Puck

[aidenraine]

Oakmoss, sweet sage, juniper berry, civet and a drop of grape.

Puck begins with a sharp blast of berries and begins to morph immediately into an herby-fruity scent that's incredibly well balaned and edible.

The quick changing fellow then begins to flash the musk at me, in a way I am not entirely thrilled with. I am trying to get the fruits and the sage back into prominence. Sadly, the musk is beating up the other notes. Oakmoss and civet galore. Oh where is my grape and juniper berry?

I have to say that the overall result, while not what I was looking for, is extremely interesting. It's utterly unique. Nothing I have ever smelled before comes close.

It's just ultimately not for me.

[ayelienne]

A little story about Puck:

 

Puck and I didn't get along at all when I first tried it a while back, so I set it aside.

 

Then one day, the Husband donated himself to me in order to test Satyr (the brave, silly man). When Satyr got a little too woah, I thought maybe we could layer some Puck to tone it down a little bit. The end result was much less "um honey, i think this sort of smells like ass" than solo Satyr; the fruitiness of the grapes really made for a much more well-rounded scent.

 

Husband ended up liking the grape-laced earthiness of Puck and it smells much, much better on him than it ever smelled on me. The bottle has moved into "keeper status" and is now settled into its new home in my husband's stash.

[filigree_shadow]

I was put off by the reviews of Puck, and I'm just now getting around to trying it. I Puck!

 

In the imp it smells like grapes to me, and on my skin it smells like grapes at first. But then it settles into a really sexy, stinging, intoxicating scent. A glue-nose-to-wrist scent. Seriously, this smells fantastic on my skin. I smell like I'm on the prowl (and I feel like being on the prowl, wearing this.) Since swiping my wrist with it the first time, I have now applied it to both wrists, neck, insides of elbows, and cleavage. I can't get enough of it!

 

Damn its discontinuedness! I hope that the people who hated it still have it for sale or swap...

[edenssixthday]

Puck is the perfect name for this scent. It's green and mossy, has some tree scents to it, and a touch of berry that brightens it up just enough to keep it from being too earthy; however, it's not a bright scent. It's a slightly mystical scent. Apparently, I not only don't have a problem with civet as many people do, but it must work well on me because I have yet to find a scent with civet in it that I dislike. I really wish I could try a Civet Single Note to see what it smells like on its own. On a different note, I also accidentally discovered the second time I wore Puck that it layers very well with Salamander. Puck lasts for a good, long while and has the perfect amount of throw for me. I like it and while I don't foresee trying to track down a bottle of it, I'll enjoy using my imp until it's dry.

[purrbox]

good lawd all mighty save me.

 

did you play with strawberry shortcake figurines when you were a little girl? i did. i liked the bad guys, the purple pie man, and sour grapes the best. when i was a kid i thought they just smelled *divine.* now, not so much. especially not as perfume. and especially not when they smell as if they were rolled in poop. puck is the purple pie man that got dropped into the litter box.

 

 

on the positive side, however, my cats seem to be attracted to it.

[slave1]

In Bottle: Dark earthy grape

 

On Skin: This is so not what I expected. Hmmm… I like it. I like a scent with civet, wow! Ok, the civet isn’t too strong, but it does give a slightly feral note. The sage is very strong, second only to the grape/berry. Ok… not liking it so much anymore… I’m getting grape cough syrup. As the scent develops on my skin, the oakmoss gives a earthy and dark base, I like that and it also helps to soften the sages medicinal feel. Ok, so I’m liking it again. While it’s not a scent I’d wear often, I love how unique and intriguing it is. A light throw and fairly short wearlength.

[kunoichi]

In the vial this smells of a sharp & dark scent that has just an ever so slight touch of sweetness (from the fruit) to it. On my skin this becomes an ever so faintly sweet, warm smell of sage & other plants. After a couple of hours on my skin, this has reduced the fragrance to a mossy, fuzzy and warm scent.

[supremegoddessofall]

Wow. This is *strong.* And very pungent. I get a lot of grape and juniper, but civet is trying to play whack-a-mole with everything else. I can't decide if I like this or not. It smells animalistic, and I'm not sure if that's a good thing or not.

