Malice

[awesomeoverlord]

A profound, complex scent that encapsulates the joy one finds in another’s pain. Ylang ylang, clove, Indonesian red patchouli, and dark myrrh.

Wet, this is primarily ylang ylang to my nose. As it starts to dry down, the myrrh and patchouli make their presence known and it turns into a nicely rounded spicy floral. I'm not a huge fan of ylang ylang, so it's hard for me to get past that element of it, but it's nice.

[cinderfallen]

I must amp red patchouli because all blends that contain this note smell pretty much the same. But for what it's worth, it doesn't smell like a headshop, but almost like money. Uh. Maybe that's because this is reminding me of Greed. And Malediction. And Anne Bonny.

[Allumina]

Powdery patchouli. Not necessarily bad, but very powdery in a non spectacular way. It eventually got a little sweeter and more interesting (is that the myrrh I'm picking up? Definitely no clove), but not spectacular.

[March]

I think this may be the first floral I've tried that I can actually wear!

 

Malice starts off kinda iffy and morphy on me, like it doesn't really know what it wants to be. It turns awfully floral at one stage, then citrusy (don't ask me why), then really earthy, but after about half an hour it settles to a beautiful non-sharp, sweet and grounded scent.

 

I'll have to check what I think about it when I no longer have a cold, though! It seems there are more things lurking in this scent than my poor stuffed nose can discern.

[Tanya]

This is my first BPAL-by chance. I ordered a scent locket and the lovely, generous people who sent the locket also sent several frimps. The first one I tried was Malice. It is so gorgeous and unique. It is similar to an oil called Atlantis that was made and sold by a shop in Malibu of the same name. It was one of my all time favorites and I was very unhappy when the shop closed. Happy days are here again. I chose a winner first time out! I am terrible with scent identification, but it smells soft and something like heliotrope on me. In the locket it smells like heliotrope incense. Love it!

[angelicruin]

Inside the imp, patchouli and ylang ylang.

 

Wet on the skin, ylang ylang, red patchouli, cloves, and myrrh. One of the few scents that I can smell every note upon initial application.

 

Dries down to mainly cloves, patchouli, and myrrh.

[Argentwolf]

While this shares the same note (red patchouli) as Malediction, it's sweetened considerably by the myrrh, making this a scent that's earthy in a sensual way.

[emily2531]

At first, all I'm getting is the pungent patchouli. After awhile, the patchouli fades and starts to become almost soapy. Eventually a lovely soft powdery smell comes through. I really don't like the strong patchouli stage, but the dry-down is quite nice. Malice isn't my favorite, but I wanted to give this another try to smell the distinction between the red and black patchouli.

[heathercaley]

I received a nicely aged bottle of this beauty and slathered it on immediately. Once applied, I get a blast of beautiful and dark resins. The patchouli is warm, the myrrh making it just a bit smokey. There's also a nice floral note floating around. I'm not picking up too much of the clove, except for maybe a touch of spice here and there, but then as it dries down, the flowers fade just a little bit.. but not too much. They're gorgeous! The clove still hasn't shown up, but that's ok. This is a little reminiscent of Mama-Ji. I love it!

[MamaMoth]

This is almost all Ylang-Ylang to me. I can kinda detect the patchouli and myrrh, a little. No clove that I can find.

 

There are some really strong notes in this blend, but they're all utterly whupped by the Ylang-Ylang. I feel a floral headache coming on. :|

[aquazoo]

Definitely dark and also spicy. I can smell the clove and the ylang ylang. The patchouli isn't bad, adds depth rather than dirt.

[milo]

This ends up being a slightly floral soap from start to finish. There may be a bit of resins here, but basically soap. Not even of the fancy variety. Boo.

[Venneh]

I'm getting ylang ylang and clove. Interesting scent. On my skin, it's ylang ylang, myrrh, patchouli, and clove. This will probably not end well.

