Black Heart

[persianmouse]

BLACK HEART
Sweet pea, vanilla-infused sandalwood, bourbon vanilla, white honey, carnation, pomegranate, Vitis riparia, plum, and cognac.

As far as the Black Sisters go, Black Heart is definetely the most gentle of the sisters, but weighed down with despair and regret. To reuse the allusion, this would be Andromeda Black (you know, the not really evil sister).


Soft and a little somber, but with a real presence behind it, not a wilting waif wilting under despair. The fruits come out more prominently than anything else, the plum first and foremost, with the vitis riparia (a kind of grape) and pomegranate as plum's backup singers. I get a touch of sweet pea, too, like a flower in the hair. Sort of a "Terribly sorry my sisters have caused you so much grievance, but here, have this lovely fruit basket with my condolences. Hopefully they won't kill anymore of your godfathers, ehh?"

I'm going to try mixing all three Black Sisters tomorrow, and will edit this review with my thoughts on that.

[Xanon]

Yay! Not the first review. These are fresh out of the mail box here people, so this may change.

 

In the bottle: Sweet Tarts? Yea, sweet pea, plum and probably the vitis riparia are making sweet tarts. But plum-ie ones.

 

Wet: Light and pretty, not overly floral which is something that I feared form Sweet Pea. No more sweet tart, just a well blended fruity floral.

 

Drying: Oh HI vanilla-infused sandalwood! Cognac is keeping things mellow. Ah, there is the pom and vanilla bourbon. White honey must be different then regular honey... I generally can't wear the stuff. Everything is so well balanced at this point. I really love this.

 

Dry (about 20 minutes in): Sweet pea and plum are holding hands on center stage, smiling, while everyone else stands about a foot behind them. Everyone is present, but these two are just a head of all the others. Though, vanilla-infused sandalwood is waving like crazy, trying to be seen (smelled?).

 

Overall: This is really pretty. I am not sure of the lasting time, but the throw is moderate. I have it on one little patch of skin on my forearm, and I can smell it rather well when I get withing about 5 inches of the spot. If you like sweet pea, get this. If you are on the fence for sweet pea, or plum for that matter (though I really think that I just amp plum), but you generally like fruity floral blends, get it. I have a feeling that this will age really well, showing more of the bourbon and sandalwood with time.

[MCS4096]

First impression upon opening the bottle is "purple!" its a lot of sweet pea and grape (possibly some pomegranate)

 

Immediately after application the sandalwood pops out, with a hint of spice (carnation I'd say) The cognac is subtle, but deepens the blend so it really does have airs of Black Lace.. but is MUCH lighter in spirit than BL. It's yummy: creamy and fruity but in a really velvety way so it's mysterious, not fresh or sharp.

 

Nice

[opticnerd]

My first impression was that it smelled a bit like Agape, but with plum and pomegranate replacing the apple/guava notes- its sweet and light, and has a nice rich complexity of sweet pea, vanilla and woodsy notes, along with a hint of carnation spice underlying the red/purple fruit notes. Very sweetly sophisticated. Something in it, upon drydown, is reminding me a little of Mlle Lilith Fortune Teller. Must be the pomegranate on my skin.

 

Cannot wait to try Black Death and layer them and play around with the whole trio.

 

A lovely and very valentines-y scent

[angelicruin]

I'm getting a lovely plum, grape, sweet pea and light creamy carnation in this blend. Not really boozy on my skin as I had thought it would be with bourbon and cognac in the notes. Very soft and feminine.

[Cheri]

Black Heart smells like mostly grape and sweet pea on me. I like it. Its soft, sweet, and pretty. Its going to be a nice spring/summer scent. The vanilla seems to come out more as it dries. I haven't tried the three layered yet, but am really enjoying them individually right now.

[dronzeka]

Like Xanon, I totally get Sweet Tarts in the bottle!

 

Wet: mostly fruit - plum, pomegranate, a little grape, and maybe a little cognac. Very sweet.

 

Drying: getting a little softer and not quite so in you face FRUIT!!! I think the sweet pea and vanilla sandalwood are coming out. I'd love to get more carnation and honey, but you know, I think they're in there; it's pretty well-blended, so nothing is sticking out terribly.

 

Dry: still heavy on the fruit. Sweet red fruits, not especially dark.

 

Overall: Pretty nice. Quite sweet -- if you don't like sweet, you won't like this (but you hardly need me to say that given the notes!). I would have liked a little more of the vanilla sandalwood, but it's definitely pleasant -- and it's also right out of the mailbox, so this may change somewhat as it ages?

 

Edited to add: Hmm, about 4 hours later if I stick my nose right up against where I applied this, I get honey? a little bit, anyway!

Edited January 24, 2010 by Anna D.

