The Black Temple Burlesque Troupe

[thewondersmith]

Cacao, black musk, and tobacco absolute.

In the bottle- thick, spicy tobacco and rich powdery musk. I know there has to be some chocolate in there somewhere, but like Boomslang, the cocoa is swamped by the musk and the peppery tobacco. There's an odd, almost metallic tang to this. It's pretty nice, but so heavy, and I'm a little scared by it.

Wet- Nose tickling musk and tobacco. I honestly don't get very much chocolate at all, and though this is kind of nice in a sultry, seductive sort of way, I can't see myself wearing this too much. I prefer my chocolate to be more foodie, and this most definitely ISN'T a foodie scent.

Dry: Powder, powder, more powder. Sigh. I'm starting to realise musks and I just don't get along. There's the slightest touch of ambergris, which is BEWILDERING, but kind of nice. Still, not really for me. Edited February 14, 2010 by Shollin

[riflmom]

Wow, dark dark oil! Darker than my beloved Boomslang.

 

Dark... and lovely. The cacao is the main attraction when first applied, then that black musk comes draping herself all over everything - smooth, shiny and almost prickly at the same time. The tobacco is lending a touch of sweetness. I think this will age magnificently, too.

Overall BTBT is dark and comforting and sexy; what more could one ask for in a scent!

[izile]

I had been scared away from this one because of the black musk (musks 99.9% of the time = Baby Powder of Doom), but I kept reading great reviews and got a tiny tester.

 

Smelled lovely in the imp, like rich, dark, unsweetened cocoa powder from some really exotic, gourmet purveyor.

 

Wet: like cocoa powder in one of those *nice* tobacco stores

 

Dry: Baby Powder of Doom with a hint of cocoa *sighs*

[arlith]

When I first put this on, I got a lovely sexy dark chocolate. A bit feral and wild. As it dried the black musk came out more, and covered the chocolate. It became even dark and more wild. Exactly what I pictured the Black Temple Burlesque Troupe to be. Its a little too wild and dark for me, but with some aging and a little mellowing I think it could be completely fabulous.

 

Unfortunately for me, after about 1 hour of wear, my arms started getting big welts on them. I remember this happening when I tried a tiny bit of it on my wrist earlier-to see if it warrented further testing. At the time, I thought it was because I had been doing a lot of testing. Turns out, its just this oil. What a sad day for me, I like the oil, I think it smells great, in time could smell amazing....but I just can't wear it.

 

[porcelina]

black temple burlesque troupe is wonderful. it reminds me very much of boomslang, but less spicy and more musky. i can't wait for it to age! chocolate usually doesn't work on me- but the very dark cacao in this is perfect and blends with the rich tobacco so well.

 

my only complaint is that it stains my wrists dark brown!

Edited January 20, 2010 by porcelina

[donnatron]

Imp: Well, black musk and chocolate. Very little tobacco.

 

Wet: A weird, citrusy zing adds to the overall scent. It's not cloying or unpleasant, just odd. The black musk starts to develop and gets a little furrier than I'm comfortable with but not out of control. A similar GC to this would be Hecate. A very feral scent with a hint of warm, foody sweetness.

 

Dry: Actually, dry, the GC this most reminds me of is Snake Oil. A pared down, sultry, naughtier Snake Oil. It's a very simple scent. The musk is the base note and the cocoa and tobacco sort of entwine overtop of it. It's a gorgeous drydown and very sultry and evocative. It is, however, exceedingly, EXCEEDINGLY sensual. I don't think I'd wear this unless I was comfortable with everyone in the room knowing I wanted some.

 

Throw: Quite strong.

 

Overall: Thankfully I'm the inappropriate sort. This is gorgeous and I am so glad to have ordered a bottle unsniffed (and thank you to the lovely Jen from my Meet 'n Sniff who gifted the imp!).

[Geminirubyshoes]

Damn, these Burlesque chicks don't fuck around

Honestly, I was unsure when I smelled this in the bottle if I would like it or not. The oil is super thick, almost like motor oil. This kind of freaked me out and I abstained from putting it on for a couple weeks.

Then one day as I was getting ready for work and putting on my Resurrection tshirt, I felt it necessary to bust out the Troupe.

This stuff is amazing. It is the muskiest of muskiest musks. With chocolate. Dark ass chocolate. I felt like I could rule the work with this on. And no customers gave me a hard time all day, which never happens. This is one to be treasured thats for sure. Initiate yourself into the Black Temple, you will not regret it!

[ImperatrixMundi]

Are there a few Boomslangs crawling around in the Black Temple? The oil is completely brown and all that chocolate absolute sticks to the imp vial

At first all I smell is cocoa, like in Boomslang, but then the black musk comes out and does the baby powder of death impression. The tobacco is so scared, it goes and hides.

