Black Heart

[Dharklady]

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

In bottle: Sour grapes, I think the plum and cognac are misbehaving here…
Wet: Yup still soup grapes on me.
Dry: Wow this is a morpher. On dry down it changes to a beautiful powdery/creamy vanilla, honey, floral with just the lingering trace of the fruits.
Notes: Unfortunately I can’t get over the wet smell, it lingers just enough to ruin this one on me. Still the morph is truly amazing and it came so close to working.

[rayvn1]

This is a very sweet and light floral on me with generous touches of bourbon vanilla. Mostly sweet pea and carnation rather than the other notes I was hoping would take center stage. Dries right away to almost nothing even though I accidentally sloshed much more than usual on Beautiful label but doesn't really work with my skin.

[HappyLoveJoy]

I love Black Heart! Somehow I have ended up with a few scents that seem to be in the same family: Black Heart, Aeval, Prospero, Lovers in a Rice Field, Berry Moon... they are all bright fruits with different personalities. Black Heart works much better with my chemistry than Berry Moon does, though. I adore sweet pea for its bright fruity-like scent and blended here with plum and pomegranate the scent as a whole reminds me of sparkling strawberries with their little green collars still on them. That's not to say that it smells like strawberry, but that's the picture my mind's eye conjures up when I smell the combination of fruit and sweet pea. As time wears on, the fruits get more round and softened by the sandalwood. I don't smell sandalwood all by itself but can definitely tell that the fruits are influenced by it. Carnation is undetectable by my nose as I get nothing with the creamy/clovey/spicy bite that carnation has. As the flame of the fruit dies down, the scent of vanilla gets a chance to be smelled but not in a strong way at all. Just a smooth trace of it, likely sharing the spotlight with an equally faint trace of white honey. Overall, Black Heart is mostly a red fruit, sweetened and softened by the other notes so that it becomes 'powdered' like crushed Smarties and a teensy touch of pink bubblegum. White honey makes it sweet without any of the darkness that the musky honey in Berry Moon has and that's why I prefer it over BMoon.

[pinkgyrl]

This is super sweet on me! I'm having a very good "be able to actually pick up some notes with my faulty nose" day, so I quickly put this one on, because usually I can't smell this blend very well. It took me awhile to figure out what it reminded me of - but it goes "Candy Phoenix lite" on me - the plum is starting to blossom now and is rounding out this scent, but it's very sugary and fruity for a long time on my skin. I love how Black Heart is the sweeter one, then Black Lace gets a little deeper, and then Black Death is the "darkest" of the three.

 

Very pretty, effervescent, girly, and pink!

[midnight_aeval]

Another DD blend I'm revisiting..

 

Of the 3 "Black" scents, this one was my least favorite. Too tart for me, and sickingly sweet.. It's not boozy, just... sweet and tart. The notes I'm picking up the most is pomegranate, plum, and a grapey note. Usually pomegranate & plum are good notes for me, but I'm noticing that this is the case only when paired with darker notes like Mme Moriarty and Crypt Queen. I was scared of the Sweet Pea, but I only smelled it from the bottle.

 

All in all, not a blend I'll be wearing, not really my type of scent.

[Lethran]

In bottle: It’s making me think of sweet tarts rather more than I’d hoped. It’s very, very honey sweet with the plum and sweet pea quite prominent. The pomegranate, bourbon vanilla, sandalwood, and carnation form a sort of second tier of strength, with the other notes as back up singers. It’s very feminine and ladylike with a hint of fruity ripeness underneath all that lace and decorum. It’s not what I’d hoped, but it’s really well designed for a scent of it’s type. Wet: The plum really comes out, presented like a jewel on a bed of vanilla adjacent scents. The pomegranate blends beautifully with the plum. The honey lends it a sweetness and softness. The sweet pea is such a delicate grace note. The longer it wears, the clearer the sweet pea sings, balancing out the fruit better with some support from carnation. This is all wrong for my personality and rather strange with my skin chemistry. This is not designed for me, which is fine. If you are the sort of person that can pull off vanilla florals, than this would be stunning, I think. It’s complex and lovely as warmth and air exposure change its balance. Dry: Ah, there’s the sandalwood. It’s a sandalwood dominant vanilla scent with touches of fruit and florals. It’s quite heady, really. Totally wrong on me, but well blended.

[Gin]

I overlooked Black Heart, thinking it would be too dark for me. At DD, I couldn't see the name but knew I wanted it as soon as I sniffed it. (I asked Del for "the grapey one" and he gave me a look like ) On my skin, it's delicious grape and plum--an inspired combination, if you ask me. The sweet pea, carnation, and sandalwood come out a bit more as it dries, but the fruits remain, too. Lovely.

[Mellifluous]

Too much pomegranate </3 I should have known better, but all the other notes sound soo amazing! Upon the total dry down (like 5 hours later) I do really love this scent. It looses the prominent sickly sweet pomegranate note, and deepens enough for me to enjoy it. Overall I'm not disappointed too much because 1, I bought it for the label. And 2, as long as I put this on before I go to bed, I can enjoy the scent in the morning, and it wont be a problem. Black Death is way more my style.

