Queen of Spades

[wickedgoddess]

A contemporary incarnation of the tarot’s Queen of Swords. A card of decisive action, strength of Will, progressive action, justice, and, sometimes, revenge. The scent is a sophisticated, deep, and smoky floral with a decidedly exotic spice. Moroccan myrrh and black amber, with muguet, opoponax, deep black plum, cyclamen, galbanum, and wild blackberry softened by pear blossom and a swirl of exotic wood notes.

Origins - decant received in a swap.

Wet - Mmm…spicy wood!

Dry - I am in love! It's all wood and myrrh with an undercurrent of plum and blackberry. As it dries the fruits come on very strong, but they quickly fade into the background, leaving that lovely wood note. The blackberry and the plum both resurface in waves. I wish I could find the pear blossom, because I love pear notes, but it really doesn't matter; this is heavenly. Must find a big bottle of this.

On the wickedgoddess scale of 1 to 5, with 5 being best, this rates a 5.

[Chirp]

In the Bottle: This blend is predominantly deep, heady plum lightly tinged with blackberry. The intoxicating yet refined scent of smoky incense rests atop the heavy fruit, lending the queen a rather mysterious air. The florals lie, faint and fragile, in the background.

 

Wet: Intensely fruity, black plum and blackberry surround me, nearly drowning out the other notes. Beneath, the exotic spices (opulent, rather than hot) make an attempt to come forward. The florals are patiently biding their time, peeking out from behind the crush of dark fruits every now and then. The scent of incense has settled to join the mix, and is no longer completely distinguishable on its own.

 

Dry: The powerful scent of plum has faded quite a bit, leaving the florals to come forward. The spices seem to have slipped away (for the most part) as well. The incense has been released from the fruity orgy, and now wafts gently over the delicate cyclamen and pear blossom. The fine scent of smooth wood is barely noticable in the background. The queen is vastly more refined and subtle in this stage.

 

 

A deep, mysterious, dangerously beautiful scent... this blend would be wonderful for anyone who adores plums. Unfortunately, the Queen of Spades is not for me (not a plum lover, here), so I have sent her off to a new home.

Edited May 18, 2005 by Chirp

[~AmusedMuse~]

My Impression:Rich,Dark,Woodsy & Exotic...Oh a nose could definitely get lost in this wondrous blend. I can see why it is such a desirable scent. The blackberry sofens it just enough. Love it & Keeping it

[OriginalWacky]

Bottle (Imp): Very sweet and lovely.

 

Just On: Sweet.

 

An hour or two later: Nice, smooth creamy and sweet.

 

Around 6 hours: Perhaps the tiniest whiff of soap with some sweet creamy sweetness.

 

12 hours: The last vestiges of creaminess.

 

Overall: This is a nice scent on me, even with the minor soap that appears for a little bit. I wish I'd been able to get more, but it's not overwhelmingly crushing, like others I truly adore and can't have.

 

After reading other reviews: Okay, the sweet is plum and blackberry, and the smooth must be the amber and wood. Other than that, I'm not familiar with most of the notes, so that's my guess. WHile I don't love this as much as many others seem to, it's quite wonderful, and yet another LE that I'd love to see back again.

[malanna]

There's blackberry and plum, but it's not outright fruity, I suppose because the amber and myrrh draws it back. The amber and myrrh acts the way musk usually does, which is why I thought it was musk at first. It is the tiniest bit woodsy, but in the way that Queen Mab is woodsy. The blackberry gets richer in the second hour, but after the fourth hour, Queen of Spades just becomes a bit like a clean scent, in that it's more bright and sparkling, with less blackberry and plum. In the tenth hour, when it's receded into my skin, I get a bit of a sweaty feel to it, sort of like O.

[Lilithlefay]

Queen of Spades is such a beautiful dark, juicy scent. The blackberry is very prominent on the drydown for me, but so are the wood notes and they work so well together. There is also plum adding to the sweetness in it as well. I don't really get any florals out of this, just dark juicyness.

[LupaWulf]

Great!

Blackberry stands out with a mix of coconut. Underneath it's a very clean scent- maybe a woodsey note or a light musk?