This also has HUGE throw.

 

Weeell... If you like Boomslang and black musk, this is for you. If, like me, you get baby powder from black musk and find the cocoa too overwhelming you can skip it.

[MamaMoth]

Wet, this smells really aggressively of black musk and scary chocolate. Really sharp and maybe a little citrussy. I was hesitant to put it on, but thankfully it tempers the longer it stays on. 10 minutes or so after application, this is a soft dry cocoa and sweet smoky tobacco backed by lovely aura of dark musk. Basically, this smells like really rich chocolate pipe tobacco. It's lovely.

[ami226]

On my skin, the chocolate disappears almost instantly and I am left with a sickly sweetness that must be the tobacco and the black musk. Or it might just be the black musk. Whoa!! It is insane!!

 

I am not sure yet if I like this one. I think that I will keep it around a bit and test it to see what happens.

 

-ETA- I just had to try this one again, and still no luck. The black musk/tobacco combo just turns so sickly sweet and smokey on my skin.

Edited July 1, 2012 by Catseyes

[Galatea]

I really wanted to like this one. All the ingredients should make for one hell of a good perfume!

I guess, for me, it was not meant to be. Ten minutes of wear and it morphs into hellishly awful powdery-smelling mess.

Must be the black musk...because cocoa and tobacco usually smell great on me, and stay true to their smell.

[papermaker]

This is jaw droppingly fantastic.

It begins as dark musk and smoke. Then the cocoa comes out. It turns from good to amazing. Chocolate tobacco with a smidge of musk.

[Venneh]

In the bottle, this smells like a cousin of aged Boomslang, but heavier on the musk and the tobacco. It's making me uneasy...

 

On my skin, I'm definitely getting the black musk and the tobacco. Very, very masculine. We'll see how this turns out, but I'm thinking this might not be for me... Ends up turning into a powdery musk with tobacco. Not for me, sadly.

Edited February 6, 2010 by Venneh

[Rouge]

I love cacao, I love burlesque and I love Cthulhu! How more perfect could a scent description be?

 

Incidentally, there's a sex shop just down the road from me called Lovecraft. Just thought you might all like to know that. ;-)

 

In the vial - Black temple is right. This is one of the darkest scents I've ever sampled. Thick black musk leaps straight from the vial and blankets the other notes, though the bittersweet scent of cacao lends a nice powdery edge to it.

 

Wet on the skin - This is an aggressively sexy scent. The black musk continues to dominate, while the tobacco gives a deep, woody resonance to the perfume. There's an almost peppery touch to this blend and I can't work out where that's coming from.

 

Next stages - There is nothing shy about this blend! There's not much tease in this striptease either; it's all leather corsets, whips and spike heels. Thescent hasn't changed much from its early stages, but it's a little more mellow.

 

Dry down - This is a wonderful, silky black veil of scent. Definitely not a scent for every day. but in the right moment, this could be devastatingly seductive. I also think this would be incredible layered with Snake Oil.

 

 

 

 

 

[fiddledragon]

In bottle: Woah! Musk, a hint of cocoa...this is actually reminding me of Scheherezade at first whiff. And the oil is very, very dark and thick.

 

On me: I smell like a cheap cigar shop Maybe it will sweeten up in a minute? Ah, yes, there's a bit of chocolate. Where the heck did all that sexy musk go?

 

Even dry, there's just too much tobacco in this for me. I don't normally have a problem with that note, but here it's going dry and harsh.

 

Try this if you liked The Malignant Dreams of Cthulhu in Love and can wear tobacco notes.

[ravenfeathers]

in the bottle i'm sorry, what? i was swooning, kthnx. heavy, furry musk and thick cocoa, hold the sugar, and an overall crunchy dryness.

 

wet on skin hm. well, okay. the cocoa went poof. and there's something... softly lemon-y here? weird.

 

dry on skin seriously hell-no inducing, all froofy powder and light lemon-y floral-y ickness. for a LOOOOOONG time. and then? well, then it turns really nice, softly tobacco-y with just a smidge of filthy cocoa powder. is it worth waiting two hours for? yes!

 

i wonder how often i'll actually reach for this, but it's wearable and the extreme dry-down is nice, very vaguely reminiscent of miskatonic university and pinched w/ 4 aces.

[Saya]

This starts off with a rich, deep chocolate scent with a touch of black musk. It's pretty sexy!

 

Then an hour later it's a light, powdery, barely there scent. It was nice while it lasted, but I much prefer Boomslang for my rich chocolate cravings.

