Witchblade

[freneticfloetry]

WITCHBLADE
Antediluvian, sacred metal, glowing red musk, blessed frankincense, and antiqued amber.

In the imp: Sweet and vaguely aquatic. Must be the metal.

Wet: Metal? What metal? The amber is there, pretty and just a little powdery, and I get wafts of resin when I sniff close to my skin, but the red musk is definitely out in front. Then again, I tend to amp red musk. Fortunate, since I adore it.

Drydown: Metal, is that you? There's a note that comes through as this warms, slicing through the musk, that must be it, but it's not crisp and crystalline like the metal notes I'm used to. It smells like aged, ancient metal - more bronze than steel.

Dry: This is so pretty. I don't know how Beth does it, but this is completely evocative of the series. The metal note seems to encompass and enhance everything else without being dominant at all, tying everything together beautifully. Makes me wish I'd gotten Sara Pezzini after all, just to see how they layer. Goooorgeous. Definite bottle. Edited April 18, 2010 by Shollin

[whisperstilled]

Witchblade was another of the samples getting given out at the BPAL booth, so I had the opportunity to take it home and try it in my hermetically sealed scent-testing environment. Or, you know, my bedroom.

 

Imp: Frankincense and musk! As advertised.

 

Wet: A little amber and...is that vetiver? Could be the 'antediluvian, sacred metal.'

 

Dry: A touch of musk, and definitely that distinctly peanutty vetiver smell, with frankincense laid over it.

 

Not my kind of scent, I'm afraid. Smells like vetiver and a head shop. Not horrific or anything, just not my style. 2/5

[LaurieB]

This was my surprise love of the C2E2 offerings--Really, really unique, and so unexpectedly lovely. Red musk and amber strike me first, but the gleam of metal is intwined in the fragrance so deeply it's impossible to overlook. To me, it reverberates like tin, with a sharp and clear note that slices through the rich amber and frankincense. I would say refreshing, but it's not; it's unsettling, but in a very good way. This is one that will elicit compliments, and will absolutely kill in a scent locket!

[angelicruin]

Mainly frankincense & metal on me. I just have an imp of it that was one of the promo imp cards at C2. I plan to try to layer it with Sara Pezzini and see if I like it better that way.

[fireweaver]

This red musk wasn't heavy at all. It was almost a second skin red musk, with the, I assume, frankensense adding a tiny bite to the scent. I loved it.

[ellebelle]

This was another sample that my kind witch sent to me from C2E2. I normally hate red musk, so I was hesitant to try this on my skin but I was cheered when I couldn't smell any red musk in the imp - and, as it turns out, I couldn't really smell it on my skin. Typically the red musk overwhelms blends and makes them unpalatable for me, but this was fine. The "metal" gave it kind of a soapy feel, particularly at the beginning. The dry down was a sweet aquatic amber. Kind of odd honestly, but not bad. I'll keep my sample, but I don't think I'll be investing in a bottle.

[ami226]

On the skin: A slightly sweet scent with a bit of an aquatic note. Is there a slight hint of vetiver in here? Huh, I don't like this one as much as I was hoping to.

 

After a bit, it loses the aquatic edge and it starts to smell pretty good! A bit more musky and slightly powdery which must be the amber. I am liking the dry down a lot more than when it was applied wet, but I am not sure if this one is a keeper. I will have to try this layered with Sara Pezzini.

[Dark Alice]

Glorious red musk with hints of metal and the color red. There is a definitive red note that goes beyond the musk and makes me think of the glowing eye of the witchblade. If the witchblade had a smell to it...this is definitely it.

[Ruffian]

Just as awesome as Sara Pezzini, Witchblade smells like dusty metal and red musk. It’s very evocative of its namesake and I can imagine this to be the scent of an ancient living weapon. I love the two scents by themselves, but layered together I get an awesome third scent. This is the most fun I’ve had with any of BPAL’s series.

[zankoku_zen]

Dusty metal and red musk. Oddly enough they balance each other out, and in my mind it's a darker, muskier edgier version of Torture Queen.