 

I enjoy the way the undertones tickle my nose, as the bright and jucy blackberry dances with the coconut overtones!

[emzebel]

It is hard for me to describe this much beyond "wow, I love it!" because the notes blend so beautifully that I am having trouble distingishing them (then again, perhaps it is just this durn sinus infection)...

 

This is a very rich scent...it is thick and enveloping. Not in an OMG PERFUME way, but in a cloaked in something warm and wonderful sort of way. It reminds me of several of my other favorite scents, Freak Show, Perversion, Elegba, in that it has light fruity notes which are anchored by thick earthy notes.

 

I really really love this.

[yeahbutnobut]

Queen of Spades

 

In the imp: mmm, smells like a bramble patch. Blackberries and green scents of the early autumn with deep plum.

Wet on skin: this is a lovely tart berry scent, with something green and fresh, and something dark and smoky.

Dry on skin: wow. This is a gorgeous scent…I can smell the plum here with tangy blackberries and dark resins both sweet and smoky, a little hint of floral, something slightly green, and a bit woody. This is a delightful scent, complex and yet well blended, and perfect for autumn, I think. It's a rich, sweet and full bodied fruity scent enhanced beautifully by the incense notes.

After a while: this stays very consistent-if anything, the fruit notes strengthen, sweeten, and become fuller and juicier. The amber and myrrh add a lovely, darkly sweet backdrop to the blackberry and plum, and yet this isn't cloying in the slightest thanks to the slight tartness of the blackberry. It's a very mature fruit scent.

Verdict: this is another well-blended and unique 'playing card' scent. Rich and juicy dark fruits resting on a background of soft resins and woods, with a hint of green and floral flitting through every now and then. The scent reminds me of the bramble patches in autumn, mixed with succulent plum and sweet resins. This is one of the most dignified and sophisticated, grown up BPAL fruit scents-truly fitting for a queen. I'm so glad I managed to get an imp of this rare scent, as this will be wonderful to wear during autumn.

[Blood onmy hands]

First on, this smells like spicy woods, dark fruit, and a perfumey floral base. I think that the florals in this one might be a bit too much for me.

 

5 minutes later. This is pretty sharp and perfumey on me. The florals are so intense that they're almost making my eyes water. There is a lingering fruity smell underneath the sharp floral, but it's not really sweet. More like crisp, unripe fruit. It stays perfumey and overwhelming on me for about an hour before I actually start to like it.

 

It smells like very sophisticated, powdery plums in the drydown. Not real plums... more like an expensive plum and musk dusting powder. I hate the stages leading up to this though, so I'll probably never wear this one.

[Galen]

Resiny, warm and sweet when first applied, this dries down with a resiny fruit vibe, which becomes stronger and stronger as time goes on.

[metaldog32]

Queen of Spades.... how long I have worn thee...

 

It's been a couple of weeks..at least. But..I have had this bottle since LAST YEAR folks..and this particular fragrance deserved some extra time on the dance floor.

 

Anyway...it's time now to write my thoughts and move on to my back-logged pile of bottles..so..without further ado...

 

Initial sniff from bottle: Deep plum and blackberry and richness oh yes!!! Rich dark fruit...that's all I register..but then again I received this with a reducer cap on it..could that be the reason why I only smell the fruit??? No matter..it is definitely a rich fruit..definitely dark hued...

 

Applied wet on skin: It's the rich fruit again..in the first few seconds on my skin..and then following up close are the wood notes. Ahhhh yes..it's definitely fruity..with the wood note(s) giving it some complexity..this isn't pencil shaving/cedar/pine notes..no,no,no....whatver this wood note is...it anchors the fruit notes so that it's a tad bit smoky...

 

Funny..I don't think I register the black amber or the florals in this...at least not yet.

 

Couple of minutes on skin: Okay.the fruit notes are moving to the background..with the wood/softly spice/softly smoky and a touch of floral kind of creeping up a bit to the front...NOW I get the floral...it's not in your face..but instead weaving in and out of the fruit/wood/melange...WOW this is good.

