The Forest Reverie

[angelicruin]

THE FOREST REVERIE
'Tis said that when
The hands of men
Tamed this primeval wood,
And hoary trees with groans of woe,
Like warriors by an unknown foe,
Were in their strength subdued,
The virgin Earth Gave instant birth
To springs that ne'er did flow
That in the sun Did rivulets run,
And all around rare flowers did blow
The wild rose pale Perfumed the gale
And the queenly lily adown the dale
(Whom the sun and the dew
And the winds did woo),
With the gourd and the grape luxuriant grew.

So when in tears
The love of years
Is wasted like the snow,
And the fine fibrils of its life
By the rude wrong of instant strife
Are broken at a blow
Within the heart
Do springs upstart
Of which it doth now know,
And strange, sweet dreams,
Like silent streams
That from new fountains overflow,
With the earlier tide
Of rivers glide
Deep in the heart whose hope has died --
Quenching the fires its ashes hide, --
Its ashes, whence will spring and grow
Sweet flowers, ere long,
The rare and radiant flowers of song!

A sunlit ancient forest, dotted with wild roses, grape vine, and queenly lilies, clothed in swirls of opium smoke.

I get mostly smoky grapes on my skin. I can smell some floral mixed in as it dries, but I don't smell roses or lily specifically. This is like sinister grape on my skin. I do like it though.

[Iceblink]

The grape is front and center when this is freshly applied but it quickly dies down to leave a really nice smoky-woody-evergreen smell. There is the merest breath of roses and lilies underneath it all. The opium does get stronger the longer it dries but the woods/forest are the main attraction here.

[edenssixthday]

The Forest Reverie - I tend to dislike forest scents, but this is definitely an exception. I barely smell the typical woods/leaves/forest floor notes and instead, I smell the sweetness of opium smoke (such an amazing fragrance!) and more than anything else, I smell the grape vine. It’s slightly woody, slightly green, and slightly fruity in a grapey/winey kind of way. I don’t smell the lily at all and the rose is subtle and adds a touch of elegance to this blend. I think this is an unexpected collection of notes and the effect is gorgeous.

[tailoredshirt]

When I first put this on, I smelled something sour and sharp, and I couldn't place it right away. But then I realized that it was the grapes and opium smoke, which was just not a good combination for me.

 

After a while it faded to a sweet fruity, smokey scent. This is much more bearable, but still not for me.

[hkhm]

imp: i know there's no patchouli listed in the notes, but it has that same wonderful gritty, smoky scent that all the old, resinous patchouli bottles have.

 

wet: hmmm, the sweetness of grapes without the fake kool-aid grape scent. and a pervasive smoke scent. no rose and no liliy for me either...

 

dry: i would not say this is a grape scent once dry, there is a fruity sweetness but it's not grape anymore. the opium smoke is very lovely over the sweet, fruity base.

[Blood onmy hands]

I love the color of this oil (a very dark brown that I can't see through at all). And I really like the scent as well.

 

The Forest Reverie reminds me of The Zadok Allen Vineyard. It's like a very dark, thick, not-so-sweet, grape wine (definitely not as sweet as most of bpal's wine notes). Underneath that wine-like scent is a sexy, confident, smoky, dark floral perfume smell. There's also a little bit of something earthy, like patchouli, that smells like a touch of dry leaves. The earthy quality gets stronger in the drydown, but doesn't overpower the fruitiness.

 

It makes me think of an evil, sexy lady sipping a dark wine in a forest at fall, feeling very peaceful and content with herself. I'd say that this is fruity and earthy, with a smoky floral edge. I like this one a lot.

[animalcule]

THE FOREST IS ON FIRE!! THE GRAPES ARE BURNING!!

 

This is possibly the worst blend ever for me. Too bad I ordered it before I realized just how overpoweringly strong grape, wood, and any sort of smoky stuff is on me. No more wood scents for me, I promise.

[Venneh]

In the frottle, I'm getting grape-rose-opium, a really interesting combination. On my skin, it's mostly opium. Urgh.

[jizatt]

I thought this would be forest magic on my skin. I love forest notes, I love opium. I'm okay with a buried rose, same with grape. I like lily okay and thought grape vine might not be actual grapeyness. On my skin? This was horrific, maybe my worst BPAL test ever =( It smelled like tobacco, but in a chewed and spit kind of way. I almost want to try it with a different imp, maybe mine was... bad.

[moon_lemming]

In the imp, The Forest Reverie smells dark green and almost pine-y -- it has a pitch to it. It reminds me of LUSH's Tramp, but it's not a scent dupe or anything.

 

On my skin, the grape shows up as the blend dries and sweetens it; I actually thought I smelled honey at first. The opium, I guess, adds a smoky richness to everything else. Not appearing: lily. THANK GOD.

 

I was frimped this and I'm glad: I actually really like it! I don't know if I'd wear it often these days, but it's nice to know it's there when I do want something along these lines.