[edenssixthday]

Witchblade - I love me some dark, red musks and frankincense, and this scent is almost perfect...but not quite (on me, that is). It's definitely a dark, heavy, super-sexy red musk blended with tons of heavy metal \m/ The frankincense is pretty faint, but definitely lends a dark grittiness to the overall scent. I can't identify the amber in it at all. I think what's not-quite-right about this for me is not that anything's wrong with it, but for me, I would like something a little sweeter in it to make it perfect for the type of scent I would like to wear. Without that hint of sweetness I'd like, it's too masculine for my taste. I wonder what it would smell like on my husband? It is a really great red musk scent, but it's not one I'll wear myself.

 

 

[ACVail24]

WitchBlade: WitchBlade

 

All the notes sound good!

(even the ones that I've never heard of!)

 

In the Bottle:

Rich red musk! and Amber!

it smells like a clean & warm red musk - I'll attribute the 'sacred metal' as the clean portion of the mixture.

 

On my Skin, Wet:

A burst of potent red musk - slowly softening with the metal note(s) and the amber just keeps this blend kind of warm and cozy.

 

On my Skin, Dry:

Red musk, sacred metal and a very small trace of the warm amber.

This is my favorite blend with red musk ever!

I love the intensity of the red musk but not the 'muskiness' of it for more than a couple of hours.

This blend is a clean version of red musk, and I can wear it all day long without having that muskiness take over after a while.

 

Verdict:

Outstanding! Gorgeous!

This does layer well with WB: Sara Pezzini - completely complementary & seamless.

I have been wearing this blend alone as well, and I just can't go wrong with it! (even running a little in my hair just before bed- it's just that gorgeous!)

10 of 10 Ranking!!

 

Great job Beth & Labbies!

Thank you so much for not only creating this series of scents, but also making it a charitable effort!

you guys are the best!

 

 

[Blood onmy hands]

On me, Witchblade is like equal parts red musk (which sort of smells like warm musk, earthy patchouli/incense, and a hint of something fruity like red currant on me), clean metallic cologne, and warm, golden amber. The mix of amber and clean metal reminds me of House of Mirrors, but the red musk keeps the blend smelling heated and somewhat earthy.

 

I like this blend well enough, but there are red musk blends that I like more and metallic blends that I like more than this one. I do enjoy Witchblade more layered with Sara Pezzini, but that might just be because I love Sara P. so much.

[ivyandpeony]

I love this scent - I had trouble imagining what it would smell like from the description and it really is so unexpected. A red musk scent that somehow is light, clean and pretty instead of sultry, dark and heady really doesn't come along very often, but here it is. Unlike the reviewers who picked up a little vetiver, I get none - and I tend to smell nothing but vetiver when it's in there, and amp it like crazy, often to the exclusion of everything else in the whole bottle. Not saying there's none in here, just that it's some kind of super mellow vetiver if it is! Ultimately this is a resinous red musk blend that's turned on its ear and made into a light and airy, translucent skin scent by some sort of magical stuff that Beth put in it.

[LadyMedb]

Ooh, I wanted it to be darker. You know how sometimes frankincense, when mixed with anything at all sharp, can come out smelling sorta like lemon pledge? That's what this did on my skin, and the vetiver did the men's cologne thing rather than the dirty smoke thing on my skin, unfortunately. I didn't get the red musk at all. I'm just not meant to wield the Witchblade.

[Diva Urd]

Bottle: Very perfumey with a metallic note in the background.

 

On: Getting the musk and frankincense, with amber softening the mixture and especially the metal note. It's a nice scent, but it feels somewhat incomplete, which makes sense, considering that the Witchblade needs a wielder.

 

Later: The scent gets a bit more body, probably thanks to the musk warming up on my skin. At this point, it works as a standalone perfume, although I bet it'd be even better layered. Since the husband also likes this a lot, the decant is a keeper, and we will decide about a bottle later.

[Aldercy]

Hm. Kind of missing the glowing red musk and frankincense on this one. What red musk is there is kind of watered down, with hints of cold, distant cherry or rosewood. The whole blend is more powdery and "clean" than I would have expected-- it seems like it should have real body, you know?

 

So I'm mostly getting tinny, perfumed metal, a little red musk, and baby powder.

[milo]

Wet, this is all about the resins. It kind of reminds me of Arachnina at this stage. Soon, it becomes less perfumey, though not as strong and less incense. Seems more metallic now than anything. This is quick fade on me, a bit too masculine, and metals don't really work for me.

[bluerose]

In the bottle: Metal, red musk, and resins.