 

If I whiff deeply enough..on the tail end I do register the black amber..as Haunted as black amber and the note is similar in that blend as well. It's very nice..kind of rounding up that fruit/wood/floral mix...

 

Drydown: It's basically on my skin the amber that is the most visible..with soft traces of plum/blackberry...and even softer traces of the floral...

 

Staying power is pretty good...about 4 to 5 hours on me before re-application. Throw??? Hmmm...not exactly sure...I think it was pretty average...enough for me to smell throughout the day without it being too aggressive.

 

Bottom Line: Queen of Spades...how I have enjoyed thee. Usually I am not so much into fruity blends..but this one is quite the original...fruit,florals,woods, and a touch of smoke never smelled so good..and a touch hypnotic. It isn't a "holy grail" for me...but yet I found myself enjoying this particular fragrance more than I expected. Definitely a fall to winter fragrance....it's darkly rich fruity scent is nuanced beautifully by those woods and touch of smoke. I never really registered the pear blossom either..but it didn't matter....I find myself really pleased nonetheless. A keeper...but one I won't mind sharing...

[brownbear]

wow!

 

In general I mostly get dark plum with a hint of other fruits. Then there is a bit of incense as well. It never went very floral on me. This is such a nice blend. It fades a bit on me, so I'll probably be slathering while it lasts.

[zillah37]

The Queen of Spades immediately appealed to me because of the myrrh, amber, plum, and blackberry. I got the King because I wanted the set mostly. But the King smells better on me than the Queen. That's not saying I don't like the Queen, but it's a much, much darker scent on my skin. It's definitely a scent that reminds me of revenge and would be something to wear when you want to come across as strong and powerful. I feel like I should be wearing big, black stompy boots when I have the Queen on.

[LittleGreyKitten]

The Queen smells rich, exotic and spicy to me. Sweet, strong, I can't pinpoint any notes I have to admit. I like it very much though. It's heady, it has staying power, and it is pretty potent too. I WISH this wasn't so ungodly expensive on Teh EBay though. I lucked into an imp in a giant set (and Skadi too) and I'll have to pet and cherish said imp, since it's not likely I'll break down and get full size. If I was head over heels for it, like Snake Charmer, I might. Maybe.

 

I'd give this a 4.5 out of 5. Lovely exotic scent. Not too fruity. I picture it as a deep gold color.

[blu°]

In the imp and first thoughts when freshly applied:

 

Something fruity, and something dark, myrrh.

 

Fruity, slightly soapy, sweet and smokey.

 

Huh, it's sort of... intoxicating. Very heady, definitely with a soapy thing going on.

Somehow this is gloomy and slick the way narcissus or opium feel, but not like them at all. Out of better knowledge I'd trace that back to the combination of plum and muguet in the listed ingredients.

There's a powdery sweet sparkly coating, from the pear blossom and woods, I suppose, which aids in giving this quite some throw and a certain breeziness.

 

Bit later:

There's some kind of sharpish bright soapy note in it, once on my skin, but that doesn't really surprise me as myrrh, amber and probably muguet all are potential soapiness triggers for me.

 

Although I love opoponax it seems to be a bit much in here. A bit like a tarted up elderly lady. But I only get that picture with every n-th whiff or so. When sniffing my wrist I rather get "exotic and fruity".

 

After half an hour to an hour:

It's similar to Venom, actually, but more distinctively feminine than that. Muguet and myrrh mixed with Venom. It radiates something warm and sweet that I like, yet somehow it doesn't really feel like me.

 

Final conclusion:

So... it does have something nice about it. Something warm. Something resiny.

But in the end it feels too brightly pink-fuchsia coloured and tarted up for me to wear and feel myself with. In that sense it's got a faint link to Bearded Lady in my conceptualisation of images transmitted by scents.

 

It's an interesting blend though, and it's not heavily-heavily heady but nicely balanced. I can see how this could be a deep scent on somebody else, on me it feels kitsch, I'm afraid.

 

ETA: Just occured to me as possibly helpful side-note: My skin amps fruity notes slightly, and the sweetness in florals in a stronger fashion, so that might be a reason why this keeps screaming PINK at me.

