Young Pine Saplings

[Mellifluous]

Cream, clove, ginger, and honey.

Oh young pine saplings, you smell so spicily sweet in the bottle. And actually a lot like Mother ginger in my opinion.
On my skin however, you do show the deeper, warm, gingery spiciness (as opposed to the fresh zingy note in MG). I get the cream in there too way at the bottom, as is usual for me. For whatever reason this one did not last too long on me, except if I sniff with my wrist right up to my nose.. Which actually I dont mind because really strong spicy scents that are very persistent just remind me of old ladies perfume.

Overall, I think this is a very nice scent, that is a bit more wearable than mother ginger or gingerbread poppet.

As I said to a friend, all these shungas smell really nice to me! and there was only 2 that I wasnt totally in love with... but they are both still worthy of getting a bottle.

[hkhm]

bottle: at first sniff, this smells extraordinarily similar to diary of a lovestruck teenage cannibal... just without all the fruit.

 

wet: this does the same creamy smooth thing that diary of a lovestruck teenage cannibal does, but with the clove in place of fruit it becomes a more mature scent.

 

dry: creamy, honeyed ginger and spicy clove. this has become an instant favorite and i suspect i will be buying at least one more bottle.

[AnArtfuldodger]

This definitely reminds me of some sort of spiced cookie....but it's not *sweet* sweet or cookie-ish the way Gingerbread poppet is. It's more of a biscotti scent, gingery, like something I'd like to dunk in my tea.

[cfrancesca]

Creamy spicy ginger, definitely the same ginger I got from Mother Ginger and Playing with a Loaded Gun. As it dries it gets almost foody, and makes me think of a wonderfully creamy and spicy honey chai, I also get a biscotti-type scent. The clove doesn't stand out (might be well-blended and just making the blend spicier).

 

I find it really beautifully unique, creamy, spicy and comforting. However, this type of ginger just doesn't work on me, it's too fresh smelling (it reminds me of freshly grated ginger), zingy and almost citrusy.

[angburfield]

I am so in love with this one..INCREDIBLE..I think clove does it to me every time. Then combined with the ginger and cream it is sweet and spicy (my combo) gourmand...then to frost my cupcake I get hints of pine (OMG)..this is TDF..so sensuous..warm..enticing...with different levels that just build upon one another to make the perfect combo.

[lamenteuse]

in the bottle: Sweet creamy spiced tea

On the skin: Fresh ginger with a heavy layer of cream. Not much clove, but a lot of sweetness.

 

I'd prefer if this was heavier with the cream and honey, but it' a good scent. I bet it will be amazing in warm, humid weather. Actually, I can see myself getting a backup bottle of this...

[Antoinette]

I took a chance on this one, wasn't sure about the clove note. Happy to report, my chance paid off. What a beautiful scent.

 

In the bottle: I get mostly cream and ginger. Oh, how I love me some ginger!

Wet on skin: This is so soft, warm and comforting. I only dabbed on a drop for testing but already feel like I've been enveloped by a warm blanket of scent. I can definitely pick out the clove now, but it's not overpowering at all. I find it sweet and gentle while the other notes create warmth. The cream, ginger and honey mesh so well together and create such a nice framework to temper the clove.

Dry down: A very nice blend. About six hours after applying, I smell the clove more than anything else but find I don't mind, like I thought I might.

 

I'm really happy with this one. It reminds me of gentleness, kindness and a fuzzy good kind of warmth. Also, as an aside, it seems to go really well with Nymphia. I'm skin testing it right now too (on my other wrist) and they smell so pretty together when I hold both wrists up to my nose at the same time. Maybe Young Pine Saplings will be nice for layering. I just know that I love it!

[Evilynn]

in the bottle: shub-y ginger and the clove smells almost peppery to me. Not much cream and honey from the bottle.

wet on the skin: At first it smells like a more peppery version of Shub, I think I might get "pepper" from clove+cream, because the lab's cream note can go all kinds of strange on me. Uh oh, the cream is amping and this is probably never going to work out. :/

drydown: Sour cream and clove. The cream does burn off after an hour or so, and I'm left with mostly clove and a little bit of dry ginger. I never got even a hint of honey from this.

