Pickled Imp

[crebbsgirl]

Cinnamon, clove, vanilla, and pine sap.

Wow, I can't believe I haven't reviewed this yet, seeing as how this scent is now in my heavy rotation. On me, the pine sap note isn't very predominant. Mostly I get a vanilla/clove scent, with just a touch of cinnamon. This feels very Yule-y to me as almost everything in my house growing up had the clove and cinnamon scent at Christmastime. I think the pine sap does a great job of preventing this blend from becoming foody, while avoiding a sharp note that I can sometimes get with pine. I love it. Edited November 20, 2008 by crebbsgirl

[Lavada]

I felt a little bad for all of the un-BPAL related posting I've been doing, so I might as well review what I'm wearing right now.

 

Something about the pine/vanilla combo makes this smell a bit plastic-ky, but the sharpness occasionally dies down to make way for a warm and spicy waft of goodness. It stays the same throughout so, if it wasn't for the first part, I would have considered a bottle. As is, my decant has been sitting here for a few months, and I'm not entirely impressed.

[rawgirl75]

Omfgbbq I am a yummy spicy cookie.

 

I dont need a creditcard.... Im gonna need to mortgage my house. This is multi-bottle love.

 

(Okay seriously now, this one defies the odds. What I was most worried about was amping the pine (which I normally hate), but here its almost nonexistant on me. What I do get is a warm glowing spiced bakery smell that is a smidge on the foody side, but not overly so. Completely surprised me how good it is.)

 

[edit* months later this one is STILL one of my top 10. Its unbelievable!]

Edited February 27, 2009 by rawgirl75

[zomathesadist]

Like so many others, pine does questionable things to my skin (Slobbering Pine was nice at first then turned to generic air freshener, boo). but this is GREAT!

 

In the bottle: very foody. the cinnamon dominates, followed by the clove.

 

wet on skin: cinnamon buns. droooooool. warm cinnamon buns.

 

drydown: the clove reigns here, and the pine is a minor player. I think it mostly keeps it from being too sweet. This is a nice winter blend, but would definitely be too cloying for summer.

 

out of 10: 9.00

[kjirstiben]

Mmmmm. Such a delightful scent.

 

Pickled Imp goes on smelling of cinnamon and clove and quickly is distinctly the scent of spiced cookie. I smell like a cookie! It's a bit screamingly baked goods just at first (not usually something I prefer to smell like), and this one doesn't seem to be going wonky on my skin the way that lots of the foody scents do.

 

Dried, this is still sweet, but... it's trying to go a little sour on me (though the sourness is mixed with a dusty sweet vanilla-clove loveliness).

 

Fortunately, the sour smell was a short-lived transition phase, and I get a pine with clovey vanilla. Very, very nice. I still smell sort of like a cookie, but not so much so that it makes me feel sick...

 

I really, really like the pine-vanilla combo--this is a lovely, comforting, cozy scent.

[Celestyna]

Verrry clovey on my skin.

It actually itches a bit.

Vanilla warms it up a bit but it reeeally smells exactly like a Red Hot tastes. EXACTLY! This made my night

[oravannahka]

This smells like Big Red chewing gum on me, from beginning to end. I'm going to have to pass this one along. I had such high hopes as everyone else seems to be having much better luck.

[shadith]

I'm so sorry that I have to say this, but Pickled Imp just screams YUCK to me as soon as it hits my skin. Usually I love the notes which are listed (well, I don't know about the pine sap), but this one somehow reminds me of sitting in a car while feeling a strange sickness in the back of your throat, one of those little vanilla tree air refresheners are dangling from the rearview mirror, and you can't open a window which makes all worse.

 

I think it's the intense creaminess that doesn't work for me there

[MCS4096]

In the imp: Every note is discernible.. It's my favorite cinnamon cloves toothpaste and a pine tree air freshener.. EXCEPT, that vanilla creaminess pulls it altogether into something very intriguing.

 

Wet: The pine is totally overtaken by the vanilla, cinnamon and cloves.. quite lovely really. But a bit like Big Red as someone above mentioned

 

Dry: Yes, I too get baking cookies... I was hoping for more pine, which would make it very interesting. As such it's a rather ordinary spicy blend on me-- It might be nice layered over some other blends. I'm not sure about a bottle.. I am a cinnamon lover in general, but have kinda shied away from cinnamon blends because I'm worried they'll be overpowering.. but the vanilla in here is quite nice indeed

 

It actually smells a lot like this "spiced vanilla" body butter I got at the Body Shop

[TheOneTheyCallLuna]

I am so ecstatic to be reviewing this blend right now. The lovely forumite, SurrealReality, was generous enough to include this decant as a frimp for me in a recent purchase - straight off the top of my wishlist! This blend definitely stands up to the hype, and does not disappoint. This baby just shot straight to my top three, though further testing will need to be undertaken to determine if it has managed to dislodge my number one and two from position...stay tuned!

