Spanish Red Carnation

[Ghost of a Rose]

A celebratory scent, spicy and joyful. This is the nation flower of Spain. It symbolizes the suffering of Christ, the passion of lovers, and the laurels of victory.

 

In the vial: It really does smell rather like real carnations. It isn't a typical floral scent; being far less sweet than other flowers, and spicy - somewhat like cinnamon and cloves but not nearly as strong. There's a strange, almost rank, overtone that I'm not sure I like. I feel the same way about the scent of real carnations, so that further proves its authenticity!

On me, wet: On me, there's also a green note that makes it even more realistic. In fact, the overall fragrance on my skin is WAY more realistic - amazingly so! - than it was in the bottle.

After 10 minutes: Less green and also less spicy now. Which means the rank note I don't like is more dominant. It's also going plastic. That sounds worse than it really is - this is still a very lifelike carnation. I just hope it doesn't keep going in the same direction.

After 20 minutes: It didn't. Instead, the spiciness increased and has now significantly overtaken the rank note. The spiciness is closer to clove than to cinnamon.

After 30 minutes: Alas, now the plastic note has taken over. But the other things are still there, too.

After 1 hour: Pretty much the same as above, but less plastic. It smells even less typically floral than it did in the bottle and at first on my skin.

After 2 hours: Now most of the plastic as well as the rank overtone has gone, leaving a very warm and lovely mild spice scent.

After 3 hours: Same as above.

After 4 hours: Very soft now. It has sweetened a little, otherwise is the same mild clove scent.


My verdict: This doesn't so much morph (which you wouldn't expect from a SN anyway) as it does cycle - different aspects take turns dominating, but overall the fragrance stays pretty consistent. I don't like the scent of carnations as much as I do other flowers that smell more "floral", and I feel the same way about this perfume. However, it is pleasant enough and deserves high praise for authenticity. I especially enjoy it in late drydown when it is spicier. It will be a nice occasional change of pace from my more typical florals, and would be lovely layered with them.

My rating: 4 stars

[countessmouse]

Lovely, spicy red carnation. My only complaint? It does not last!!!

[ami226]

On the skin: Beautiful carnations! It does smell pretty true to life with that slight aquatic/green hint to it. Smells like a fresh bouquet of carnations picked straight from the garden.

 

As it dries, this scent starts to get a spicy note. Mmmmmm, spicy carnations.

 

The carnation is my SO's favorite flower, so this one will definitely be sticking around.

[orata]

Spicy, clove-y fresh carnations! It does smell very realistic, and has a strong greenery component that I think could turn a lot of people off--it's reminiscent of the smell of cut flower stems as they start to get a little old. It fades pretty quickly on my skin, but is a wonderful, uncomplicated spicy fresh carnation scent.

[angharad]

Oh, I am so glad to have bought this. When I first tried this, it was still warm from the mailbox, and it was horrible -- soapy, overpowering floral. I gave it another try the next day after a night in cooler temperatures. Now it is GORGEOUS. It really is the perfect spicy floral. I just wish it lasted longer on my skin.

Edited August 15, 2012 by angharad

[Coldfire]

Decanted by Bookandbroom

 

Imp: Spicy carnation

Wet on Me: deep spicy carnation. LOVING!

Drying Down: Glorious Carnation!

Dry: Damn! This has lovely stay and decent but not annoying throw. Carnation is one of my favorite flowers but I can't have them or wear them at home since the fiance is allergic. So now with this Single Note I can indulge at work and not make him sick! LOVE LOVE LOVE THIS!!!!!!!

[blktauna]

So perfect and spicy carnation I got 4 bottles...

 

Exactly the rich, spicy, hits you on the back of the tongue scent of real red carnations. Wonderful.

 

Lasts longer in my hair than my skin but that's with most oils anyways,

[Gin]

I liked the old Carnation SN, but in my head, it was always pink and soft and shy (?). Spanish Red Carnation strikes me as being much bolder. In the bottle, it's perfection, but the first minute or so on my skin, it's so spicy that I wonder if maybe I should have chosen something quieter to wear. Then it smooths out, and I want to pour the whole 5ml in a bath and live in it forever (or until the water goes cold). On the backs of my hands it is spicy carnation! but on the underside of my forearms, I can smell some of the greenery, which is pretty freaking amazing, if you ask me. I'm so glad I got to try this.

