Dark Chocolate and Pepper-Smoked Caramel

[DarthArwen]

Dark chocolate and pepper-smoked caramel.

Oh dark chocolate, why can't our love be mutual? I was so looking forward to this scent, and it smells absolutely gorgeous in the bottle. On my skin it rapidly fades until after 5-10 minutes there's nothing left but dust and very faint trace of caramel.

*cries*

In contrast the milk chocolate scents, which I think are too candy-like to wear, come across loud and clear on me.

I think I might work this into a massage oil or something. It does smell so very nice...

[Teggy]

In the bottle and upon first application I got BOOZE! Like boozy cola. That went away quickly and dried into sweetned pepper smoke on my skin. It's really neato. I wish it was a little more caramelly, but that's fine. Sadly, it vanished about 3-4 hours later.

[mhickle]

Oooooh I am liking this!!!!

 

In the bottle, I get a lot of the pepper, backed by deep dark chocolate - a sophisticated, expensive chocolate and caramel confection made by an expert, in a box of chocolates given to you by someone who understands you love the good stuff. Then...once it's on and before it's dried, it goes a bit to plastic. "Nooooo!" I thought, as I'd loved it right away. But, luckily, that is for a very short time (as in, I put it on in the bathroom, sniffed the plastic, turned off the lights, grabbed my sunglasses, sniffed again, and it was no longer plastic.

 

Instead, what remains is a rich smear of peppery smoked sweetness. I get a little bit of coffee, I think, but it might just be because the spicy sweetness puts me in mind of El Dia de Reyes.

[AuroraLlew]

This is so yummy in the bottle. On my skin it is too much smoke and caramel though. I should know by now that caramel only works for me if it's the only think you can smell (a la mvjba spring training). the smoke and pepper are too smoky and they make the caramel seem nauseatingly sweet on me. I think I will try it in my locket, but I won't be needing a bottle.

[aquazoo]

Interesting, there are dark brown bits stick to the sides and bottom of the imp bottle. Definitely peppery — at first it overwhelms the chocolate. Still overwhelming. Still pepper. :-(

[MCS4096]

My bottle has only a smidge of dark brown chocolate sludge at the bottom, and it doesn't really move from there, even when I *shudder* shake it pretty hard There are a few very tiny little brown balls floating in the lighter oil.

 

I pretty much get no chocolate when this is dry-- it's sweet, slightly burnt caramel, which is pleasant of course, but I wish there was more chocolate (or rather, that I could dislodge it off the bottle bottom)

[bheansidhe]

Uh, WHAT?

 

The first time I tried it I got a weird bright-yellow miasma somewhere between artificial butter and overheated electrical wiring.

 

Now, three weeks later, AFTER it's gone off sale, I am getting a smoky pestle-paste of peppercorn, cardamom, bitter chocolate and hazelnut.

 

Because it's a quarter imp, I suspect accelerated aging due to oxidation. If you've been waffling on this one, definitely hang on to it for six months and re-try!

[binkin]

In the bottle this reminds me very much of El Dia del Reyes, which is good, because I love El Dia. As it dries down, something about it makes me crave delicious, delicious bacon, which feels kind of wrong. Then the caramel comes out, almost overwhelmingly, and finally it settles in to something that's a little too smoky right now, but I still can't stop sniffing it. I'm glad I got a bottle, and I have been told that overly-smoky scents can mellow with age; I think once this does, it's going to be pure win. The throw is a little less than average but my honker's also a little stuffed up from allergies.

 

Overall 4 out of 5, for me.

[laslibres]

A-ha. After reading these reviews here, I figured out why this smelled like a peppercorn grinder to me. Because I didn't SHAKE it. Now, pre-shaking it was not unpleasant, it just wasn't terribly chocolatey; the dark chocolate and a faint hint of caramel sweetness were just base notes to that spunky pepper note skipping along the top.

 

But once I shook it a bit and dislodged some of the cocoa from the bottom, I reapplied and smelled a lot more chocolate on my skin. The chocolate blended together a lot better with the pepper, and it made more of a "spicy chocolate" scent, rather than a "maybesomecocoaandPEPPERPEPPERPEPPER!"

 

So the secret to this scent is...shake it like a Polaroid picture! (Gently.)

[BuxomM]

It smells like cracked spicy pepper corns with something buttery and sweet in the background and fades into pepper with a light sweetness. It wasn't a keeper for me.

[Andrea912]

This is divine! The dk chocolate is perfectly tempered by the spicy, smokey caramel....need a bottle of this!

 

I'm a bit put off by the dark oil that stains, but it is so lovely that I'll have to hunt down a bottle...

[drmomof2boys]

Sexy chocolate- not musky sexy like Boomslang, but elegant, grown-up, evening chocolate. In the bottle- dark, rich chocolate with pepper notes. On the skin- starts out as chocolate with caramel and a hint of pepper for spiciness. As it dries, the chocolate fades slightly, but is still there, while the smokiness and the pepper note lends a nice, complex, grown-up quality to the chocolate. "Sexy chocolate with the promise of more to come."

[sadtomato]

lots of chocolates go wonky on my skin, but this one isn't doing that.

deep, dark chocolate that really smells chocolatey! and the caramel is awesome...as is the smokiness.

this is probably the best chocolate scent i have ever tried.

[lacyjae]

I haven't tried this on myself, as I'm a decidedly non-foody person, but had the chance to smell it on not one but two friends and it was lovely! First, very caramel, very sweet, but obviously pepper in there. On one friend the pepper really came out and then the caramel came back to chill with us for a while; on the other friend it was much more smoke than pepper, but equally lovely. Definitely nice!

 

I think I agree that it seemed almost more coffee than chocolate. Maybe a coffee/chocolate mocha deal with caramel and smoke and pepper?

