Seven Word Story: Wrath

[Atrous]

The latest subject of our latest #BPAL7wordstory contest has finally been enshrined in scent! The winning entry was submitted by Miss Pauline:

The poison worked slowly, to her delight.

Bitter almond swirled into black patchouli, with red amber, rum absolute, and lemon peel.

 

I had no luck with imps this time
Wrath, with its list of notes that I love, was pretty disappointing.
It started out promising with bitter almond and patchouli coming out but soon it turned into a mess. That's the best way I can describe this scent...It's just a mess.
Except for the amber, I detect all the notes but, for some reason, they just don't work together.
There's nothing unpleasant here but it's too jumbled for me to enjoy.

[zankoku_zen]

This blend opens up with a bit hit of almond, thane I get patchouli, and then a blast of rum. It dries down to a rum/amber blend with hints of patchouli. A very piratey wench kinda blend actually. Good throw and wear length.

[crimescenecleanup]

When I first cracked the bottle, I was stunned by how pretty this was. It smelled poisonous, sharp, delectable and expensive.

 

Testing it on skin, luscious red amber is at the forefront, and oh, it is good. The bitter almond steps up smelling like proper bitter almond, which can never be mistaken for cherry or cough syrup. It has a clean alcoholic note from the rum, which reads mostly as alcohol, with no sugar or spice notes - just a distilled white rum. The lemon peel is very bitter, strong and sharp in this. It is bracing and grabs your attention.

Altogether, this is a boozy, exotic amber, with a bright flash of citrus to get your attention. It has my attention. I have a huge crush on 7WS: Wrath.

 

This is all well and good until the patchouli shows up. This is a dry patchouli, it smells stale and papery and almost tobacco-like. For a few minutes this dessicated patch seems to suck all the life out of this blend, and mixed with the lemon peel it is almost too bitter and harsh to stand. Oh no! 7WS: Wrath is breaking my heart and trampling my dreams.

 

On full drydown, though, the sweetness of the amber really blooms, and offsets the brasher and more bitter notes.

Now it smells like the worlds' most expensive and fanciest almond soap, and I am OK with that. At this stage, we've worked out our differences, and I am in love with 7WS: Wrath.

 

bonus review: My husband (who rarely wears scented products at all) tested this and said that it "smells like Christmas trees" and is "very pleasant"

 

This is a radical departure from his usual review vocabulary used when I ask him his opinion on perfumes, which consists of the following:

 

"that smells like strawberries"

"that smells like candy"

"that smells like incense and cookies...like cookies baked in a headshop"

"I don't know what it is but I don't like it"

and

"Oh, that's BPAL's Snow White"

Edited January 29, 2017 by crimescenecleanup

[Blood onmy hands]

The almond and rum have a weird, cherry-ish, cough syrup scent to them here (and I usually enjoy the lab's rum blends), and the lemon sours the whole thing even further on my skin. I also usually love black patchouli, but the almond and lemon give it a sour edge here that makes it remind me of BO. It's very dry, sour earthiness.

[shamrocked]

I received a bottle of this today and I LOVE it. I am not one who is great at detecting various scent notes, but I love this in the bottle, wet on the skin, and in the dry down. I does change with each incarnation, but I find each stage equally pleasing and I am THRILLED I nabbed a full bottle on the offchance I liked it. Awesome blind buying! It is bitter and dark and slightly acidic and I would like to smell like this every day!