[lookingglass]

This one opens with a PUNCH of resiney florals. Hitting the skin it sweetens, spices up and creams out. It reminds me a lot of Phantom without the rose. Drying out it has that wonderful "inside of gramma's purse" powdery perfuminess from another era. Love it.

[SophieCedar]

Wet: strong red patchouli, myrrh, and a touch of clove. Gritty, dark, blackened. Smells a bit like burnt wood and damp ash. This is perfect for this time of year.

Drydown: perfumey golden ylang ylang comes out, making the blend pretty and slightly ethereal, in a basal sort of way... if that makes sense...The concoction has the same sensation as leather scents. But it's scattered, broken, and manic.. instead of uniform & singular. Interesting!

Edited October 17, 2010 by SophieCedar

[lahdeedah]

Wet I had reasonably high hopes for this one. Ylang ylang seemed to be letting herself be subdued by a sinister bit of patchouli and sweet myrrh. Alas, my hopes faded as it dried. Now it's a mish mash of notes that smell like a spicy, Victorian sort of soap. Pretty, but still soap. And not nearly malicious enough for me.

[Suu4LC]

Huh, what an odd mix of notes. I love clove, ylang ylang is hit or miss, and I generally don't do great with patchouli or myrrh, but I am interested to see how these go together.

 

Hmm..in the imp this is very sharp and mostly ylang ylang, with a touch of patchouli. Don't notice any clove and it's not too heavy on myrrh. Almost pungent.

 

Ok, a bit more clove on my skin-this is still a bit sharp on me for some reason. Though it quickly mellows out on my skin as the patchouli and myrrh come to the forefront. Huh, it keeps morphing-each time I sniff it, it is something entirely different. For a minute it was like, mostly warm patchouli and clove and now it went to straight floral/ylang ylang. I like it better in warm patchouli clove mode!

 

Yeah, in full drydown it's mostly a sort of odd floral/ylang-ylang scent with a touch of patchouli. Dried down a bit off and sour the way certain florals (usually rose) do on my skin.

 

This then ended up going through a pencil-shavings-y stage, and ended up just drying down to sort of a woody powder.

 

This blend was a morpher, so I'm not sure how reliable this review is.

[Flightless]

I couldn't tell if it was the Ylang-ylang or the Myrrh that didn't like me in this one- I had tried just a little on my wrists and got a somewhat pleasant powdery aroma. But I wore it again a couple days later, adding a bit more this time, and found that it turned very husky on me. Unfortunately it gave me a headache and I had to switch to something a bit easier on the nose.

 

I'm not sure if I put too much on or something went weird with my body's chemistry in two days... either way, I'm not rushing to buy a bottle of this just yet unfortunately.

[yakiguri]

Lovely dark powdery floral, a scent for a bygone age. The clove here is warm and kicks the ylang ylang and myrrh up a notch spice-wise. The red patchouli, which made me dislike Anne Bonny, is much more subdued here and plays nice with the other notes. Definitely adding to my bottle list.

 

 

Edit: DERP, just realized I was sniffing the wrong arm. Revised my review.

Edited August 5, 2011 by thatbrownelf

[JunkieCosmonaut]

Awww this one didn't work out too well for me, which is a shame because I adore ylang ylang. It smells floral and of pencil shavings on me. I mean it's not unpleasant, just not sadistic enough for me.

Edited December 1, 2011 by JunkieCosmonaut

[Dusk]

In the imp, it's sugary ylang ylang. Everything about it is screaming feminine, and I want to run away, but I've been promised patchouli and myrrh.

 

First on, it's not as cloying. A greener, fresher ylang ylang, with a hint of myrrh. A pleasant surprise. It's elegant and sweet, in a soft way. A little bit of patchouli creeps out in the first few minutes, but it's mostly botanical.

