Cerberus

[~AmusedMuse~]

... A deep, rumbling scent, warm, soft and as cozy as a dog by a hearthfire, but with a fierce and feral soul: deep chocolate, deeper musks, with a dash of fig, bittersweet walnut, and the wild essences of juniper berry, cubeb and rum.

My Impression:
Rum,Figs & other unknown spices with a warm butteryness...Iloved it in the bottle but IT did not love me...and I so much wanted this one

[sookster]

orange and citronella upon application....perhaps something piney going on there....

turns more lemony after some time....

and that is it....a big old lemon is what i smell like with this one....does not last long either.......

[madelf]

This scent is amazing, and one of my new favorites.

 

It is deep, rich dark chocolate with the fig giving it a berry sweetness, particularly at the start. The musk is just hinted at, but it gives a grounding note to the sweetness and starts to come out more after extreme drydown.

 

This might be considered a foody oil, but it is dark and mysterious, not the cloying sort of sweetness one might expect.

[brownbear]

YUM!

This is soooo tasty. It is definitely a food scent on me.

And *jumping up in down for joy* it didn't go weird on me!!!! I expected it to go the way of the other rummy scents I've tried.

This one stayed very true from the bottle to dry on skin. I get warm, toasty, sweet, slightly figgy, a little buttery, rummy, slightly chocolatey, deliciousness.

I want to take a bath in this.

-cute roommie review- "mmmm that one's nice. it's not flowery."

[dcmo]

In the imp this smells like fig and chocolate. Initial wet is lemon, or citrusy. On dry down, this sweetens again to fig and chocolate, musk and light rum. Initially I find this quite masculine smelling, but it dries down beautifully to something I would consider a unisex scent. This has great staying power too! I really like it.

[aidenraine]

Oh god... in the bottle I smell overly sweet red candy, like the glaze on candy apples. I have the fear.

 

On me it is red red red nauseatingly redder than Red Moon red. Then it's slightly citrusy underneath the red torture. Fruit punch mixed with lemonade in the school cafeteria.

 

It IS like one of those chcolates filled with liquid cherry juice, and I HATE those. Why did I think I'd like Cerberus then?

 

Well, I'll be patient with it.

 

Oh, this is a shame. The drydown is really lovely- after about an hour it just becomes kind of nutty and musky.

[Imbrium]

My bottle of Cerberus has moved on to a better home, but I might as well add my review notes:

 

This scent is intriguing, and it's beautiful in the bottle - I blame my skn for ruining it on me. As soon as the oil touches me, it turns ... weird. I really can't think of any other way to describe it. The bottle's dark, foody scent turns into something akin to evil fig - bitter to the point of inspiring a pounding headache.

 

This smells lovely on a friend of mine, though - like nutty, chocolate musk.

[LupaWulf]

*drool*

Oh chocolate. I love that. There's a bit of citrus, or sweet fig maybe?

 

As I wear it, I notice a little bit of musk? The overlay of chocolate with sweet fig mostly covers it.

 

I'm rather fond of it, as it sort of feels furry and warm to me. Strange as it sounds, I enjoy the "chocolate dog" feeling I get.

[spanishviolet]

In the bottle, it smells sharp. Then on, I mostly get rum at first. The first few minutes aren't the best - I like bpal rum, but that's a little too much of it - but then it settles down into rummy-figgy-chocolatey goodness. When it's dry, it's absolutely delicious.

 

Only seems to last a couple of hours on me, but when I keep my bottle at work & reapply frequently, I end up with layers of wonderful cocoa & light musk at the end of the day. Yum!

[eisoj5]

This is definitely a fall scent; too bad it's still August! Cerberus is the first really foody scent I've tried and it's just lovely and warm. Bitter, spicy chocolate. It doesn't smell like my doggie (which is just as well) but I can easily picture one curled up by the fire, one head keeping a burning eye on me...

 

Definitely a keeper

[erikasilverstein]

Wow, this was not what I expected! In the bottle, I get a lemon-chocolate smell.

 

On my skin, wet and dry, smells an aweful lot like Lemon Pledge. But a bit sweeter. Like lemon sucking candies. Lasts a while, too. I think I can smell the fig, after an hour or so, buried somewhere in the lemon curds.