[Violaine]

Black Heart is all sweet pea and plum on me, deep purpley red. This is juicy, fruity, and ever so slightly fizzy in my nose. It's sweeter than I thought it would be, and leagues fruitier than I thought it would be. I'm disappointed that the vanilla, sandalwood, and honey aren't more profound, but I think I'm going to hang onto my bottle despite that and see how it ages.

[edenssixthday]

Black Heart - When I first apply, all I smell is pomegranate. Lots of juicy, dark pomegranate swirling all around me. When it dries down, it's all smooth, sticky vanilla honey. Nothing more, nothing less. On the one hand, it's disappointing because I was excited by the vanilla-sandalwood and the grape and cognac in the scent description but they don't appear at all on me, but on the other hand, it's still a lovely, soft fragrance.

 

When layered with Black Death, amazing things happen. The sweetness of Black Heart rounds out the rough, dark, patchouliness of Black Death, while the rough, dark, patchouliness of Black Death tempers the sweetness of Black Heart. When layered, the dry-down becomes mostly a honey-sweet verbena over a dark-fruit patchouli. I love these two fragrances together.

[benthic]

This sounded like a can't-miss blend for me, but now that I'm trying it, I'm so disappointed. On me, it's potpourri and grape. I have no idea what note is making it into potpurri on my skin, but all I get is cheap fruity cinnamon. Very strong, too. Even if it settles down a little when it dries further--it hasn't so far--I don't think this is something I'd want to wear through the potpourri stage. I'm guessing the plum and pomegranate is what's giving me this strong fruit, but carnation is usually a never miss on me, so I'm surprised and sad that it's giving me the entirely wrong kind of spice in this blend. No vanilla or honey or booze or sandalwood at all, woe.

[Schmoozy]

 

 

Wow. Black Heart is stunning. It's purple, full of plum and very vanilla. I was hoping sandalwood & cognac would stand out more, but we'll see if aging helps any. While it is sweet, it's a dark yet creamy sweetness. The carnation adds a touch of spice, the plum and pomegranate while drenched in vanilla still maintian a sort of juicy freshness.

[fairnymph]

Sweet, fruity, bright! Dark pink/fuschia in feel. Lots of grape and pomegranate followed closely by rich plum and vanilla, and then slightly powdery sweet pea. If I sniff more deeply, I get the boozy, rich cognac, though it's light, and a little honey. No apparent carnation or sandalwood.

 

Instantly powdery, that goddamn sweet pea hates my skin, or my skin hates it, or something. So now I'm thinking of Pixie Stix. Even sweeter in my skin, very candyish, a lighter, younger pink now. This dries nearly instantly, btw. The fruit is a lot less tart - less pomegranate and grape, more plum. And I get a little soft, slightly spicy carnation. More vanilla, less honey. It's a pretty strong vanilla - maybe to strong for me.

 

Hmm, the sweet pea is calming down, or else other things are amping enough to make it possibly tolerable. The carnation is definitely stronger, but it's the clove-y carnation that's too sharp on my skin. Something in here is kind of plastic, too - I think it's the grape note turning on me. Plum and vanilla still going strong, and the cognac has amped up a bit more adding some depth, and finally I get a little musky sandalwood - mmm, a really gorgeous sandalwood note, like the one from Jingo-Kogo.

 

The sandalwood is a soft but delicious, musky, almost creamy note - it's really nice with the vanilla, which has calmed down a bit, and the cognac - these 3 notes really work together seamlessly and synergistically, with the honey sweetening them up just enough. And a bit of the tartness of the fruit has returned - specifically, the pomegranate has come back, so it and the plum are merging - this feels more mauve in colour now.

 

This would be absolutely fantastic if sweet pea and this particular carnation weren't so bad on my skin, and there weren't that lingering plastic aftertaste from the grape. They're light notes, but just strong enough to be annoying. Mostly this is gorgeous pomegranate and plum fruit over honeyed, musky vanilla-cognac-sandalwood, very feminine and girly but sophisticated. Good throw and decent longevity.

 

I hate my skin sometimes.

[kelpsoda]

This is very faint on me. Slightly fruity and a lot of carnation, but not very distinctive. I wish I got more vanilla or fruit or sandalwood or cognac - this is like a carnation single note. I'll keep it for a couple months and see if aging will do the trick.

 

ETA: ok, I should learn to wait a full 20 min. before I post my review. 20 minutes in, the fruit comes out, and it's a mostly-fruity-slightly-floral blend.