 

If you love Shub and/or clove-y scents, go for it. I took a chance on this and the cream went bad on me (it does the same in Boo), but even if that ages away I'd be left with almost single note clove, so off to swaps it goes.

[abejita]

This reminds me of Love's Philosophy, but with a stronger character. The ginger note is very fresh, with a good bite to it. The cream is the other dominant note, it's very rich. The clove gives a slight velvety texture and the honey sweetens it (though I don't get a strong honey note here, it seems to play a more supporting role). The wear length is not very long, sadly, but I like the scent enough to overlook that.

[edenssixthday]

Young Pine Saplings - Now, I love Playing With A Loaded Gun and Mother Ginger and more often than not, I enjoy clove scents, so this is the scent from the Luper update that I was the most excited about. Sadly, it's horrible on me! The ginger has the potential to be a sweet and pretty ginger on me, but the clove note is extremely powerful and, when blended with the ginger, gives the ginger the same vibe as the super strong, bitter and fiery red ginger note that's found in blends like Saw-Scaled Viper. The cream tempers the overwhelmingness of the spiciness a bit, but not enough for me. I don't smell the honey in this at all, but that's probably because that clovey-gingery spiciness pretty much takes over the entire scent. It's extremely powerful when I first put it on, but once it dries down, it has pretty low throw and it fades very, very quickly.

[Nepthys]

Pretty scent, though I'm not in love with it. For about an hour, it is way too heavy on the clove and ginger, a dry, almost burned-out scent. Eventually the cream and honey come forward just enough to soften this into something nice. This is a cozy autumn/winter night scent, and I'll probably layer it with scents like O or Womb Furie to bring out the honey in it.

[Venneh]

In the bottle, this is creamy clovey ginger. On my skin, the ginger, which is the same lemony ginger as in Mother Ginger, made dusty by the clove. It just... isn't quite working for me, sadly.

[spanishviolet]

At first sniff, I thought this might be The One True Scent, it was so beautiful. All my favorite spices over a wonderful soft cream — not too foody, just spicy goodness!

 

But the throw is fairly close, and it doesn't last very long. It's worth slathering & repeating though, and heaven in a scent locket.

[tarotgirl99]

Young Pine Saplings is la yum on me. Much like a less sweet Gingerbread Poppet on me, with fabulous throw and longevity. It would be bottle-worthy if I didn't have plenty of the Poppet. As it is, I will enjoy this imp and consider snagging a partial bottle if I can.

[cherrycherry]

I took a gamble with this one, as spices don't always work so well on me. It was the cream and honey that sold me in the end and man am I glad I took the plunge and ordered a 5ml bottle unsniffed. This is creamy and sexy. I imagine it will age beautifully. Yum. It's also very sweet and has wonderful through. May possibly need another bottle.

[Dark Alice]

For once I don't smell like cream. But I do smell like clove and ginger balanced by the sweetness of honey. It's okay. It's kind of meh actually. I actually smell like a ginger/clove cookie. This will go onto to someone who will love it more than I!

[strahlend]

Somehow this ends up reminding me of Elephantine Colossus. When I tested this without looking at the notes I thought it seemed kind of candy/sweet/popcorn/foody with the lightest touch of red musk. The clove isn't sharp. The cream isn't pronounced. I guess it's the ginger and honey that's giving me the candyish feeling. Overall it's interesting but not what I was hoping for.

[xscpx]

I don't know where it went wrong, but this smelled like dirty socks on me. It was sour and sickly smelling and was actually making me queasy. Sad, it sounded so beautiful. Alas, my skin hates it.

[MCS4096]

Hello rice pudding! I love to eat rice pudding but I am decidedly NOT a foody... Even though the notes in this kinda aim for sweet, I'm a bit surprised at just how foody this does feel to me.