 

It's not a terrible scent, just so...so...not what I was expecting. There aren't ANY citrus notes listed. That I know of.

 

I'm befuddled. Thankfully, I am not the only reviewer to have this reaction....otherwise, I would be seriously concerned about my sense of smell :-) I wonder what note is causing that reaction?

 

ETA: I've deduced that the 'citrus' must be juniper berries...which my skin apparently amps up to 11! Juniper berries also, evidently, can small a bit like turpentine (hence the Pledge?)

Edited December 29, 2005 by erikasilverstein

[inkmonkeys]

Indeed, lemonheads immediately upon application.

...

BUT. If you give Cerberus 5 minutes or so, it morphs into a really lovely nutty-figgy-chocolatey scent with a lilting note that keeps it from diving into too-heady, too-foody territory.

My advice: give this one a chance, and for the first 10 minutes, don't commit any wrist-sniffies. The first stage of this puppy (no pun intended) is best when it wafts up to your nose. You'll suddenly start to smell something light, chocolately and delicious, will wonder where it's coming from, and *now* is the time for direct skin-sniffing action.

 

The Verdict: The first 5 minutes worried me, but this one is definitely a keeper!

[Caltha]

Cerberus

 

Got this imp in a swap with sacred_poetry.

 

I really enjoyed the scent of Cerberus when wet, a spicy, woody citrus. Very much citrus, lemon I'd say. However, the throw was different than sniffing my skin, sweeter and less interesting and appealing. Unfortionately, the drydown was much like the throw, a sweeter, less complicated scent that reminded me of the scented erasor-drydown of Akuma, only floral rather than fruity. I can't make out any notes any more, the citrus has eloped with the woods. It's also very faint after the citrus has faded.

 

I'll try it again just to make sure, but I will probably swap it.

Edited September 6, 2005 by Caltha

[sihaya09]

(Origin: Oblation caravan.) Bittersweet chocolate and lush maraschino cherry. This one was a bit too foodie for me, and chocolate scents have never fared well on my skin. This was not a scent that I would wear.

[Avery]

My boy was wondering what it was that I smelled like, and when I told him it was called Cerberus, he said "The three headed dog?! That's nice."

 

Regardless, this scent is *wonderful*, and my first BPAL love. It is through Cerebrus that I know there are others in that vast collection that will woo me. This didn't smell how I thought it would... I was waiting for more figs and nuts and chocolate, maybe a little smoke thrown in and the freshness of juniper lingering in the background (maybe like he just came in from . . . the cold? That doesn't make sense, considering the 'role' of the dog in question, but that was more what I was expecting).

 

Wet, I get a lot of citrus, but can smell something bittersweet calling up from under the fresh citrus-y burst....

 

Once I put it on, there's a hearty explosion of green juniper that dominates this perfume from start to finish. But I didn't think I liked juniper!! Oh, yes I do (and it doesn't smell anything like pledge on me, yay!). This scent is hard to capture in words, but it starts out a little more biting and cirtusy (maybe like how Cerberus would be when you first meet him) but then mellows and the sweet undertones come out and make me swoon. I've reapplied this one many times and my nose is practically glued to my arm. I'm not sure what is so absolutely divine about this one, but I LOOOOOVE it. I sleep more soundly with my nose buried in this.

 

Cerberus is warm, comforting and sweet (but not foody or sugary or floral [thank oz] at ALL) at the same time that it encapsulates such a bigger mood... winter, rough and tumble roving, protectiveness. I don't get chocolate out of this, unless it were some dark chocolate shavings, and I get only a smidge of fig and walnut, which round out the screaming juniper soooo gorgeously. Thankfully I have tracked down a 5ml of this baby. A little goes a long way with me and BPAL oils, I'm coming to find out. The dry down is very mellow, just a sleepier version of the initial application, and I am simply ecstatic that it doesn't turn an insipid old-lady powdery smell, which is typically my fragrance curse. Anyway, yay for the three-headed doggie love!