Edited January 31, 2010 by kelp

[ljaylh]

Hmm.. interesting! When it first goes on the sweet pea is the most dominant note and the grape, pomegranate and plum are very close behind it. 15 minutes in and it switches around - now the pomegranate is dominant, with the grape and plum next and the sweet pea in the background - the fruits all together provide a sweetness that's not sickly or cloying but deep and sultry, but the mix is definitely fruity rather than floral and it's a deep, rich kind of fruit - very purple. The bourbon vanilla is just playing at the edges - it's in there, but the sweet pea and fruits are all over it. I really can't detect the white honey yet, right now there's a fruit festival going on.

 

A little later on, I'm now picking up just a hint of the carnation, but the cognac is harder to find, it's not jumping out at me but perhaps it's the boozy velvet of the cognac that's grounding the fruits and holding them back from being too sweet. Oh.. and is that the sandalwood? Hello, sandalwood - come on out, don't be scared! Still no sign of the white honey.

 

OK.. one hour in.. I like it better now that it's softened up, the sandalwood and vanilla are much more apparent now and YES! the cognac has even come out to play. Ah.. this is good, those pesky fruits have faded away nicely - they're still there, but there's no longer a fruity purple party on my skin... much better.

 

This one reminds me very much of Crypt Queen - it's that same kind of rich pomegranate & plum base, but where the fruitiness of CQ is darkened down by the patchouli and black pepper, in Black Heart it's sweetened up by the vanilla and sweet pea. Personally, I would be happier with it if the fruits weren't as dominant.. I'd have preferred for the bourbon vanilla, sandalwood and cognac to be bigger players, but it's still a nice blend although perhaps a bit too heavy on the fruits for me at first. I just need to decide whether I can make it through that initial stage of fruity madness to get to the lovely dried-down stage, and then consider whether this is 'different' enough from other similarly fruity BPALs to make it to the 'keeper' pile.

 

ETA: I had to come back and update this, because after almost 3 hours it's completely changed - the fruits have all vanished, and now I have a beautiful mix of sandalwood with light vanilla and a lovely rich cognac. Unfortunately by this stage it's very faint, so I have to really lean in close to smell it, but it's drop dead gorgeous. I'm still undecided about it overall, because I really can't be waiting 3 hours to get to this point, but I wanted to add to my previous review and make a note of this

Edited February 1, 2010 by sunshinedaisybliss

[Blood onmy hands]

In the bottle and on my skin at first, this smells like a faint cherry cough syrup . Pomegranate turns slightly bitter on me, and I can smell that mixed with the plum. After five minutes, the sweet pea takes over and this turns into a sweet, perfumey floral with hints of tart plum. It's more of an artificial, sweet tarts candies smell than a true fruit smell on me.

 

I wanted this for the vanillas, sandalwood, and carnation, but all I can smell is perfumey sweet pea and sweet tarts candy. It's very artificial and cloying-sweet on me. I like it more layered with Black Lace, but I also like Black Lace more on its own than layered with this. I hate Black Heart layered with Black Death, because that combo smells like cheap potpourri spice and cheap conversation hearts candies with a hint of stale clove cigarettes on me.

 

I hope that this gets better with age, because it's not doing much for me at the moment.

[Venneh]

In the decant, this is really, really sweet; someone compared it to SweetTarts further up the thread, and that's what I'm getting, almost candied fruits. On my skin, it's really sweet plum/grape/pomegranate, with the honey and what I think is the vanilla note slowly coming out. Oh, this could be beautiful. Update later. The vanilla and the honey are appearing to mellow out the SweetTartness of it all. I think I need to do a fuller skin test to make sure that I'll like it as much on both my wrists and my neck, but I may be a-seeking this bottle out soon. On the full skin test, this ends up smelling like purple SweetTarts or Pixi Stix. Going to pass, methinks.

Edited February 2, 2010 by Venneh

[ivyandpeony]

In the bottle and wet, Black Heart is incredibly fruity on me - very plummy and grape-y, I don't really get pomegranate (which is usually a fairly tart note on me). It's a plum with a really dark feel and the grape sweetens it somewhat, unlike some other plum scents where I almost sense a little tannic feel like a big red wine or a bit of tartness where the plum isn't quite fully ripe.

 

It takes a bit of drydown for the other notes to start to bloom and like several other reviewers, I find that the purple fruits really back off. I end up detecting a lot of honey, vanilla and sweet pea, yet there's a very dark feel to this scent - which may be the effect of the sandalwood and cognac as well as the remainder of those dark fruits. Honey, vanilla and sweet pea are all favorite notes of mine and it never occurred to me until now that I might actually amp them a bit. You wouldn't think that anyone could amp a note and overpower cognac, but you never know, huh?!

 

 

I haven't tried layering with Black Lace yet, and I didn't buy Black Heart (although now I am tempted after reading reviews ) Should such experiments occur, I will update ASAP!

[Klepz]

Wet this is all grape and pomegranate.

 

As it dries, the sweet pea comes out and blends with the grape and pomegranate. It's a very sweet, fruity scent.