Edited March 27, 2006 by blu°

[slave1]

In Bottle: Spicy berry bubblegum

 

On Skin: I love this, why didn’t I get a bottle!?!?! At first it has a super sweet bubblegum note… In the background is a slight spicy exotic and also sour feel, almost like Dior Tendre Poison. I think the sweet note is the plum and pear, the myrrh is royal and deep. The woody note makes it even deeper and gives a slightly smoky base. I get a dark purple, green and gold feel from this, it is beyond beautiful, I would love to wear this all the time. It’s like Dior made a berry/plum version of Poison. I’d buy gallons if I could. The throw is medium with average staying length. I am completely in love with this scent!!!

[mandragora]

Sweet, smokey with a teeny bit of spice in the imp. On my skin, it's woody but with intense berry notes. Wet, the plum and blackberries command center attention. As it dries, the florals shyly starts to emerge around the berries and make their presence known. The scent remains beautifully smokey around the light flowers and berries with a spicy kick. A very lovely, complex blend.

 

I'm in love with Queen of Spades. I will treasure my imp and use it sparingly until the lab takes pity and re-visits these set of Forum-only scents. If that happens, I will definitely hoard .

[Aredhel]

Rating (on skin): 2/5

Summarised in a word or two: Fruity incense.

 

In the imp: Plum, amber, woods and pear, all over a thick coating of myrrh.

 

On skin, wet: Heavy, woodsy and spiced plum and pear. An odd fruity incensey kind of thing. The fruit is a bit plastic.

 

On skin, dry: Much thicker and heavier than King of Spades, surprisingly enough. The myrrh's begun to do its evil "Look at me, I reek!" dance, which isn't surprising at all.

 

Conclusion/Notes: While King of Spades is among my most holiest of grails, Queen of Spades just isn't my cup of tea.

[edenssixthday]

Queen of Spades is a really pretty scent. I can’t normally wear myrrh or black amber, but blended with the sweet and juicy plum, blackberry and light and fresh pear, this scent is wonderful. It has a moderate amount of throw, and I will occasionally catch whiffs of it when I’m least expecting it. It lasts for about 2 hours on me, which is moderate considering how my dry skin absorbs many BPAL oils almost instantly. It’s sweet and fruity, but it’s an incredibly rich and deep fragrance. I always get excited about wearing it.

[Ryvre]

I first sniffed this at a Meet'n'Sniff. Immediatly, a picture appeared in my head: a picture of me clutching the imp and running out of the restaurant, throwing chairs and busboys in my path to thwart pursuit. Then reason got the better of me (or I remembered that I'm a terrible runner) and I decided to just track down an imp for myself.

 

In the imp: Smoke and plum. It's very deep and rich.

 

Wet: Plum, spice, and a touch of dirt. Reminds me a bit of Hellion, but more complex.

 

Dry: A bit spicier and more dirt.

 

I love it in the imp, but it's a little overpowering on my skin.

[Voleuse]

So many notes! On first application, however, this strikes me as fairly simple: plum and warm spice. As it dries, it mellows to a sweet, warm smell with faint plum overtones. It's nice, but not at all what I would have hoped for, given the description. Darn chemistry.

[steffanina]

Queen of Spades-

 

In Bottle: A grape smell, but I think it's the plum. Sweet, nice.

 

Wet: Mmm, dark dark fruit smell.

 

Dry: This is intensely sweet and dark and a little cloying on me. Not completely unpleasant! I'm sure lots of people find this just right.

 

Overall: Not quite for me.

[supremegoddessofall]

Tried this at a meet and sniff. It doesn't say anything about rose, but I get a lot of rose out of this. The fruits and spices are almost completely subsumed by the florals, but it's a nice balance.

[wikkidraven]

yet another incredibly rare that i've fallen in love with...i'm grateful to the lovely princessbeena for my bottle. the plum and berries give this musky blend a beautiful sweetness, i get lots of throw and pleasant wafts of the scent as i move about. glad i splashed out the cash...albeit it a *lot* of cash...for this one.

 

Edited February 7, 2007 by wikkidraven