 

Edited September 26, 2005 by Avery

[malanna]

When I got Cerberus, I thought it would be a big ol' chocolate party, but it was not so. Also, my impression of Cerberus is just that of smelling like a wet and musky dog's fur. Even though Cerberus doesn't smell like that, I just think it does because of its name. But basically, Cerberus is a smooth, figgy scent with a dash of walnuts. Not so much chocolate. Woe.

[AngelFireHeart]

I bought 2 bottles of this thinking I'd complete the Oblation set bar 1 bottle of Oisin,

 

Well, I opened the bottle & could smell figs & something sickly & syrupy & something with an old musty type smell to it, so, knowing how BPAL can smell awful in the bottle I tried a very teeny tiny drop on, & OH MY GOD it's soooooo strong & overpowering, I immediately wanted to run to the bathroom and get it off, but I thought no, I should give it a proper try, So I left it on, An couple of hours later all I can smell is Cubeb, which is very peppery & dark, & there's still a sweet syrupy note in the background, I don't like this very much at all, it's far too strong & over powering

 

I'm afraid I'm going to have to get rid of one 5ml in favour of Oisin perhaps & decant the other one out as I rather like the bottle

[malabar]

I got no chocolate out of this one - to me, it smelled like a very vanilla-infused maple syrup out of the bottle, then dried down to a kind of dry, spicy fruitiness. My husband said it smelled like coffee to him (and he hates the smell of coffee), but I couldn't smell it at all. A shame, really, but this isn't going to be a keeper for me.

[Chantarelle]

In the bottle and first on there's a very strong, sharp smell of alcohol (the rum, I presume), which reminds me of why I dislike traditional perfumes.

 

This fades away almost instantly, to be replaced by lemon. I don't understand either.

 

The lemon being lemon, it soon fades away too, and I'm left with something vaguely cocoa-like, but honestly, I had a very hard time forming any sort of impression. I had to try it three times before I could even decide what it smelled like.

 

I don't dislike the scent, but it's pretty forgettable for me.

[jewelbug]

Imp: No chocolate or fig, which is what I was hoping for. Something oddly medicinal. I put this on my hubby, cuz we decided to watch the really cheesy sci-fi movie of the same name. Hehe.

 

On:

Wet: I CAN smell the walnut, but there is something "off" to it--like its half rancid. I also smell the rum. But there is no fig (the reason why I got this). NO chocolate. Only rancid alcoholic fermenting nuts with something even stinkier overtop, which I can only assume is cubeb--it's kinda medicinal smelling, and I really am not a fan.

2.5 hrs later, the evil smell is mostly gone and there is actually fig there, along with non-rancid black walnut smell. This stage is actually nice. But it's so not worth it, since the process of getting there is…intense.

 

Overall: At the start, this scent is horrifying. Like the mythical creature, I guess--its a close tie for my least favorite bpal ever.

I don't know what cubeb is, but I suspect it's largely responsible for the ultra-ick smell at the start. It calms into a figgy walnut, which is unique and nice. But this is DEFINITELY not for me.

 

ETA: This review makes me sounds so mean! I LOVE beth to the ends of the earth, and appreciate all the heart she puts into her blends. I blame my wonky skin chemistry for this--since it sounded like it worked so spectacularly on so many others. Wish it smelled like that on me! I also wish I could figure out what it was that smelled so bad on me so that I could avoid it at all costs. Hehe. Unless I want a husband repellent....

Edited November 29, 2005 by jewelbug

[yeahbutnobut]

Cerberus

 

In the imp: chocolate and rum! And also juniper, and something gingery/peppery?

Wet on skin: mmm, a fruity chocolate liqueur. Not bad. it's warm and sweet, with a boozy kick.

Dry on skin: this isn't bad! I really like this-it reminds me of those honey-lemon drinks, but with a booze-spice note. It's like a spicy hot toddy with chocolates filled with liqueur, quite medicinal but warm and cosy too, this is the sort of scent you'd want to wear on cold winter days when you're feeling a bit under the weather. The rum-gin note is very nice in this. It's also quite a masculine scent.