[juniperus]

Bottle: Sweet grapiness - grape ape!

Wet: Grape with civet, which is mellowing the sweet.

Dry: juniper berry on board, a hint of the moss and sage beneath - but this is mellowing into something that's both playful and gorgeous.

Later: still on the sweeter side, overall, but sweet in an almost-floral sort of sense...interesting and OOHsaxay!

[forspecial_plate]

I was excited to try a discontinued blend, and I tried it without reading the description first. Right away I knew there was civet, and I could smell just a touch of the grape. Pretty soon the civet just took over....and civet is just not for me, I'm afraid. I think I can handle it in Black Annis, but not here....I had to wash this one off and that doesn't happen a lot! Hopefully I will find a happier home for Puck.

[Myotis]

Ok, I spotted a bottle on ebay with a cheap BIN and snapped this up BEFORE reading the reviews here.

I was REALLY nervous about it after reading and knowing a full bottle of it was on its way!

 

BUT....looks like I'm in the minority crowd here on this one.

I like it....maybe not LOVE...but really do like it. I get GRAPES all the way.....in the bottle..on me.

It's nothing like what I had expected from the description...and THANK GAWD it's not cat piss on me like it turned out to be on some of you here. That was what was scaring me the most!!!!

 

Big fat, juicy purple grapes......that's what I get!

[DifferentDances]

I received this as a full frimp from a forumite. I was kind of dubious seeing all the negative reviews, but I finally (after sitting on it for a month) decided to try it, mainly because I wanted to see if civet was a no-go for me since I'm contemplating getting a bottle of the Devil tarot oil and people seem to debate between red musk and civet as the base animal note. The former is a dealbreaker, and the latter...well, I don't know yet, so let's see how this 50/50 shot goes!

 

Imp: Well, this is the weirdest thing ever. It reminds me of some form of childhood candy, I just can't recall which. Not grape candy, but some weird vitamin maybe? *shrugs*

 

Wet: Mmmmm sexy woods. Where's this dreaded civet note I keep hearing about?

 

Dry: Oh, there it is! I think...I don't have anything else that smells like civet, but I'm also incredibly unfamiliar with oakmoss. So it could be either or, really, since the cats my roommate has all smell like Red Musk o' Doom to me, so no cat pee references. This also reminds me of a country club from my teen years in Beijing, if that makes any sense. Maybe it's that varnish someone mentioned earlier? But oooh sexy man. Not girly at all, to be fair, but definitely something I'd want a man to smell like for a midnight romp in a misty forest.

 

Oddly cuddly.

 

My rating: 5/5 for sensory experience, 3/5 for a personal perfume (definitely not for my daily rotation!) Gonna keep my decanted imp -Imma gonna test it out on a boy someday, you just wait!

[JennyGardener]

My lovely adopter let me have an imp of this wondrous stuff. Puck is amazing. It's rich, deep, and yet light enough to be feminine on me. I think civet is fabulous. I really wish this were not a discontinued blend! I will be seeking out a bottle, hoping that there's still an unloved or less-liked one out there waiting to find someone who will adore it.

[hackess]

Imp: Pungent musk.

Wet: The sage is nice and deep, and I keep getting wafts of grape. I can picture a forest sprite with a wreath of twined branches and fruits spilling out of pockets. The musk/civet makes me twitch a bit, though. It's very strong and a little too malodorous and animalistic for what I'm otherwise finding to be a very nice forest scent. If not for the civet, it might have been the only forest blend I can wear.

Dry: Mothballs. Wow. Completely overpowering.

[Sealgair]

Got this imp through the Civet Evangelism Sniffing Circle via SueDonym. (I've wanted to try this one for ages... I'm afraid I'll be very sad if I hate it... but then it's so hard to get, I'll be sad if I love it too! LOL)

 

in imp: grapes... I think that's bitter sage, there's faint oakmoss or vetiver... hopefully my skin won't amp the grapes.

on wet: 6:25 - and this has gone into a scent blind-spot for me! weird! There's barely a hint of sage, some grape maybe and something both woody and musky... but BOY is this faint!

drydown: 6:35 - I'm starting to be able to smell this now. The sweetness of the grapes is still there, without actually smelling *like* grapes. There's a definite herbal tinge that I'm pretty sure is sage (which is weird, since I know the smell of that herb fairly well) and a background flowery musk... this is like the civet I know... and yet I'm not in love with this scent.