 

Dry, the sandalwood hovers softly in the background. This is incredibly fruity, but it's a soft fruit that doesn't quite punch me in the face the way some fruit blends have. It's sweetened by a kind of honey-vanilla smell and sweet pea. If I put my nose directly on my skin, I get the cognac in the background, but just smelling it from a few inches away, or a foot as I type this, I only get fruit and sweet pea.

 

I'm not sure what I think. This definitely isn't something I'd usually go for, but I've said that about a lot of blends only to change my mind later.

[claudia6913]

Oh. My. God. Seriously, I just want to curl into this scent and close my eyes and just inhale. Just ... breathe it in, soak it in and enjoy it.

 

Immediately what comes to mind is the color of over-ripe rasberries that have been out in the sun a day or two too long, but aren't even close to being spoiled yet. They're juicy and such a mixture of purple and red all glomped together - the red in the sun, the purple in the shade and yet it's something altogether different. A color onto itself.

 

And now I'm waxing all poetical-like and should actually review the scent.

 

In the bottle: I got mostly fruity cognac. Little weird, but okay. (Actually, the more I smell the fruity cognac, the more I actually like it.)

 

Wet: I'm getting just a hint of the fruity sweetarts that other people claim, but it's fighting with the fruity cognac.

 

Drydown: Fruity, sweet, little spicy, little boozy, and very, very swoon worthy. I'm not actually getting a ton of vanilla out of this, but it seems to be sitting in the background, along with the sandlewood, quiet, unobtrusive, but keeping a wary eye on the fruit incase they need a quick beat down. The fruit is definiately taking center stage, but not just one fruit. It's all the fruits, mixed in with a nice bouqet of carnations layering on top of the fruit and the sweet pea layering underneath. It seems the cognac has drifted away (or been consumed), leaving only a lingering memory of it.

 

In short. I need another bottle. (I also hope after having my kiddo this doesn't turn bad.)

 

Edit to Add: The throw is not tremendous, but I do get a lovely waft from my hand where I tested it whenever I move.

Edited February 8, 2010 by claudia6913

[dawndie]

In bottle: candied fruit

 

On skin: fizzy fruity booze, like pink champagne

 

Half-hour later: vanilla and mellow sandalwood warming under bright pink fruit

 

In conclusion: this is delicious, like a sweeter Monster Bait: Underpants. I have a decant of the Sweet Pea single note and it's a bright citrussy floral, not too strong or cloying. Sparkly and bouncy.

[topazphoenix]

This smells more pure grape jam to me in the bottle but once on my skin it settles down to this really good almost musky vanilla honey plum sweet pea smell. I liked that it got sharper on my skin, more nuanced and complex. I suppose it will be good with aging but I can't really see how it could be better than it is now. I love it.

[Iceblink]

This is very grapey when wet but the drydown brings out the honey and pomegranate--but it also brings out the sweet pea and carnation, which are quickly turning to old-lady powder on me. Sad!! It's very sweet and soft until that stage, though--if those notes work on you you'll probably love this.

[veronicafranco]

at first sniff, i agree with several posters on the sweet tarts! though of course, being beth's sweet tarts, it's prettier than real ones.

 

as it is drying, i also agree with opticnerd that this is a pink/purple version of agape. i like this one better than agape, though (i always like plum and pomegranate, and vanilla sandalwood + honey is more me than vanilla cream). fruity-vanilla-floral girls should definitely get this one. (how hilarious that i would like that combination myself... certainly never did in anything but bpal!) the sweet pea is a bit much when wet (unless you love sweet pea), but this dries down youthful (ok, younger than me) and well-blended and beautiful! sweet, girly, innocently romantic (though there is the lightest hint of sandalwood and cognac to keep it from being childlike). i tend to like fruit, vanilla and sandalwood scents aged, too, so this one is a keeper. glad i got a decant.

 

(last night, fresh out of the package, i did the layering thing with black lace and black death, and that is fabulous as well - though much darker and badder than black heart on her own!! i am apparently a total sucker for scents that come in sets of 3 to layer, and this one is no exception.)

[CitizenBree]

Sweet grape and sweet pea. Very girly with more of a fruit scent than the floral, but it's there. It's so bright to me. The color I'd give it is light pink. After some time, the honey and vanilla make an appearance. Since there is a sugar aspect to this one, it might be overkill for me to layer with Black Lace, but I think it would go wonderfully with Black Death.

 

[kerikeri]

Sweet, light and powdery-- a little floral, a little candy-like. The sweettarts comparison is apt, as it does have a slightly tart edge to it. It's definitely another soft, girly scent like Agape, and like Agape I just can't really get excited about it-- it's pretty, but not something I can see myself wanting to wear much.