 

I don't get the souring of the cream like some have, but I do get something smelling a bit "bready" around the edges... primarily clove and ginger, but yes that cream is there adding a heaviness and damn if this isn't just incredibly sweet! Dunno if I will wind up keeping it.. I do love the artwork tho

[cuervosueno]

Yeah, this is "meh" on me too. I was hoping for sharp, fresh ginger and cream, and I got something sort of vaguely like Mother Ginger, which is vaguely foody, but neither like real gingerbread nor like fresh ginger. It smells vaguely musty in the bottle and kind of sharp but brown on me. Not as awful as I've made it sound, but not good either.

[dreamingjune]

In bottle: Creamy ginger with a touch of something fresh.

 

Wet: Like a clean version of Gingerbread Poppet without the bread. I still get the fresh almost herbal note and I believe it is the combo of honey and clove on my skin. I usually amp clove but I am getting absolutely none of that.

 

Dry: The honey in this is ruining it for me I am fairly certain. There is something very off and sour about this. Still no clove, just icky, sick-smelling honey with a touch of ginger to make the situation worse.

 

Overall: Pass. No real depth here and my skin chemistry is making a mess of things.

[Jenny Goat]

I thought this was soft and pretty in the imp, I caught the whiff of pine with the spiciness of the clove underneath. On my skin, I can barely smell anything and the faintness of scent that was there was gone after an hour.

[diBenjamin94108]

It's remarkable that there could be a scent that smells like cream but apparently it exists. When I ordered this, I thought the ginger and clove would dominate and whatever 'cream' could be there would be in the background, but no. It's got a ginger-clovey scent, of course, but it had round, creamy edges. Hard to describe!

 

I love Japanese prints, and I'm trying to figure out how the scent relates to the print pictured on the BPAL site, as an illustration. I googled it and it's Hokusai, who did The Wave. The series is Kinoe no komatsu -- (Languishing for Love aka Young Pine Saplings), circa 1814.

 

Maybe the cream is an olfactory metaphor for sex.

 

Anyway, I like the scent. It's unusual. Someone else said "comforting" and I think that's true, it's that creaminess that seems comforting. Mama milk. Primal comforting smell.

 

Edited to add: If you forget about the Japanese theme and don't try to connect it to the label art, it smells like chai latte.

Edited February 26, 2011 by doralice

[ivyandpeony]

So, different skins & different noses we all have - I don't smell cream or detect the cream note in this one at all. In the bottle and for about the first 45 min. or so, there's lots and lots of ginger. It's a fresh, bright ginger as opposed to a candied ginger (think Mother Ginger or Sudha Segara ginger vs. Gingerbread Poppet). I'm surprised there isn't pink pepper listed because in this stage, it's what it reminds me of - that spiciness in Hermia or Pepper or Lovestruck Teenage Cannibal. Maybe this is the combo of the ginger + clove that my nose is just reading as similar to pink pepper.

 

Anyway, I like the wet stage even though this spice is acting a little pushy on me, but the drydown? Oh, my, it is delicious. For once I am not amping clove & I get this beautiful spiced honey that's not like any other BPAL I have tried. In this stage it's almost like candied ginger, a sprinkling of clove and a honey that is creamy (as opposed to sharp or crystalline) but doesn't smell like cream. I agree with the chai latte & rice pudding comparisons.

 

A comparison to some scents I thought this might resemble before actually trying it - Bengal is much hotter in feel because of its cinnamon. And when cream is listed as a note, I expect that distinctly dairy cream note that's in Castitas bath oil, but here I don't get that at all. Seems like the cream is just there to kind of soften the edges and hold the other components together.

[ajansuz]

This one disappointed me on my skin chemistry. In the bottle, it smells delicious, sweet, creamy, gingery goodness, very much like a delicious chai.

 

Wet for about the first three minutes on my skin it smelled *exactly* like a bowl of fruity pebbles or froot loops, including the milk.

 

Dry down, the ginger went so sharp it literally burned the back of my throat. No honey, no more cream, never even a hint of clove.

 

Then it went kind of sour for about an hour, and then it was nothing but kind of meh ginger, not nearly as wonderful as the ginger of Shub. It's that time of the month for me, so I'll give it several more tries before I say it's total fail. At the moment, I'm just not nearly as impressed or in love as I should've been with all the wonderful notes.