[milo]

I didn't get a full bottle of this because I thought it would be similar to Lush's Potion. What I'm getting is lots of spicy carnation, very delicious and realistic, though I'd say Potion was a bit of a 'cooler' scent. This really is more like to Hod, I find, but with less amber. This is so similar to Hod, I don't need anymore, but will most likely use up the decant.

[AuroraLlew]

Delicious spicy carnation! A lot of Vanilla comes out on me in the drydown, with a touch of lovely spice and just enough greenery to make it seem like a real carnation. I love this scent, very comforting. One of few florals I can wear.

[Mrs.Black]

I've been an avid BPAL fan since late 2003 or early 2004 but I don't post reviews very often. (I can always feel glares from all directions when I admit to this).

 

I don't drink but I use alcohol in perfume form, for very much the same reasons that people drink. To escape, to celebrate life, to buffer myself from daily life shit, to numb myself sometimes. I have a huge perfume collection, BPAL and non BPAL. My overall holy grail is Tabac Blond extrait, by Caron, which is a leatherish perfume with some carnation, but not a carnation soliflore.

 

I think my perfume insanity has a lot to do with my quest for three holy grail subcategories: the perfect aquatic perfume, the perfect citrus and the perfect carnation soliflore. I haven't found the perfect aquatic yet. The perfect citrus, to me, is O de Lancome. I have gone to great lengths and expense looking for the perfect carnation perfume. Lorenzo Villoresi Garofano and Santa Maria Novella Garofano (both blind purchases) are both terrible. Prada No 2 (Oeillet) is not too bad but it doesn't really smell like carnation to me. I have one by Coty that is OK, and three by Dawn Spencer Hurtwitz that are OK too. Oeillet Sauvage, by L'Artisan, is way too harsh. The Commes de Garcons one is way too spicy. One that supposedly Oscar Wilde used to wear, whose name escapes me, is too astringent. I have several non-BPAL oils that are quite realistic.

 

Nothing comes close to the perfection that is Spanish Red Carnation SN. Being a Spaniard living in Australia, it is an amazingly nostalgic scent for me. Beth nailed it. This is Spain, passion, and the mystical path of Christianity - encapsulated in scent form. There's no doubt about it: it is the perfect carnation soliflore. The end of the quest is bittersweet, as if often happens.

 

I am hoping for its return, some day, so I can get vats of it. I did get a few bottles, but not enough to go all out signature scent with it, which is what I would like. In the meantime, I got two candles and I'll get some soap. Yay, soap! I'm also hoping for other carnation SNs too. Pink carnation would be great.

[tharsei-thanate]

Got this as a freebie in a decant circle order!

 

This is a scent I never would have thought to get on my own but I am so glad it got frimped to me. My skin loves spice and most florals smell good on me so naturally this smells amazing. It's spicy and floral and a tad green and I can't keep my hand away from my nose, haha.

 

My only problem is that my skin is eating it up! It's been on for only fifteen minutes and already it's faded. I'm hoping it's just being shy right now- I did just get it today, after all! Maybe once it settles it'll last longer and be even spicier. (: That would be fantastic.

[Lethran]

In bottle: Yep, carnations. I am actually quite fond of carnations and they are my second favorite floral scent (after hyacinth). I am not a big floral person, but carnation is on my list of one I often like in blends. This carnation is rich with that classic spicy edge and the full overtones of the real flowers. Wet: Just as rich and right on the skin. It manages to imply the stems as well as the flowers themselves. My skin amps the spiciness over the more traditionally floral tones in carnation and this is definitely happening here. I am really loving this. Dry: Fades fairly quickly along the same trajectory as a real carnation. Seriously, it’s like a time capsule of how a fresh buttonhole fades in the course of a day. It’s lovely, but expect to need to reapply.

[ajansuz]

I could have sworn I already reviewed this. I first fell in love with carnation perfume when I was a child and an elderly neighbor gave me a small bottle of it. I felt very grown up with my little bottle, and I used it until it was all gone. It was zingy and spicy, not at all a little girl scent. I feel like for well over half my life I chased that scent again and never found another perfume to compare. I had kept the bottle for sniffing until even that faded away.

 

When I saw this as a single note, I snapped it up. This is what I've been chasing all these years. It's that same spicy zing. This is the scent of a fresh carnation. There's something almost cinnamon touched to the fragrance. Sadly, it doesn't last terribly long on me, an hour or two at the most. It's so wonderful I'm happy to reapply. Even though it's not at all complex, I get lots of compliments when I wear it. It might be all in my head, but I also feel like it makes me focus better for creative tasks.

