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BPAL Madness!
Melantha

The Jersey Devil

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The scent of the wild, hauntingly beautiful Pine Barrens of New Jersey! Pitch pine with blackberry leaf, cranberry, cedar wood and tomato leaf.


Hubby tried this one and I'm starting to get a bit jealous 'cause he's actually having better luck than me. grrrrr......lol.

It started out all pine and sweet cranberry with a bit of cedar and sweetened more as it dried down, but somehow still remaining very masculine.

Love it! On the bottle list!

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In vial: Whoa, sweet berries and green leaves.

 

Wet: cranberries, for sure. It's tart-sweet, with a sharp green scent. There's an astringent note here that's irritating my nose.

 

Drydown: the sharpness is gone, and now it's pure berry and pretty green notes. There's a subtle pine note behind the blend, but it's barely there.

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First impression: I love love love this. I get the pine and tomato leaf right away, followed by the cranberry and blackberry leaf. I wasn’t sure what to expect from tomato leaf, but it adds a nice spiciness.

 

This blend is just so HAPPY to me. It’s a tad Christmas-y, so maybe that’s what’s doing it, but not overly so. It’s not a “keep sniffing your wrist” blend, it’s a “hold your wrist to your nose until you have to come up for air” blend. It’s been a long time since I had one of these gorgeous discoveries. Apparently it’s also a cure for a stomachache, since I’ve had one for the past hour or so and now it’s vanished. Probably a Top 10…but I think my top 10 might have to turn into a top 20 pretty soon. The much-later faint drydown is even better than I could have imagined.

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Wet: A slightly bitter leafy scent like a slight breeze. Hard to pick out the cedar as anything but a woody undertone. Something sweet and a little musky.

 

Dry: The sweetness resolves as berry. Most of the bitter greenery disappears.

 

Finish: Musky

 

Duration/throw: No throw. Down to the wrist by the 3 hour point.

 

The Jersey Devil is pleasant enough, but not one I think I'll be reaching for frequently (my new standard!) so it goes into the swap box. Someone more outdoorsy may find this one to be their dream scent.

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I accidentally mixed half the bottle into perfume this morning, but that's okay, because I plan to keep it.

 

In the bottle, I get mostly the tomato leaf and berries, with a top note of cedar (yay!) wood. As it dries, the berry scent balances with the wood notes. It's nice, but not too woodsy, something I can wear year round.

 

(Being from north Jersey, I was totally convinced that when I heard Beth was putting out a "Jersey Devil" scent that it would smell like oil and petrochemical refineries. I'm glad it smells like the Pine Barrens instead!)

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In the imp: This naughty little thing broke en route, and I was like, "WTH smells kind of like Black Forest?" Indeed, the pine, pine, pine is the mark of this scent in its imp.

 

Wet: Right away, this goes in the Alecto/Lear family of scents (which is good, seeing as how I <3 Alecto and like Lear a lot). The blackberry leaf behaves a lot like the raspberry leaf in Alecto, except this is a bit cooler and deeper with the pine (the vetiver in Alecto is not strong on me).

 

Drydown and wear: This gets nice and complex; I can discern the tomato leaf and the cedarwood as it morphs. This imp is definitely sticking around.

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In the vial: Oranges, cool grass, rain. This reminds me of another BPAL scent but I can't place it. Alice maybe? Could be way off.

 

Wet: It's like Yggdrasil with ripe berries grown in shadow. Or like a sweeter Nephilim.

 

Dry: I'm smelling all these things I smelled before.. but also peanut butter. Nutty, freshly pounded nuts. Yep. Berries in shadow, forest, rain, and peanut butter.

 

I like this! But I'm not sure if it's quite bottle-worthy for me.

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The Jersey Devil

 

In the imp: pine and cranberries, and a warm, deep green note which I think is tomato leaf.

Wet on skin: pine and berries and mushed up leaves.

Dry on skin: mmm, this is really nice. Whilst most pine scents at the Lab are distinctly wintry and often dark, this one is warm and rich and brings to mind a garden by a pine forest in summer. This is a scent of sun warmed leaves and berries…I think the tomato leaf gives a very 'garden-like' scent to this, whilst the pine suggests wild forests, I smell blackberry brambles here too. I smell cedar at the base, a soft wood binding the leaves, pine and berries together.