6:42 - oh now, that's the civet I know and love. with the herbal sage and an extra boost of sweetness from grape, this is not manly at all, quite feminine in fact. I could wish there was more of an oomph from the oakmoss.

6:50 - civet & sage. Mmmm. I like this. It's not my IMUSTHAVETHIS scent, but if I could get a hold of a decant of this, I'd grab it!

7:10 - the grape has come back out a bit, so that I'm smelling grapes (or kudzu flowers), civet and a nice woody herb. This scent doesn't make me imagine Puck, but does make me want to roll around in sensuous joy, so maybe it does invoke Puck. heh.

7:20 - this is a feminine, non-foody sweet musky scent with absolutely no vanilla. It's sensuous; it makes me want to roll around on a velvet blanket running my hands down my body - just that, nothing more 'naughty'. It makes me purr. Although to be honest, for this scent to be 'me' it'd need a tiny drop more of oakmoss or dark amber. Still. Prrrrrr. I'll be on the lookout for this.

[Inanna9]

via the Civet Evangelism Sniffing Circle (*waves at SueDonym*):

 

In the imp this is a juicy musky grape, and that's what amps the moment I dab it on. Whoo, buddy...this baby's got throw. The civet gives the grape an edge - more of a dirty, fermented vibe. The sweet-but-herbal note of the sage starts to emerge, and that's when I fall in love. Seriously, I was literally trolling the swap forum while this wafted around me as I muttered must have puck...must have puck...

 

The oakmoss kicks in and the juicy grape starts to tone down, and for some reason my nose starts to interpret this stage as uber-floral. Maybe it's just a skin chemistry thing. But this is the part that lasts (and lasts), and after a while it becomes a bit too much. Sex-up, fermented herbs and flowers. Started out like catnip and now it's just a bit too overpowering.

[CrazyPretzel]

The lightest, leafiest, and greenest of the scents I've encountered yet on the civet sniffing circle! This really stands out from the rest. I can smell the civet and knew there was oakmoss in here before I looked at the notes. I thought I could smell balsam too. Like a small furry animal that's had a good roll-around in the underbrush I like Robin Goodfellow but I'm sorry this one's been DC'd - it's delightful.

[cranberry]

((many thinks to ifinena for the sniffie of this wonderful scent!))

 

Damn, I should have paid attention to this scent when it was re-released. I think the heavy civet reviews scared me off. What a silly thing I am.

 

The first thing I smell are grapes. There’s something herbal in background, it must be the sage. No civet so far. This is wonderful. I never thought I’d like this scent so this is quite a surprise. Oh, there’s a whiff of something animalistic, but just for a second.

 

As it wears, I think I’m developing an olfactory blind spot or this scent is just really faint (this may be the case as I’m testing from a sniffie). The grape is pretty much gone by now. I can’t even smell anything now (~ 30 minutes). Weird. No civet, no oakmoss. Nothing - it's gone.

 

I hope to try this one again.

 

eta 7-13-08:

 

now courtesy of SueDonym and the civet sniffing circle I got to try this one again.

 

overall, as I would expect since it is the same oil, this experience is pretty similar to the first. the main difference is that the grape smell is not as strong in this iteration and I'm getting more oakmoss and musk/civet. It's still quite lovely and I like this a lot. I still seem to develop a olfactory blind spot to this oil, after a bit I can't smell anything.

Edited July 13, 2008 by cranberry

[voodoocatwoman]

I read the other reviews of this scent because I sometimes doubt my own nose and just want to see if anyone else got what I did.

 

Yup. Very similar reactions.

 

In the imp and wet, I smell horse poop. Fresh horse poop.

 

Dry: Serious bad breath.

 

This got scrubbed off and I do mean SCRUBBED.

 

Puck is yuck. Puck did Suck. No luck with Puck.