[abejita]

This, as others have said, is distinctly RED carnation. It's not a pink carnation (and I love both). It's amazing how different those two variations on the theme present.

 

I love how this scent shifts slowly from a cool floral spiciness to a warm one. It's like pulling a red carnation, greens and all, from a florist's cooler and then fixing it to a wrist corsage and letting it warm and bloom with your body heat.

 

I'm loving it.

[JazzieCazzie]

Received a sniffie of this from a lovely forumite in a swap ...

 

IN THE IMP: For a brief first moment, it's oddly acerbic and almost vinegar-like, but then the pure carnation rises out of the imp and envelops me.

 

Dabbed on wrist and in crook of arm, reasonably lightly since there's only about an eighth of an imp ... don't want to waste the preshuss.

 

WET: Strong, fabulous and divine spicy carnation. Kind of perfection.

 

DRYDOWN: Fades down a little too quickly for my liking, but am sure if I had a big bottle of this, I'd be able to slather and it would last longer. The final faint stages have a bit of myrrh-like powder to them.

 

OVERALL: It's always tough to write much about a single note because, you know, it's a single note. So either it's one you like or it's one you don't, but there's not that much to describe. SOOOOO. This is one I very much love. And hope I can somehow nab a big bottle somewhere somehow.

 

On a scale of 1-5, a 5.

[Monster]

This smells BETTER than a carnation (which I always thought smelled like an unripe flower, if that makes any sense). This really does smell like a carnation, just remove the bitter weirdness and replace it with a gentle sweetness. As it dries, it develops into a sultry, spicy floral. The throw is average and it only lasts about an hour before my skin eats it up. I'll have to try putting it in my scent locket. Spanish Red Carnation = perfection.

[hackess]

This is amazing. I put the tiniest drop on my wrist to test and I cannot stop smelling the gorgeous, intoxicating spiciness. It's true to the flower. No comment on throw, since I put so little on, but it's lasting for at least a hour so far.

[sunlitgarden]

The scent I associate with carnations is a spicy-smelling floral. I haven't really had the pleasure of smelling a real carnation with that note, as it's pretty much been bred out of commercial florist carnations that only really smell like "refrigerator". I have occasionally gotten a slight whiff of it from garden carnations though. In the bottle, the Spanish Red Carnation smell is mainly just a straight dose of that spicy-floral carnation smell I adore, but on my skin it's more than that. Much like some rose BPAL scents have a note that reminds me of a green stem and leaves (Rose Red, The Rose), on my skin there's a similar note in Spanish Red Carnation, which evokes a whole flower, not just its scent. Unfortunately, it starts to go a bit powdery on my skin.

 

Overall, the bottle scent is divine, but I'm not as fond of it once it starts to get that powdery note on my skin. The overall blend does not last too long on my skin either, it fades after maybe an hour or so. This blend might be good for layering.

[LizziesLuck]

Wet; Pure spicy sweet carnations. So spicy that they trick my nose into thinking it's smelling cinnamon! That happens to me with Frumious Bandersnatch,so I bet this is the same carnation note as that. Mmm. I love it. When I really sniff and think about what I am smelling, it's not really very cinnamon like, just an olfactory illusion. So far I can see wearing this alone, but also adding it to every carnation blend I have ever sniffed and thought, "wish the carnation was stronger!". Like Brisingamen.

 

 

Dry: As this dries it gets lighter and sweeter, a bit more subdued in it's spice. Reminds me more of the carnation from Alice now, which is lovely. <3

 

I have really been enjoying single notes, but it also gives me an even greater appreciation for the magic Beth creates with her blends.

[Cali]

Tbh I'm not familiar with what carnation is supposed to smell like.. but it's got the same freshness/sappyness that Liadain & Curithir has, but this is darker, a little more woodsier. Soapy. Slightly spicy. Not my thing unfortunately!

[theseagrows]

i've been wanting to try this for years, and finally tracked down a decant. i've tried very few single notes, but carnation has always been a favorite note, so this one has been at the top of my list to try. in the vial it smells like a real bundle of carnations and i am instantly transported back to my grandmother's yard, full of carnations, roses and gladiolas. i put it on my skin and it smells almost just like in the vial, but there is something else, slightly creamy and airy in the background. overall, a spicy carnation with a hint of creaminess. i am in love!