[Argentwolf]

For me, this doesn't register as either 'chocolate' or 'tobacco' right away...it actually smelled like vanilla. A real sultry vanilla, the dark black of vanilla extract without the alcoholic edge to it. But that's just my nose being silly. Close up, I can definitely get the cacao, which is unlike any chocolate scent I've smelled heretofore...and the tobacco melds so nicely with it, that to me it becomes a dark, creamy, sensuous scent. And it lasts. All day long, and then some. I was actually on the fence about it for the longest time, but I realized that every time I put my coat on I was smelling the redolant aroma of the Troupe and *smiling* because of it...and so I came to my senses and ordered some. This is probably the most awesome of the 2009 Yule scents, and I'm *so* glad that I ordered a bottle!

[Ajila]

In the bottle - Pretty much straight up black musk. I hope that fades into the background a little

 

Wet on me - Still mostly the musk, but a hint of the tobacco begins to come out

 

Dry on me - A warm soft candle wax smell that gives off gentle spices

 

Overall - I was concerned about the black musk, but when it settles down this blend is amazingly warm and sensuous

[presotm]

Gorgeous smoky chocolate wafts out of the bottle, encouraging me to have a delicate slather. Unfortunately, BTBT + my skin = Powder O' Doom. With an extra side of Doom.

[Blithgunde]

Deep dark unsweetened chocolate floating on musk with a whiff of tobacco. Oh yum. It doesn't change much after I put it on. The separate notes blend together into a rich sensuous odor that envelops me all day. It's sexy, civilized, and comfortable all at the same time.

[skylarkza]

In the bottle: Chocolate and thick, black smoke.

 

Wet: Wow, this oil is dark! The cocoa is still there, but the smoke is coming forward - dark and super sexy. It is almost like cigar smoke, but has something feminine and sexy as hell about it as opposed to being masculine.

 

Dry: The cocoa is back, and the tabacco is hanging around like a lazy lounge lizard. This scent is verging on being skeezy, but not quite getting there.

 

A while later: Sexy and sultry! This is a slightly sweet, slightly smoky, VERY sexy scent that I can't quite describe. I think that it is the musk that has taken over, but damn - it is sexy.

[doublehelix]

in the bottle: very thick chocolate and smoke. burnt chocolate?

 

wet on skin: this stuff is darker than snake oil! This is musky chocolate... no smoke yet!

 

dry on skin: chocolate and a little bit of smoke. This is very much like a less spicey snake oil/boomslang... yum!

[Amoraexcena]

Bottle: Rich, almost alcoholic intoxicating cacao and tobacco. It smells RAW. Not like the hot-chocolate-y Bliss, that's for sure. The dark oil definitely has a sinister edge. The label art is wonderful- a sexy bat-winged priestess with tentacles sensuously running around her curves, dancing...

 

Wet on Skin: The blend sweetens up a little, along with some added spice that's quite reminiscient of SO. As mentioned previously, it's a cousin of Boomslang- but I'm not getting any of the strange, cloying off-putting sweetness of that blend, BTBT is a more subtle warmth.

The tobacco is less raw, now it's a bit more like a fine cigar. The musk is smoothing this out, I think. It feels rounder and more wearable while being the epitome of night-time sexy.

 

Drydown: I only used a dab of this, since it seemed like it could be an overwhelming blend. It's a stronger-than-average blend to be sure, but not so much that it's overwhelming, I could definitely slather more. As a matter of fact I'm tempted to add more on now- it's addictive and it's only bound to get better with age! I just popped it out of the box containing my last Yules and after giving it a good roll, I *had* to apply it asap. Once it is quickly absorbed by my skin, it's a sweet tobacco-incense blend with a hint of cacao and a heavy dose of musk. I usually like the far drydown best of most of Beth's blends (Shadwell is a great example: it's rich, warming condensed milk and soft leather in the far drydown, about an hour or two in, while kind of jarring upon initial application... others like Black Lace also come to mind) and BTBT is no exception: a BIG BONUS of this blend is that it reaches far drydown stage in a matter of minutes and stays there forever. This. Is. Brilliant. I hope it'll be resurrected in many future Yules to come!!!

 

[Verilita]

In the bottle: It's very deep, the musk is heavy and I can't smell any of the chocolate, very masculine and dark

 

Wet: CHOCOLATE! the musk it totally done and all I smell is deep rich chocolate, I smell like a devious candy store and I love it

 

drydown: the musk starts sneaking back in along with something herbal? maybe that's the tabacco...it's must softer than I thought it would be.

 

throw: pretty strong, I suggest using sparingly, two dabs and I think I'll be good for awhile.