[Geminirubyshoes]

The Forest Reverie is not my usual bag of notes, but I am a sucker for opium and the general description got me.

In the bottle it's smoky, sweet herbal schtuff. When I first put it on I swear it smells like tea tree oil ( this may be what grape vine turns into on me, I've never had it in anything before). Dry it had become warm, smokey soft opium with just a tiny detectable amount of roses. I want to go read a book in the woods now.

[yokaitenchi]

The scent calls me back to my first days of testing BPAL--I'm not sure what it is, but it definitely reminds me of that. This scent is juicy like crushed vine, berry, and florals, yet there's a mysterious, somewhat sinister haze hanging around the edges. It kill me that the rose goes metallic on me, because the rest of the scent is gorgeous and, frankly, just like a wild reverie, but only once it hits my skin, so I can't use a burner or a locket to capture the same fill. Wafting throw of about a foot and a half. As it dries, the throw increases to about two feet, but it's light, like a memory

 

Damn, damn, damn that metal note It's not even the subtle metal that I sometimes get--it's like a mouthful of blood.

[proserpine]

Wet this smells like a grape vineyard, mixture of sweet grapes and green note. Once dried, all I get is cypress.

[Reedsong]

In the imp, Forest Reverie is just that - an almost drugged forest, drunk on its own mystery and delight, exactly how I hoped it'd smell. Sadly, the oil becomes this weird, pervasive, fake-sweet rose on me, something like Crabtree & Evelyn's Rosewater soap mixed with faintly rotting leaves and forest underbrush. I was really looking forward to this one, but it smells so old-ladyish and so un-enchanting on me. Away it goes.

[ancilla_morte]

This is the perfect patchouli on me, even though patchouli isn't listed as a note. It reminds me of a cologne my uncle always wears: clean, elegant, masculine, musky. I put the TINIEST drop on my wrist to test it, knowing it would be strong.

I love this one and will definitely wear it!

Edited August 11, 2010 by ancilla

[zankoku_zen]

Dirty grapes, patchouli and a swirl of opium smoke. The swirl is very similar to the one in Gun Moll, but without something to truly sweeten this blend up it ends up in a fairly masculine territory for me.

 

In other words, this is cologne for Satyrs. Yup. Definitely.

[starfish327]

well i guess this is what happens when the forest decides to rise up against you...

 

in the imp: woody grapes:

 

wet: that sweet koolaidy grape note i love so much in bordello and smoke. i'm not sure i like this combination. if the smoke were more assertive maybe, right now it just reminds me of grapes and stale cigerettes.

 

dry:....somone left the grapes to rot on the vines in the sun.

 

think i'll pass.

[Spork]

not sure what this smells like...but it's a very familiar smell! a little bit like some guy i knew and he's apparently eating some grape jelly not generic grape jelly, but something fancier and a bit tart...it's a really clear and weird mental picture. think this one will be wandering to another happy home

[crebbsgirl]

Smoky roses for me. The grape vine note showed up in the drydown, but for the most part this remained pretty much roses and smoke with a hint of woods.

[Nymeria]

Opium smoke. Lots and lots and lots of opium smoke. Which is not delicious on me.

 

Good for wearing: if I want to get out of work by convincing someone the bar is on fire and we need to evacuate.

[Thursdae]

I rubbed a little Forest Reverie in the crook of my elbow, and before you could say "Sweet Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn," I felt my phantom testicles descending.

 

If you want to smell like a boy in a really, really good way, here are the steps:

1. Apply The Forest Reverie

2. That's it! You're done!

[Ashenrook]

Yeah... No big review for me. The ultimate fate for this one was running to the washroom to scrub it off with a brush. Being that Forest Reverie had, well, a "forest" note in it I already had a hunch that it might not work on me.

 

It...didn't not work out as I planned. While the evergreen note did go car freshener on me, as it sometimes does, the combination of opium smoke and grapes just made this pretty terrible smell. I didn't want to take any chances and let it set in, so... Off it went!

[sunlitgarden]

The Forest Reverie

 

Very dark oil. Pine! Grounded pine with light swirls of very fragrant smoke. I'm not getting florals or grapes. I am always on the quest for the perfect evergreen forest scent, and this is a great contender. Possibly bottle-worthy.

[reconditarmonia]

Fruit, smoke, forest. Not for me, though since this was a frimp and the only way it would have worked on me would have been if everything disappeared but the roses, I'm not too disappointed.

Edited November 13, 2010 by reconditarmonia

[filigree_shadow]

I didn't look at the notes before I put this on, and I sniffed it for a while and let it dry. THEN I looked at the notes. Grape? Wha--? I went back and sniffed it and realized that yeah, I guess I can smell some grape. Didn't know it until I saw it was in there, though.

 

Mostly what it smells like is a deep dark scent that's very reminiscent of some kind of resin, with a whole lot of opium smoke. It's sweet, too, in that way that resins can smell sweet. Like pine sap. That kind of sweetness.

 

Not usually my type of scent, but I gotta admit it smells very at home on me on this cold winter's night.