Prospero

[stutefish]

There was beauty, there was wine: a rich Sangiovese vintage swirled through opulent amber, rich plum, champaca flower, and arrogant white musk.

Love love love. Smells like grape candy in the bottle, smells like rich plummy wine-y goodness on my skin. It's in the same family as Midwinter's Eve and Bordello but isn't nearly as sweet; to my nose it's a little boozier than Bordello. I'm going to be wearing this one lots!

[yeahbutnobut]

Prospero

 

In the imp: smells like grape flavoured sweets (not grape juice), more so than Blood Phoenix.

Wet on skin: now it goes really sharp…a bit sour, actually. Not sure if this’ll go the nice wine way or turn nasty on me.

Dry on skin: ok, this isn’t too bad now, but I’m not sure what to make of it. It’s a very dry red wine scent, so dry that it’s almost sour, and I can also smell something woody, like the barrels the wine is kept in. There’s also a sour and slightly wilted flower note to this, and I have no idea what that is, because champaca hardly ever turns sour on me (usually it becomes too sweet). I don’t smell amber or musk here, but there’s a little hint of plum, but oddly this doesn’t smell like fresh juicy plums like BPAL plum usually does, in here it smells like prunes! Oh yes, now I see why this smells so sharp and a bit unpleasant-it smells like prune juice!

After a while: now it smells less like prune juice (which I quite like to drink, but it’s what the juice does to me that makes me feel uncomfortable about smelling like it) and a bit more sophisticated now. It smells like plum pudding, cooked plums soaked in wine, with a hint of champaca…but it also has the super-sweet ‘fruity pie filling with too much sugar’ scent I got in Bloody Mary and Blood Phoenix. I get that here too. No amber or white musk, just a cloying fruit pie filling with a hint of caramel which makes me a little nauseous. It could be that the champaca is making this a tad too sweet for me.

Verdict: this one was really bad on me, I’m afraid. I used to think all wine/wine grape scents would work on me but recently Blood Phoenix turned too sweet on me, and this does pretty much the same thing. Only in here the plum also goes bad (which is odd for plum) and the whole thing smells like sour prune juice. The champaca adds a cloying aspect, and as for the amber and musk, which I love? They don’t even make an appearance. So all in all, not my kind of scent at all.

Emoticon rating:

Is it a keeper? No.

[schackjj]

When I first got this, it was a failure, but now I've heard reports that aging has brought out the amber and musk, greatly improving it. So, with anticipation, I dig out my dusty bottle and try it again

 

It still smells like I passed out on the floor of a wine bar and my friends just left me there, spilling drinks on me the rest of the night.

 

More cellaring? Ah, no pun intended

[GeorgeJr]

And here I had about decided that the labs wine note wasn't for me . This on the other hand is full of win . Just a opulent , sweet red wine with the amber & plum swirling through it . This has a serious throw on it . And a good lasting time . When I first sniffed it in the bottle , I was afraid it would be too strong in the wine department . Glad I decided to brave it & it really paid off .

[livingdead71]

I think this smells just like Skittles in the bottle...which is what sold me on it. It's actually a really pretty wine scent on the skin. One of my co-workers said I smelled like grapes. I really like grapey candy wine scents though. This is my favorite of the Poe collection.

[jewelbug]

Imp: A deep fruity wine with a hint of floral.

 

Wet: Incredibly grapey wine (like bubbleyum grape, actually), and also a heavy bit of plum.

 

Dry: This ends in a very grapey wine with floral/incense vibes.

 

Overall: This reminds me a great deal of Montresor. But where Montresor has a lot of oaky richness, this has a sorta cloying champaca/incense. I like Montressor better, so this will head off in swaps.

Edited October 6, 2008 by jewelbug

[unlaced]

Another forumite sent this to me as a freebie when I ordered from her, and I have to say... I LOVE it. In the bottle it's wet gushing grapes. Fruitier than I would imagine from the description. When it gets on my skin it starts to mellow out and the amber (I think) starts to peek it's way through. It got a little floral and a tiny but of musk but mostly it stayed smelling like grapes and amber. It stuck around on me longer than most BPALs do but I think I'll have to find a way to make this little imp last, since alas, I won't be getting any more of this any time soon.

[filigree_shadow]

I really thought I was going to like this one. I love plum and champaca flower. But unfortunately my skin has some trouble with some ambers, and apparently this amber is problematic for me. Prospero smells like sweet fruity powder on me. I'm not very happy about this result. I wish I got along with ambers better.