 

On the skin: Metalic red musk with a tinge of resins. Odd, this combination slowly turns into cologne on my skin...

[hereunto]

In the imp, it reminds me of a perfume my grandma used to buy but I really couldn't tell you what it was since I have the memory of swiss cheese.

 

On my skin, it's super musky and heavily spicy. Within a couple of minutes it turns to sour BO on me which means the frankincense decided it didn't like me this time. Metal? What metal? There's no metal. I was going to wait to see if it was just a bad stage it was going through or if it would stay as nasty BO but thirty minutes later and it's like I never wore it. Ah well. For the best, I think. This one just isn't me.

[starfish327]

in the imp: metal and ozone. it makes my nose itch and reminds me of summer thunderstorms at night.

 

wet: reminds me a lot of mechanical phoenix but not nearly as painful as that was. i have problems with metal notes.

 

dry: metal. straight up metal. it's very clean and borders on cold. the mental image i'm getting is guns. the musk starts creeping in slowly and i think that it's saving the blend from the nightmare that mechanical phoenix was but it's still not very good on my skin chemistry. it's an interesting blend though.

[Wwindy]

Yikes. Musk, frankincense, and amber are all love notes for me, and yet this blend somehow isn't working at all. The metal here goes straight to aquatic + dusty/dry herbals on my skin. I'm not getting much by way of ambery depth at all, and little to no frankincense except for a bit of a sharp edge. The red musk does show up after a while, but feels very thin and light in this blend -- it's not rich and heady like it is in Mme. Moriarty and similar oils. Altogether, this particular combination of cologne-y aquatic, faint dry herbal notes, and pale red musk smells like -- ack, I hate to admit it, but -- it smells like an inexpensive drugstore body spray I used to wear in the summertime back when I was a teenager! My nose insists on processing this as "cheap perfume."

[jencallisto]

In the decant: Warm, bright musk.

Fresh on the skin: Fresh, spicy, sweet, clean. Almost alarming at first.

5 minutes in: Soapy in an almost astringent way, but with a mellow amber base. Calming down rapidly, thank goodness. I applied it on my lower inner arm, near the wrist that I put Sara Pezzini on a couple of hours ago. They're smelling killer both together and separately.

10 minutes in: Still bright but softened up a lot, clean but not quite soapy any more (at least not a in a bad way at all), and with a sort of sweet red cherryish note that I didn't quite expect but really like. This is working surprisingly well for me!

15 minutes in: The amber continues to bloom, warm and sweet, further rounding the scent. I am basically in love.

30 minutes in: It's one of those things, where it would be easy to hate this, but instead I like it. It's gone a little sour-bitter, and there's definitely still a sharp, searing, edged lightning bolt of metal in there, and so I'm not sure if I _love_ it, but I still mostly like it, and it's very interesting.

45 minutes in: This is starting to make my eyes water a bit, it's so searing. And yet, I still like it. Mysterious!

1 hour in: This has insane throw. And there are bits of it that are two strong for me. And yet, and yet.

10 hours in: ... I think this is completely gone.

 

Verdict: I liked this even though it made my eyes water. I might not need more than the decant I have, it's so strong I would feel kind of bad wearing it in places where other people might hate it. Intriguing, though.

 

One word: Bright.

[wl552]

There was a lab imp of Witchblade in my Twitter contest goodie bag. I was absolutely delighted to get this as it's been on my wishlist since the line came out.

 

I was a little leery of the metal notes in this, but my worries were completely unfounded. The red musk take center stage in this scent and I'm delighted. It's perfectly my kind of scent. It's a little sweet, a lot sexy with a waft of mysteriousness.

 

I definitely need a bottle of this.

[blu°]

I usually don't like neither red musk nor metal notes, yet somehow this called my name with the antiqued amber, the frankincense and the adjectives "antediluvian and sacred" in front of "metal".

 

And this really is quite pleasant. Mind, you, still not a scent for me, but I do enjoy testing it. I second Little Bird's House of Mirror comparison. There's something lovely, antique about the metal and amber. It's a precious metal and it's old yet strong and indestructible. The red musk does give a hint of liveliness, and it's not overwhelming at all.

 

I've already added my half decant to my swaps list, but writing this, I think I might reconsider and keep it for myself. It really is a very nice scent.