 

At 5 minutes, there's more spice. It smells warmer, and a rather perfumey aspect emerges. Fairly mellow, though a sharp sugariness is determinedly sticking to the back of my hand. At this point, it's not my style, but it's still quite pleasant. Unfortunately, as it dries, it takes a turn for the worse. The ylang ylang stops smelling so fresh - fallen petals instead of fresh blooms. It's a bit unpleasant, and the effect strengthens when clove does. I suspect there's a link.

 

At 15-30 minutes, the myrrh and patchouli are prominent, and it's a bit like incense. Definitely more resinous than I expected. The clove isn't endearing itself to me in this blend, but at least the ylang ylang has dried out enough that it's practically gone. But, as it turns out, that isn't really the case. At an hour, something strikes me again as rotting flowers, and the clove is switching between being sugary and sharp. There is something I like about the blend, but that one note is ruining it.

 

It has good throw until around 2 hours in, at which point it's powerful, but not wafting far. Sharpness and weird ylang ylang remains until I next check in at 4 hours, when both are gone, thankfully. I'm getting clove, myrrh, and a warm perfumey vibe. It's alright at this point, but not worth waiting through the initial stages.

 

It's strange. It's possible something doesn't sit right with my chemistry, but I wonder if the blend of notes just strikes the wrong chord with me. There are good qualities in it - the initial freshness, the warmth, the myrrh. But overall... no. I will give it some time to age though, and see if the clove chills out a bit. Hopefully that won't backfire completely.

 

And here I thought clove was my friend.

 

Summary: Warm and resinous, a bit perfumey. Fresh ylang ylang with myrrh while wet, getting spicier as it dries. The spicier it gets, the more the ylang ylang smells like it's dying (not in a horrible way, but it's disconcerting), and the cloves are too sugary. A blend with good potential and some nice qualities that goes awry on my skin.

 

Rating: 2/5

[whitsunweddings]

In the imp: Patchouli, ylang ylang and clove.

Wet: The clove and the patchouli are mixing weirdly, and the smell is unfortunately similar to marmite!

Dry: Yeah. Powdery clove marmite Bummer. I really wanted to like this, as clove and myrrh are two of my favourite notes, but this just won't play nicely on my skin.

[hexnut]

Blind test of a frimp from the Lab.

 

In Vitro Rich, slightly sharp base note(s).

 

Wet Sweet, maybe resinous, no obvious floral. Musk perhaps? It wasn't overpowering on my wrist but I kept smelling wisps of scent at some remove, which I now know is sillage.

 

Drying This became a bit less sweet and still resin-ish, and remained that way throughout a slow fade.

 

For me this was a commercial "sexy woman" perfume, neither offensive nor especially compelling. I could see it being a favorite for someone else but it just wasn't my thing. Looking at the notes I'm kind of annoyed that I didn't catch clove, which I loved in Troll; I'm wary of myrrh, curious about patchouli, and have no opinion about ylang ylang.

 

 

19

[ami226]

On the skin: This one is so interesting! Sweet resiney with a hint of.... BBQ? Myrrh does weird things sometimes on me. The BBQ feel fades after a little bit and now it is a sweet, slightly floral, resin scent. Kind of soft and pretty. This definitely starts to have a sophisticated woman's perfume feel to it. It also takes on a slightly sharp floral note.

 

This one is interesting. I think I will keep my imp, but it is not going to be a bottle purchase for me.

[Lethran]

In bottle: Sexy and spicy. The patchouli and myrrh provide a darkly sexual canvas on which the more delicate clove plays. The ylang ylang is present, but well blended with the other elements providing a bridge between the incense and spice. Wet: The patchouli is strongest. It’s a rich earthy version, beautifully modified by the myrrh and gentled and sweetened by the ylang ylang. The cove is more separate on the skin, and quite lovely in its incense setting. Dry: Not good on the dry down. Ylang ylang dominant with a strong myrrh second, and touches of patchouli. Ylang ylang and my skin chemistry are not friends and the ylang ylang and myrrh just seem awkward together without the other notes.