[ami226]

On the skin: Sweettarts? It kinda reminds me of these chewable vitamins I used to take as a kid. I want to say the culprit is partially the pomegranate.

 

After a bit, it doesn't smell quite as chalky. I can definitely smell pomegranate, but there is also a slight floral with some vanilla sweetness.

 

Weird. I don't think I like this one.

[alyelle]

Imp: Honey, champagne and sweet pea, all notes which should be innocent but are somehow dark and sensual here

 

Wet: Very sweet honey and pomegranate, quite a lot like the initial stag of Swank. No alcohol at all, and none of the dark and sexy smell from the imp.

 

Dry: There's really nothing black about this scent on me; it's white and pink and sparking champagne diamonds.

 

Overall it's quite lovely, but not really me. The throw is pretty decent, but it lasts only a few hours hours, which is pretty short compared to my usual BPAL wear times.

 

Stars: ★★★

Edited February 4, 2014 by alyelle

[Zii]

Wet: Fruity candy. Plum and pomegranate. Honestly I am amazed at how much I like this, seeing as these types of scents usually smell way too fake on me. And now it smells like grape scented erasers. Fortunately that burned off quickly, but now I can barely find it. I'm getting a faintly fruit infused honey now.

 

Drying: I'm finally getting the sandalwood, and maybe a bit of spicy carnation (Not really sure what the florals in this smell like). But I really can't quite shake the grape vibe from earlier. It's a lot less artificial now, but it's still not something I'm keen on smelling like.

 

Dry: Not at all my thing. It's a step up from the usual awful fake fruits that typically happen with my chemistry, but I think this is still a pass for me. I can't ever see myself reaching for it.

[hammy]

In the bottle - It smells purple-ish and very sweet.

 

Wet - Sweet Tarts. Candy gorgeousness. Not cloying. The sweet pea is everything I hoped it would be.

 

Drydown - The candy vibe wears off into powder. I think the carnation is the culprit. It’s the same carnation from Alice that didn’t sit well with my chemistry. As it dries down, a fruitiness emerges that I kind of want to peg as grape. Whatever it is, it's juicy.

 

Verdict - This could be absolutely beautiful on the right person. Unfortunately, that’s not me. I’ll try it in an oil burner, but if it doesn’t work there I’ll have to swap it out.

[Aingeal]

Man, I wish I had skin that made this smell like sweet-tarts, because that would be awesome! On me, however, it is a very dry, boozy scent, with a powdery finish, that to me is a little bit like Lady Macbeth and Bordello had a baby. I do like it a lot, which surprises me since Bordello was not my thing, EVER, but I was hoping for more fruity candy and less va-va-vamp. It's definitely going into my Sexy BPAL section next to Mama Macbeth though.

[itchypixie]

I bought a decant of this recently, prior to seeing a full bottle of it go up on eBay. Whoo, boy am I glad I got that decant!

 

Initially, this had a strong, fruity sweetness to it on my skin -- a sticky sweetness, with the white honey note being noticeable, but not overwhelming. Now after dry-down, I smell... honey. And honey. And more honey. There's no hint of the fruits, the florals, or the cognac. Everything else has faded away. It's not unpleasant, but with such a strong, single-note fragrance, I can't imagine that I'm going to wear it very often. Keeping the decant for now, passing on the bottle.

[LizziesLuck]

Wet: So, out of all those notes, pomegranate is the only iffy one. And guess what is most prominent out of the gate? Super. It tries to go powdery, as pomegranate likes to do, but the other notes pull it back from the brink. This is good! I love a good dark fruity floral, and that's what this is so far.

 

Dry: Lovely! Dark, fruity floral indeed. I love the pomegranate actually, for once it works on me and smells awesome. Really glad to have this!

[Aveya]

Source: Swap

Preconceptions: Nothing - this was offered as an empty/tester for fun. Figured yay why not.

 

Bottle: Tart, acidic, dark, fruity.

Skin: Holy smokes, batman. This is dark, fruity, musky. Based on the other reviews I feel like I have a different scent in my hands. If it weren't for crystal clear bottle labels I'd be convinced I had something different.

Drydown: Plum musk, deep, dark, rich, thick. I'm only getting the barest hint of floral. It's mostly just carnation, ripe plum, sandalwood, and a cognac touch. UH MAZING.

 

Verdict; Dark, fruity-rich, spiced-floral edge. Feels very womanly and adult. Purple-tinted black.

[Lucchesa]

If I had known vitis was a grape, I probably wouldn't have bothered with this one. Grape is almost always tragic on me. But Aveya's review was so compelling! Wet, Black Heart was a mess on my skin, sickly sweet dimetapp grape, backed by sickly sweet pom. But after about 15 minutes, it gets much more interesting. I begin to get plum instead of grape and pom, the sweetness backed off, and I could smell the carnation and a darker vanilla. I do enjoy a dark plum scent, and that's the territory this ended up in -- I can't say I ever made out any sweet pea at all. I just wish the grape didn't ruin the opening for me.