumin, and quite a bit of basil, and a harsh stingy clove that sort of catches at the back of your throat, and a much-tamed but still quite-murky vetiver. There's green pine somewhere in there too. It's funny but I expected this to smell... smokier? Greener? Right now it smells very stagnant.

 

Dry: Wow, Troll really does morph a lot on the drydown! Now I'm getting a spiced wood scent, but still without a single hint of sweetness. It's mostly cumin and basil, and unfortunately I'm not getting enough clove or pine to make it not smell like Indian food. Now don't get me wrong, I LOVE Indian food. But I don't think I want to smell like it.... I'll test again since this came through the mail but right now it looks like it's not a winner. Damn.

[Lethran]

In bottle only: I really love the pine, basil, clove, and cumin, which make an unusual and interesting spice combination. I’d call it pine dominant. The musk and vetiver are too heavy for me and weigh the whole thing down. I could

[hexnut]

TROLL

 

In Vitro Strong and pleasantly spicy.

 

Wet Very strong spices, mainly clove. Not too sweet, with a depth that reminded me of wood.

 

Drying The spice mixture was akin to winter potpourri, but without the insipid cloying character of most potpourri. No doubt I was influenced by the description, but the most apt term for Troll's spice was "aggressive". This also had the strongest presence on my skin of any BPAL oil I've tried since Tombstone, which was great because I loved being enveloped in a sweet spicy cloud. It also lasted a bit longer than most of my trials, almost three hours.

 

In my limited BPAL experience my skin usually amps the sweetest note in any blend, often to the point of obscuring everything else I wanted. The list in Troll looked like one favorite scent (clove) opposed by five fearsome-sounding other notes, so I took a chance although I was apprehensive about the musk in particular. Turns out I needn't have worried because Clove wielded its miniature cudgel and beat the rest into submission to provide a well-behaved backup group for its spicy goodness.

 

tl;dr : Me like Troll.

 

13

[Gateau]

Got this as a frimp from the Lab. Full of death notes, but it smelled nice in the imp so I gave it a whirl.

 

Mostly pine, which I amp. It's smoky and earthy. I don't really get any of the spices or scorching. I think it would smell great on a guy, and if mine wore pine I'd test it on him. There's something body-heated about it. If you liked the pine in The Jersey Devil but not the potpourri-like berries, try this.

[melrose]

First on, wet: such strong vetiver that I feel momentarily blinded and short of breath, thankfully reined in a bit by a strong, fresh pine, not the juniper kind that makes me nauseous - not washing off because of the pine.

 

Near drydown: still only the 2 notes, but the pine has more firmly clamped down on the vetiver. Now wanting to see what happens later.

 

Far drydown: Wow, what a change! The vetiver and pine are faintly in the background. There is a strong scent of smoke and cloves, with a touch of musk.

 

This is lovely after a few hours, but I probably don't want to revisit the first 2 stages.

[neuilly]

This was a frimp a while back. I went through to see if I'd reviewed it and I'm not surprised that I hadn't. I knew on notes alone that this was very much not my kind of scent, lol.

 

I'm guessing the background note I'm getting is clove smoke. For me it smells like the ruins of a freshly razed castle. It's topped by darkened incense notes. To me it brings images of wartorn lands. Very evocative but not very pleasant.

[rhubarb3point14]

I love Troll. It's a scent for autumn -- it smells like piney woods and campfires, and it's got the dark musk that works best on me.

 

I often can't wear pine scents (Jabberwocky was an unmitigated disaster on me; it smelled like foody floor cleaner, which is disturbing to say the least), but this one really works, probably 'cause it's so dark and smoky-spicy.

[Wren12]

So...this was...intense?

 

In the bottle: green, mossy, sharp. Wet and dripping.

 

On Wet: Ok, this is very strange, but it smells like sweet body odor. Not pleasant at all.

 

Dry Down: Yep, unpleasant body odor, and now it turns spicy a bit, can very much smell the smoke from the cloves and cumin.

 

This scent is overwhelming, it's a bit of a discordant clash of sweet, smoke, and downright unpleasant muskiness. This is the first of the labs scents I had to wash off.

 

Which makes me sad, because I love love love musk and cloves and thought this would work, but nope. Luckily there are sosososo many more lovelies to smell!

Edited November 15, 2012 by Wren12

[whitsunweddings]

In the imp: Sweet, slightly spiced pine.

Wet: Sweet clove, cumin and basil with a sharp piney edge.

Dry: The spices are lovely, but one note has gone all sour and oddly... fishy? on me. Ick. Also, my chest went all itchy as soon as I put this on my wrists. Trolled indeed.

[quickdrawkiddo]

In the vial, this reminded me a lot of Whoso List to Hunt, so I was afraid it would turn similarly powdery during the drydown. Turns out I needn't have worried! On me, it's a light, fresh pinesap scent, quite sharp and tangy but not at all bitter. I'm not getting any spice at all, but sometimes I have to wear a scent a few times before picking up on the subtler notes. At any rate, I love it as is and am super happy to have such a crisp scent to transition into spring with! Also, I should mention that I tend to love the woodsy, masculine scents so my reaction to Troll was probably a foregone conclusion

[Acayde]

Bottle: Deep, earthy, mossy...

 

Wet: Toasted cloves and cumin, it has a much deeper smell and i'm definitely getting that musk smell.

 

Dry: Now roasted cloves and cumin, I get that smoky smell from the description. Definitely getting some BO from that musk. I also smell that pine peeking its head with a sour smell because of my body chem.

 

This scent is essence of troll. Dark, musty, smoky, earthy, troll.

[gasolinemonk]

arrighty! my first review.

 

TROLL:

 

WET: oddly clean. almost burns my nose a little. herb-y.

ON PAPER: more herb-y. much less clean. I feel like... if I smelled this when I walked into someone's house, I'd be afraid.

WET ON SKIN: weird. spicy-clean. ozone-y. fungus-y. smells like... an old cabin in the woods my parents made us stay in one summer. mold and bleach and old fights. oddly enough, I kind of like it.

DRY ON SKIN: more bleach, trying to cover up rotten, sour things. the cleanness is coming back. this smells like a serial killer's house. fades relatively quickly, stays close to the skin. not overpowering.

 

CONCLUSION: transfixing, the way a serial killer can be transfixing. wear it if you want to scare someone.