[Lamia]

Just opening the bottle makes me reel. I actually started to salivate NOMNOMNOM!

 

It smells amazing, and starts beautifully. Drydown, it turns to vetiver, and loses that amazing chocolate smells. Alas. Reading the above reviews, lots of other people seem to have similar issues. However, they also mention rolling the bottle to mix it - I did not mix it, so will have to try that before re-testing.

 

My lord, I am so glad I bought a 5ml of this...

[GardenCat]

Interesting combination of scents. Really chocolaty on the initial application, but then the carmel comes out to play. Drying down, the pepper becomes more apparent. I even get a whiff of smoke every once in a while too! Terrific combination of notes - I'm not a foody person, but the smoke & pepper even out the sweetness to make this a very wearable scent!

[iiinterstate]

I didn't think I'd end up with any scents from this series, but for some reason this one kept calling my name. I can't think of a better note to offset the sweetness of chocolate and caramel than pepper.

 

Maybe I am weird, but I LOVE it when I get a blend that separates en route. All the chocolate is sitting on the bottom of this one, and I have to roll it to get everything uniform.

 

Upon application, it goes peppery dark chocolate immediately. I was afraid that caramel might overpower like it does sometimes, but not here.

 

10 minutes in: a teeeeeeny bit of caramel sneaks in to sweeten things up. The smoky smell is most prominent though.

 

After about an hour: Smoky, peppery, and slightly sweetened by caramel and chocolate. This is beautiful and even better than what I was hoping for. It almost reminds me of being at a bonfire and making s'mores.

 

 

 

[Electric Maenad]

Niiice. Goes on *dark* dark chocolate - the almost black kind that has 90% pure cocoa and actually makes your mouth a little dry when you eat it. The caramel comes up almost immediately after, but it's held in check nicely by the bitter chocolate so it doesn't do that ARGH INSULIN SHOCK thing that I got after applying Red Lantern. The pepper and smoke sneak in behind the two dominant notes in a very subtle way, so that I get hints like wisps of actual smoke when I move. Again, unlike RL, the smoke smells like food smoke (think the burnt crust of sugar on creme brulee) rather than stale cigarettes. This is definitely a cold-weather scent. It's way too rich for summertime. I think this will also smell awesome on the man.

[ShadowsDance]

A delicious chocolate and caramel blend, I don't get any more or less than that. No smoke, or coffee scent, just chocolate and caramel. It has a pretty good throw, as I find most chocolate scents do on my skin.

[Juushika]

In the vial: Smoky pepper, slightly sweet, with a touch of very dry chocolate (think El Dia De Reyes's cocoa powder, but as dark as Boomslang's deep dark chocolate).

 

On me: This is a smoke and pepper scent, like the rich swathes of flavored smoke that you'd use to preserve meat. It's not harsh, or sharp, or really all that dry—this is smoke that's almost solid enough to cup in your hands, but smelled from a distance where purer air has filtered out the ash. The caramel is more of a texture than a scent, filtering out the smoke's harshness and giving it that rich, malleable texture. But I get nothing of the chocolate, and this saddens me—I adore chocolate and it's what drew me to this scent. Scent-color is dark gray. Throw is low.

 

Verdict: As Dark Chocolate and Pepper-Smoked Caramel, this is disappointment—where oh where has my beloved dark chocolate gone? I only have a decant, but if those floating black specks are the same chocolate absolute in Boomslang then I'm not surprised that the chocolate disappears on my skin (as it does in Boomslang). But I am, still, saddened. However, as Pepper-Smoked Caramel this is surprisingly lovely. Thick, smoky, but never harsh, it's an uncommon and sensual skin scent. I'll have to adjust my expectations to fit, but that done this is a scent worth keeping around. (And I may have to try it on fabric, to see if the chocolate sticks around.)

[nekogrrl]

Got this in a swap, decant-style.

 

In imp: rich chocolate caramel.

 

Wet on skin: rich chocolate caramel, which almost immediately morphs into a heavy smoke scent. I can almost /taste/ the smoke. It has a sweet edge to it which I attribute to the caramel. There is no chocolate here. Sad. The smoke seems to be the predominant scent, and I was hoping for more of an even blend.

 

Verdict: For the first.. 2 minutes on skin, I was gearing up to hunt down a bottle. But then the Smoke Monster reared its head, and like Mr. Eko, I'm going down.

[Gin]

Dark Chocolate and Pepper-Smoked Caramel

 

Yummy spicy-smoky caramel on a dark DARK chocolate base. I had reservations about this, but I think the pepper adds quite a bit of depth and makes it a lot more wearable.

[ouch!]

Oh gosh...

 

This smells a hell of alot like curry on me, like...slightly of dark chocolate and curry powder. Not good...not good at all.

 

 

 

[jewelbug]

Bottle: I smelled this at one of the last ECWC events, and bought 2 bottles, thinking that I'd definitely need a backup for such a lovely spiced boozy chocolate scent.

 

Wet: Very interesting...I get a distinct banana scent from this when wet. Spicy chocolate-covered bananas.

 

Drying: Carmellized brown sugar and a lovely heavily smoked spicy chocolate. Delicious.

 

Dry: Awww, bummer, this is going all sorts of burnt plastic synthetic on me now. I love this one so much when its not ON me. Skin chemistry can be a cruel thing, indeed. :pout:

 

[Ondine]

This is another one of the really unique scents BPAL has put out. Unlike many of the other Box of Chocolates, which were either really sweet and syrupy or just odd on me (blue cheese?), Dark Chocolate and Pepper-Smoked Caramel is like a chocolate bar I once had that had curry in it, curry and coconut. Now I'm not getting any coconut in this, but the overall effect is much like that candy bar: chocolate with curry spices. It sounds gross but it really works beautifully on!