 

Anyway, in the imp this smells weird, and not good weird, either. It must be the pine sap, because I recognize the "steam room" smell from Illustrated Woman, and that has pine, too. On the skin it transforms instantly, revealing the yummiest blend of spices I have ever smelled in my life. This is a spice lovers' nirvana...cloves, and cinnamon, and vanilla, oh my! I really don't get the previous posts comparing this blend to gingerbread poppet at all. To my nose, this smells nothing like GP...It is WAY more spicy (thankfully!), WAY less foody, there is a lot more cinnamon, and it is far more complex. I'm getting more, like, halfway in between Monsterbait: Underpants and Saw Scaled Viper minus the cassia.

 

I keep trying to decide if this is foody or not. I guess it is, technically, but I think if you ate something that smelled like this, you would burn your tongue for sure! The vanilla in this is heavenly. Where previous BPAL blends have occasionally given off an artificial vanilla, Pickled Imp delivers the real deal. I can't pick out the clove or pine, but I know they are there, adding depth and complexity and anchoring this blend, preventing it from becoming too sweet or foody, though later on in the dry stage the vanilla and pine do become much more pronounced. I'm gonna need A GIANT VAT of this one to swim around in!

 

Edited January 24, 2009 by TheOneTheyCallLuna

[Ajila]

In the bottle – Initially a hit of cinnamon and then the clove and pine get involved to form Herbals

 

Wet on me – I presume it’s the clove giving it that sharp medicinal scent

 

Dry on me – Warm sweet vanilla with hints of spice

 

Overall – I like this a lot and it was a winner with my friends, even if they did think that it smelt floral

 

[MisterShrapnel]

Took a couple days, actually, but the addiction finally caught! (Something about it smelt very funny in the bottle, a little... what? "Fermented"? I could smell it in Inez that week too, but it's disappeared! Chemistry?)

I agree with TheOneTheyCallLuna: Very spicy cinnamon and clove, hot enough to burn your tongue! But the vanilla background adds a smooth bakery/cookie sweetness without being too sickeningly sweet and buttery.

The pine sap is a great addition, both unusual and good for tempering all those edible notes enough that I'm not forcefully reminded of cinnamon chewing gum. And it's both strong and lasting enough for my thirsty skin!

I was contenting myself with the prospect of maybe one backup bottle, but today I'm waffling over the idea of a second (or third?!) one.

 

In short, I love this.

[iamblackbird]

This is the only, only, only scent with cinnamon in it that I've found wearable. The vanilla calms the cinnamon down to a creamy spice, and the pine sap just hangs out over in the corner with the cloves.

 

nomnomnom

[Scanmike]

I have weird chemistry so wet this started off almost gingery. Perhaps the pinesap or clove gave this feel to it. Whatever it was, it was ginger..but more of a true sharp ginger. After reading other reviews, I see others are getting the Shub/GP vibe, rather than cinnamon.

Then it sort of went soft and the same thing that happened with Egg Nog started to happen. It was vanishing. My skin was sucking everything out of it. A sandlewood or some type of wood came thru and dominated for about 5 minutes.

I feared the worst...that it would turn to pencil shavings like Egg Nog.

But wait, then it morphed again and it became sweeter and stronger like Big Red gum or Red hot. Enter the cinnamon finally. Still morphing into somethilng softer and creamier, but not too foody, with creamy vanilla coming in. It lasts pretty long (4 hours) and in the end stage it really, really smelled like cinnamon flavored rice pudding.

 

The most fast morphing scent I ever tried. I was looking for a sub for Gingerbread Poppet and this will be perfect. I even like the drydown better. It's doesn't have that cookie note that GP has,which makes in a bit different. Glad I finally decided to get a bottle.

Edited March 6, 2009 by DeniseScan

[mparker]

This bottle arrived in an order (unsiffed) yesterday, and I am setting aside my instant love affair with the Feb-09 13 to give this one some quality time.

In the bottle, this is an incredible vanilla-and-spice infused pine-sap. Sticky-sweet and hauntingly beautiful.

 

Wet on skin, the pine fades back and the cinnamon and clove come to the fore. The two are very strong and come across with a hint of bitter cassia. They aren't sweet at all, but dry and sharp. The vanilla isn't really there at this point, and the pine is definitely giving this that "pickled" scent. As harsh as this sounds, it's not unpleasing, just not what I expected from the bottle.

 

Happily, within a short while it hits a drydown point and the bitterness tones down and a gorgeous, smooth, creamy vanilla warms up and wraps its arms around you. The cinnamon and clove blend together beautifully, each accenting the other until you can't quite tell them apart. The vanilla starts to blend in with them, everything going cozy and fuzzy. The pine isn't a huge presence, but it's there keeping the sweetness from getting out of hand. I think it blends in with the clove, rounding it out more than being an actual note on its own, and this is a better blend for its being here. It's very different on-skin than in the bottle. I think that wearing this on skin with a scent locket too may be an even more interesting experience that shows the full range of this scent.