[zankoku_zen]

I have to say, the civet is strong with this one. This is the original Puck - a lab labelled imp. The civet has not mellowed at all. At the beginning it was musky berries, with a touch of clary sage. Now it's clary sage and musk and civet. It kinda makes me think of a cat. And cat pee.

 

Puck is a no-go.

[rayvn1]

This is a decant of Puck, so I'm not sure if it's original or resurrected. Either way it's sadly not my cup of tea. I actually like civet quite a bit, but not so much the grape note that overwhelms this scent on my skin too bad!

 

edit for spelling

Edited July 30, 2009 by rayvn1

[fairnymph]

Light amber coloured oil. Mostly sweet, fruity, juicy grape - it's a little FAKE GRAPE CANDY, but only a little. I get some earthy and herbal hints in the background, but nothing distinct, and no civet. Overall, though there is a wildness and an outdoorsy feel to this blend.

 

Much more complex, instantly. The juniper in particular jumps out, evergreeny and a little sharp, intensely woodsy and earthy, too - I always fine juniper to be the earthiest evergreen note. I get the oakmoss clearly now too, which is a lightly musk, lovely soft earthy note, too. And the sage, which truly IS sweet - perhaps the first sweet sage note I've ever smelled in a BPAL blend - but it's also a little dry and a little harshly sharp, adding a definite masculine edge. The grape has only a hint of candy left, though it's still strongly present - it's more like wild grapes, with vines and seeds and leaves and fruit all crushed and wafting into the air as a complex whole. I don't get the 'cat pee' thing from civet, but I do get a bit of 'wild musk' that reminds me most strongly of black musk, and a bit less strongly of the musk in Devil's Night - raw, primal, masculine and sweet.

 

Hmm, this goes sort of powdery on me, the way a lot of the older blends do - sort like there's an amber in here, but I'm betting it's black musk or black amber - it could also be the dryness of sage turning on my skin. The juniper in this fades rapidly to a very subdued background note, most unusual, and the grape has amped up and turned sweeter and more candyish again. While this is still a strange assortment of notes, it's coalescing more now into something relatively unified. It reminds me strongly of a blend I can't quite place - maybe Dephi? It also reminds me vaguely of Lady Macbeth, the Harvest Moon blend, Hunter Moon 2004 and Horreur Sympathique.

 

Final dry down is slighly powdery and candyish; sweet grape with a fair bit of dark, sweet musk (not at all unpleasant as some apparently find civet to bet) with light earthy and woodsy accents and a bit of dry herbal shaprness from the sage. It starts out kind of unisex, turns masculine for a while, and ends up feminine. Good throw but poor longevity - it fades quite rapidly on my skin.

 

Meh.

[grrrlennyl]

Puck

 

On: Tons of grape, with juniper berry and dusty sage. Very pretty.

Half an hour later: Mostly juniper and grape, with a bit of oakmoss and sage. Very lovely.

1.5 hours in: Earthy and pretty with a bit of juniper berry.

2 hours in: A powdery scent with a bit of grape and juniper berry.

2.5 hours in: This just smells vaguely like wood now.

3 hours in: Earthy and a bit powdery.

Overall: I really like this at first, but it goes boring on me.

[killerklown]

Oh Puck, you poor unloved thing. I must be one of the lucky few that civet plays well with, I get nothing disgusting here. Just feral musky earthiness with a hint of sweetness.

 

Definitely not an everyday scent, but an interesting one nevertheless!

[Verios]

I snagged a bottle of this in a swap just today, after deciding I wanted to give it a try (I'd never tried a blend that listed 'civet' as a note, and was curious to see how that particular iffy note would play on my skin).

 

This is definitely a scent that strikes me as feral, musky and earthy (as the last reviewer also said, I think)...I actually find I like it, though--I think this will be one of those scents I wear more for a day where I plan on not going out with a lot of other people, since it's not a scent that would be everyone's cup of tea. Very glad I managed to get ahold of a bottle of it, though!

 

EDIT: I feel a need to point out that this is probably the longest-lasting BPAL scent I've ever tried! I applied it yesterday, and even though this morning I attempted washing it off (I wanted to wear something different today), I've still caught whiffs of it throughout the day.

Edited June 22, 2011 by Vashtya