Portrait of an Unidentified Man as Mephistopheles

[darkchan]

Paul Mathey
A debonair lavender fougere cloaked in smoky red musk, red mandarin, and oakmoss.

In Bottle: Smells sharp, and mostly like musk.
On Wet: Mostly smoke. It's still fairly sharp and herbal, like maybe Lavendar and Oakmoss are smouldering on a fire. It actually reminds me of Goblin Rider.
On Dry: It's morphed a little. Now the Oakmoss is definitely more prominent, and the Lavendar is less apparent. The smoke is still strong with this one. And it really is similar to Goblin Rider, just more smokey, and maybe a little less woodsy.

[Atrous]

"Lavender fougere cloaked in smoky red musk" is a pretty apt description for this scent as it does feel like the musk is wrapping around the fougere but still allowing it to peek out.

The smokiness of the red musk is ever-present but not overwhelming. Its there to add some mystery.

Mandarin is so faith that its almost undetectable but its probably the mandarin that's giving this a touch of sweetness. I'm hoping with aging the mandarin comes out a bit more.

Oakmoss doesn't come out until the dry down and adds another layer of mystery.

Overall, very happy but I think I would be over the moon if the mandarin was stronger.

[LizziesLuck]

I was gifted some of this to try by a lovely forumite.

 

Its not something I would have picked for myself, and I find I'm actually often most excited to try things I wouldn't have necessarily picked.

 

I seldom wear anything with lavender during the day, so I decided to try this as a bedtime scent. In the bottle I so get a lot of lavender, but on my skin its all musk. As it dries the oakmoss comes out. I find this quite masculine on me. Its really nice though, I quite like it. Strong, good throw.

 

Oddly enough, on one part of my arm it got mixed with some leftover Muddy Puddles I was testing, and the two smell devine together.

 

Overall, this isn't really for me, but I'm grateful to have gotten to try it. I shall pay it forward to the next person in the spirit it was given to me, so someone else can test it too.

[Roogna]

red musk wrapped in the fougere

initially there's a sharp herbal note. that settles pretty quickly to have less sharpness/bite but is still there

mandarine comes out a bit more after it's been on for a few minutes and any hints of the fougere dies down

 

a very nice blend..I wish it had a bit less herbs and a bit more lavender

[forspecial_plate]

To me this is lots of red musk, with some sweet vanilla-like fougere that reminds me of hay or sweetgrass. Read on for the more detailed, long-winded review.... : )

 

I was confused by the impression of vanilla. So I looked up fougere again, and found that it would generally contain lavender and fern, plus some tonka/coumarin. Reading further I found that tonka and/or coumarin gives the impression of sweet grass or newly mown hay, and I thought "aahhh......that makes more sense". Also the tonka would be more of a base note, which matches what I am experiencing, the hay coming out later (rather than when first applied).

 

This doesn't remind me of the more 'masculine' or manly bpal scents that I've tried, it is more of an incense-y, red musk-heavy scent on a backdrop of sweetgrass or hay. On casual sniff, I would mostly pick up the red musk and it's very familiar to other bpal red musk blends. But the fougere does make this stand apart. I don't smell mandarin, so it must be just contributing to the overall feel of the scent. This is a winner and probably my favorite so far of the Halloweenies this year.

[Lavada]

Everyone has tried BPAL's Crowley, haven't they? (No? What do you mean "no"? Go order yourself five bottles and try it. I'll wait.)

 

Remember that scene in Good Omens when Crowley gets shot? Portrait of an Unidentified Man as Mephistopheles makes me think of what Crowley looked like in that scene - it smells remarkably like Crowley, but where Crowley is all suave leather, Mysterious Dude as Mephi is pissed off smoke and fire.

 

I like it.

Edited November 14, 2015 by Lavada

[zankoku_zen]

I get aquatic oakmoss, the fougere and a touch of the red musk. This smells like a slightly dirty smoky men's cologne, slightly powdery on thee drydown.

 

It literally smells NOT A NICE GUY. Medium throw, medium wear length.

[sunlitgarden]

In the decant: The smokiness in here is reminding me of incense -- there's a definite "new age shop" scent going on here.

On my skin: The smokiness is pretty strong. Michi says it reminds her of one of the "Dragon" scents. I think this smoky red musk is similar to what I got from Witch Dance. This scent is well-blended, overall. What I think is the fougere is smelling a little bit astringent. Oakmoss is doing its usual thing where I find it "smooths out" the other notes. I often find scents with smoky notes like this to be harsh and bitter, but I'm not really having that reaction here.

In the drydown, the smoke eventually backs off and it's mostly fougere + oakmoss. I haven't been able to detect the mandarin at all but I'm sure it's in there somewhere

Overall, I got this decant because I was curious, but I don't think I'll need more. But it's definitely an interesting scent.

Edited November 21, 2015 by sunlitgarden

[Allumina]

Wet I get the red musk and a tinge of what is reading to me as veviter (the "smoky"?). As it starts to dry down, the fougere starts to peek out. Unfortunately, something in the fougere is turning to powder on me. It's not a straight up screeching turn into baby powder (*waves at Juke Joint*), but it's enough to ruin the scent and keep it from really developing on my skin. I hoped maybe more settling would help and waited a few days before trying again, but got the same result. In general I do well with a lot of the lab's fougere scents, so this was disappointing. More for someone else, I guess!

[milo]

This is amazing. Smoky musk, of the siberian variety, along with something sweet, not sure what that may be, but there it is. Reminds me of Snake Oil, Crowley, and the like Nice. I wouldn't turn down any if it fell on my lap.

 

eta: Reminds me a lot of Haunted. Not sure why...

Edited December 19, 2015 by milo

[theredkilt]

I get entirely nag champa cologne from this blends. Maybe it's the red musk to blame for the final outcome.

[sarandipitee]

This one smells VERY similar to Tombeur on my skin, but replace the patch with oakmoss. Ok, so maybe the love child of Tombeur and Ekhidna.

 

It's nice, but there's this tiny aquatic feel that is making my head cringe a little (my head cannot do ozone or aquatics). It does lessen as the lavender comes out, but I think I'll stick with Tombeur (or finally buy myself that bottle of Crowley).

[DiesMali]

In the imp: Citrus peel and smoke.

 

Wet on my skin: This starts out very sharp and herbal on me, and it...smells like citrus-tinged Tiger Balm. Hrmmm.

 

Dry: This has a 'sports ointment' feel to it for the first hour or so of wear, and I think it's the lavender and mandarin doing that. Oranges do odd things on my skin, and I knew I was taking a chance with this. But! As it wears, the astringent sharpness mellows and it turns into a gorgeous smoky, tangy, herbal red musk cologne. It's masculine and really, really nice at this stage, and if it weren't for the first hour of 'weird' I'd try to track down a bottle. I still might, at some point.

[Blood onmy hands]

My decant is now well aged and red musk amps up on me to high heaven, but I was still sad to not get any of the 'lavender fougere' from this. I enjoy bpal's fougere and masculine blends. This is a big, incensey, slightly smoky red musk on me with a hint of sharp citrus. It goes a little grapey and reminiscent of nag champa incense on my skin. Strong red musk.