 

I have to add that ,while BPAL vanilla can be either beautiful or horrible cheap waxy plastic on my skin (and even when it's good it can get overpowering), the vanilla here in this blend is one of the most incredible, warm, glorious, and absolutely not cloying vanillas I have ever tried. It's perfect in every way- strong enough to hold its own against those hot spices, but full of subtle nuances that keep it from being cloying.

 

 

[ShadowsDance]

Mmm.. cinnamoney goodness from the bottle.

On me it's cinnamon, clove, and creamy vanilla. It's like a spicy apple crisp with vanilla ice cream melting over it. That's all I can really say about this.. It doesn't morph, and the pine sap never shows up - but that's okay with me, this scent is awesomely wonderful!

[catattack]

Imp: Cinnamon

Wet: Cinnamon

Drydown: This cinnamon smells the same as Chimera on my skin, but in a higher dosage! It took about an hour to sweeten up. I never got the pine. Later, it went waxy. Boo

Overall: I liked this more than I expected to, but unfortunately, it went funky at the end.

[pinkusmaximus]

This is not one of my faves. In the bottle, the spices smell delicious, but on my skin, the scent is all holiday potpourri and cheap scented candle. It's not necessarily a smell I dislike, but it's certainly not one I want to wear as a perfume.

 

This would have been a great room spray for the holidays, and I might still use it in my oil burner next fall and winter. But as perfume, no. In addition to my dislike of the scent on my skin, it burns like fire and is the first BPAL oil that gave me welts. Ouch.

[Gin]

Pickled Imp

 

I loved Three Witches with its cinnamon, clove, and pepper, so of course I had to get this. In the bottle and initially on my skin, I felt that it may have been a mistake. The vanilla, which smells very much like Vanilla Bean SN, seems too... sweet? (Mr. Gin said Play Doh) under the spices. The pine sap pops in for a minute to say hello and to tell the spices to settle the hell down, and leaves, taking the too-sweetness of the vanilla along with it. I'm left with a fan-fricking-tastic vanilla-cinna-clove. Brava, Beth!

[bubblefish]

Cinnamon and clove, with a hint of pine, softened by vanilla? Oh, yes please! It manages to be spicy, slightly sexy in my opinion, and there's a gentle sweetness somewhere there in the background. It's simply divine.

[theseagrows]

nice, warm cinnamony-vanilla scent. i don't get any pine and the clove must be really subtle. this is a pretty fall-like scent, i could see it being really nice in cool weather, however it's a bit too foody/fall like for my personal tastes, so i'll be swapping it.

[ltrittipoe]

When I read the description of this, it sounded gorgeous, my mind apparently just doesn't notice notes I won't like - "Oh, it says Pine? That's ok, I'm sure you won't notice any pine, really... Look at all the notes in there that you like!"

 

Then I got the decant, and my brain caught up - "PINE!!!! Lots and lots of PINE!!!"

 

It took me a couple days of looking at it and psyching myself up to try it.... And I am so glad I did! The pine recedes almost completely, just enough to make me think of outdoors. I smell ginger and other spices, clove and cinnamon I think, but mostly ginger. Just warm and spicy, and fresh smelling at the same time.

 

If it stays like this, it is made of win. And I need more.

 

ETA: Trying this again - just to confirm how much I love it. I got a bottle from a wonderful forum-ite, and it's the same - at first I get a huge hit of pine - and then, ginger vanilla. Just a touch of fresh air/woodsy/astringency from the pine. Mostly just ginger - some weird combo of notes makes it all smell like ginger to me. Fresh, juicy, ginger.

Edited August 10, 2009 by ltrittipoe

[Andrea912]

Pine, clove, cinnamon, vanilla...yup. Its christmas potpourri.

[sirensea]

Pickled Imp smells exactly like a warm batch of cinnamon cookies splashed with vanilla. This is a foodie lover's DREAM, even though it does make my nose burn a bit when I manage to stop huffing my arm for two seconds. Damn cinnamon note. Anyway, I'm getting a bottle of this as soon as I get some money!

[tajana]

Wet on the skin I get some lovely pine sap, with sweet and spicy overtones. The pine gets progressively weaker, but the sap interacts with the other scents in a subtle, but kind of a weird way, that calls to mind the "pickled" namesake. As it dries the spicy clove and cinnamon amp up along with a whole lot of creamy vanilla. It smells warm and creamy, like some sort of hot custard. The longer this sits on my skin the more vanillic this gets. The throw is almost all vanilla... ugh... way too sweet for me. I do tend to amp vanilla, so I'm sure that's what killed this for me.