 

I suppose that's okay. I still have Bordello and Midwinter's Eve (and Bathsheba and Kitsune-Tsuki and Frumious Bandersnatch and pretty much every BPAL plum scent there is... )

[CynicalPink]

I was that kid that brought their own copy of Poe to English class, so I'm already feeling charitable toward this scent before even opening it. Masque of the Red Death is one of my favorite short stories.

 

Imp: Less cherry then Bordello, but the overall vibe is similar

 

Wet: Plum and amber working well. Like a really deep red wine.

 

Drydown: Somehow this was deeper and muskier before the white musk kicked in. I hope it doesn't push much further, or this is going to turn to Pez on my arm

 

Overall: It's like an amazing vintage of red wine. It's dark, it's decadent....it's so not me. The problem is, I think it smells great! Someone big on Bordello or the other deep dark scents would have a field day with this. As for me, I'm hanging on to the imp to see what happens next.

[donnatron]

Bottle: Sweet Tart plums.

 

Wet: The wine and fruit amp way up. I get a hint of white musk and the barest hint of my beloved champaca.

 

Dry: Oh my... this is gorgeous. Bold and sassy fruits and wine swirl together grounded by a rich, buttery amber blending with the white musk. Champaca is present in the throw but just barely. It's actually less haughty and regal than I was expecting. The fruitiness gives this a fair hint of playfulness and the amber smells almost more like a skin musk on my chemistry. Very well blended and well executed.

 

Throw: Good.

 

Overall: It's good to have a more masculine/refined fruit/wine scent. Prospero fairs even better on my skin than I expected him to and he will be getting high rotation as the days become warmer.

[sylvanusurban]

In bottle: Purple! Smells like grape-flavoured candy mixed with floral perfume.

On me, wet: First predominantly purple, then predominantly floral, then purple. There’s a soapiness to the floral note. I’m testing Prospero on one wrist and The Dormouse on the other and there is a lot of synesthesia happening – right wrist purple, left wrist green/white.

On me, drying: Seems to have settled on Purple with a background hint of soap.

 

Verdict: Interesting, but nah.

 

[angelicruin]

Inside the bottle, this is mostly grapes and rich red wine.

 

On my skin, I'm initially amping plum and grape. Within a few minutes of application, it's gorgeous plum wine and light musk.

 

The more it dries, I pick up a bit of floral, but this scent is mostly characterized on my skin as being a rich, heady plum wine scent.

 

Most definitely a keeper.

[laslibres]

Okay, so I was a little disappointed to realize that this was about a Poe character and not about Shakespeare’s Prospero, because I love The Tempest and did my undergrad thesis on it...but no matter. I don't care what literary reference this perfume is, because it smells GREAT.

 

At first, I definitely get wine, and plum, and something else...that might be the champaca flower, because it smells sort of floral but smoky too. On me, a bit more plum comes out, bit more flowery, and WINE. A really delicious fruity wine that I kinda want to drink right now. It's a very deep, opulent, and sexy scent, and I looooove it.

[Invidiana]

This is rich, red, plummy and beautiful, with the warmth of the golden amber and crystalline white musk only adding to its depth; reminds me of a grown-up grape candy, in a very good way.

[Venneh]

In the decant, I'm getting sweet grape and plum, almost like I did with Black Heart, maybe a bit of white musk? On my skin, it's more of that sweet, almost Kool-Aidy grape and plum note. We'll see if anything else comes out on this. Champaca and grape. Erm. Not quite for me.

Edited July 1, 2010 by Venneh

[Alshneato]

Very lovely- the best wine scent I have tried so far!!

[inhumation]

When applied wet, this smells exactly like grape Dimetapp. I can imagine this to be off-putting, but I remember being a little too fond of the taste of Dimetapp as a child, and even looked forward to getting sick just so I can have some of that tasty, tasty medicine. hahaha. Dry, Prospero becomes more of a subtle musky wine scent. I don't like it as much as Bordello, The Blood Garden, Lady MacBeth, and others that have that bloody berry boozy vibe, but I still dig it.

[macabre_fae]

I absolutely am in love with how gorgeous this scent is. It's the type of scent that makes you feel deeply luxuriant. On my skin I get a blast of sweet deep red wine. The wine scent doesn't dissipate, but instead makes room for the white musk and champaca flower to linger and create an elegant pale background to balance the depth of the scent. It reminds me of Lampades, but sweeter. Beautifully blended. One of the best Black Phoenix scents I've ever worn!