After a while: oh, the chocolate has made a welcome return, sweetening and adding it's lovely cocoa touch to the boozy-juniper scent, and I can also smell the fig now. This gets even better on drydown, it's lovely at this stage. I think I can make out a musk scent underneath as well.

Verdict: this was a pleasant surprise. I was worried about the rum, but in here, it is lovely. It's sweet, fruity, boozy, warm, spicy, comforting but with a bite. I'm surprised at how this smells like a hot toddy with chocolate…it's almost a lemony booze scent, quite medicinal (in a good way). And it's quite masculine or unisex-it would smell great on a man! I like this a lot, although it is so different to the stuff I usually wear or would gravitate towards. And the chocolate-fig-juniper drydown is wonderful. I will keep the imp of it, as I find this a very comforting scent for winter. (and I can't help but think of Hagrid's Fluffy when I smell this! )

Edited November 6, 2005 by yeahbutnobut

[SeaMonkey]

This is all chocolate, oranges, and figs. I get a little of the bitter walnut and juniper. I get a huge citrus note that is pretty strong for a while, but then, luckily, it softens.

[metaldog32]

Cerberus....I have had this 5ml for quite some time. Bought it I believe early this year...and the reason why??? I AM a metaldog..so I just kind of felt akin to purchasing this little "puppy"...awkward pun intended...

 

Yes..I know that this is really a ferocious three headed puppy..but he has his soft moments I am sure...kind of like me.

 

Initial sniff from bottle: Something citrus-like when I sniff close to the bottle..but interestingly enough when uncapped and about a foot away from me..the chocolate/rum note is what wafts up and hangs lazily around...how does that happen??? By the way.the chocolate is deep and dark..not overly sweet at all.

 

Applied wet on skin:This is where things get REALLY interesting. First on..and I mean literally the first second...I smell the deep chocolate...some sort of sweetness..could it be the rum??? Almost immediately...I get a huge wave of citrus..is this the juniper??? Right at that moment..I feel like I am getting a flashback of when I tried June Gloom..which isn't a good thing..because it was all Lemon Pledge...but this citrus wave doesn't quite make it over to Lemon Pledge territory..mighty close..but no cigar.

 

Couple of minutes on skin: Interesting...basically the citrus...and under all of that..I can sort of make out the deep chocolate/rum...but this is very much in the back..it's kind of like rum soaked lemons..I know..this doesn't actually sound appealing..but it kind of works..

 

Ten+minutes on skin..up to half hour:Citus/juniper has calmed down..and now it's more wafting chocolate/rum/ walnut with sweetness...is this the fig??? It sort of smells berry like...and the whole melange is actually very addicting...

 

Drydown: Hint of fig/berry...wafting in and out with the chocolate/rum/walnut base..very subdued..but still there. Funny..once I think I can't smell anything on my wrist..I get wafts of this here and there.

 

Staying power is good...6+hours..and the throw is not bad either.

 

Bottom Line: Cerberus is actually amazing...it is deep and warm..but has it's bright notes as well...I never thought with that huge "citrus wave" I would be able to like this on me..but amazingly...the fragrance evolves into this very quirky blend of notes that actually work and is quite addicting. I definitely see this as a winter scent..and I am very happy I actually have a 5ml to slather myself in. Usually when I do a review I tend to go to the next BPAL fragrance..but this time..I am going to enjoy wearing this little puppy a bit longer...a wonderful face changer of a fragrance..

 

PS-I didn't get any "wet dog" from this at all...

[AngellicMystique]

This starts smelling like lemon drop candy on me. After about 30 minutes, it smells like lemon candy rolled in pine needles.

 

This is not quite what I expected, and I'm glad I just got a decant of it in a swap.

[Hawke]

In the vial: Juniper berry. Must be. It's sharp and sweet at the same time.

 

Drying on my skin it was thick and slightly sticky smelling (not feeling, thankfully.) Obviously sweet. The sharpness faded pretty quickly and it because this fruity-honey sweet, slightly spiced warmth that was wonderful. Round and almost peachy. I'm not sure it invokes dogs sleeping by fireside for me, but that hardly matters. I love it anyway.

 

Like many others have reported, it disappears fast, though. Wish I had more to slather, but I'll make do with what I've got.