After a while: after a moment when I worry that the cranberry would turn to fermented fruit (like it did in Punkie Night, I think) it then turns to a pleasant dry cranberry scent. The pine has retreated and the deep green of tomato leaf and the warm wood of cedar are now more dominant. This now smells like mashed leaves and berries spread over wood and warming in the sun. It's a little faint now, though. It does smell like what I hoped Alecto would smell like (that blend turned to uber-olive on me).

Verdict: this smells like a garden in late summer-early autumn, bordering a pine forest. I smell warm green tomato leaf and sun heated cedar planks, mingled with crushed berries and wild brambles and pine, a real mix of the garden and the wilder outdoors. It's very evocative, very fresh and natural. It doesn't last long but the drydown of dried cranberries over woods and deep evergreen greenery is very nice, and also very warm. It's not something I see myself wearing a lot but it's a very nicely crafted scent, genuinely outdoorsy, and it makes a change having a summery pine scent as well.

Emoticon rating: :P

Is it a keeper? I like it but it's not something I'd wear much. Nicely evocative though.

If you like this, try: Alecto, Lampades, Bewitched, Hemlock, Punkie Night

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Initially, this was very sweet pine/ceder. The cranberry got lost, but might have been contributing to the sweet/resinous evergreen effect. But after a minute or two of drying, this was almost pure tomato leaf! I *adore* the scent of tomato leaf...it's the smell of gardens and getting real tomatoes at a farmer's market and summertime and growing things. After a while, it dries down to a faintly sweet waxy evergreen again (all evergreen does that on me eventually), so I think this is more of an "aromatherapy" kind of scent for me, one to wear and sniff and get reenergized, then wash off. It's also kind of an odd scent as a perfume on me; I really do smell exactly like a tomato plant!

 

I can see it also working very well layered with something that would add some complexity and provide interest once the tomato leaf had dried down. Maybe something like Luperci?

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Frimped - Thank you :P

 

Imp: mmm I smell pine trees, plus a certain fruitiness

Wet: now the tomato leaf is coming out to play with the pine and the berries - lovely! I'm so happy that the cedarwood is not pulling the pencil shavings trick on me!

Dry: this is very nice. The tomato leaf is gone though. :D But at least this is not wierdly evergreen (like Yggdrasil was on me, sadly) and it doesn't smell too wood-chip like. It's rather masculine, but I do tend to like that - in fact, the pine scent is roughly the same pine note on me as Dracul, which I like too. Only the drydown is sweeter in this one, compared to Dracul.

 

So I'll be hanging on to the implet for a bit, but I hope to find *the* perfect foresty blend one day...

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Thanks ivyandpeony for the imp!

 

This starts out very very berry on me - I didn't remember the notes in this one, although I remembered something about berries, but I didn't expect it to be so WOW, juicy berry! right off the bat. Not that I'm complaining. :D

 

After a few minutes the pine and cedar and tomato leaf come out to play and ground those playful cranberries and blackberries. This is a really rich, wonderfully outdoorsy scent - I love it and need a bottle, stat!

 

:P

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I don't think I posted a review for this beauty...It doesn't work that well on me, but on my hubby---AWESOME! There is a strong berry smell over the wood at first...it's fresh and nice, but the berry gets tamed a little as the wood warms up. :P

 

I am so glad I have some of this for him to wear!

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In the bottle:

Dark and delicious - definitely can smell the sharp pine twang, with berry, wood and... yes, tomato leaf, weirdly enough.

 

Wet:

I can tell right now that I'm going to want to put this on the boy and that he's going to resist :P Pine strikes me as being very masculine in certain scents, and this is no exception. Cedar with a pine twang, traces of other berry and green. This reminds me of a big black dog in a forest... but I couldn't tell you why... but I swear that it has nothing to do with the product description. I didn't even read the lit part until right now, after typing that it reminded me of a dog.

 

Dry down:

The pine seriously backed off - this is no longer masculine enough to make me nervous about wearing it myself. The cedar and berry is gorgeous, and it does invoke "Christmas-y." I actually think I like it better than any of my actual Christmas scents! Anyhow, berry and cedar definitely predominate, the pine is there residually, and the tomato leaf still lingers, dead on as tomato leaf but also incredibly subtle.

Final thoughts:

This is absolutely gorgeous. A scent like this reminds me of a cabin in the woods in winter. Well actually that image scares me, so how about, a winter resort :D A scent like this almost makes me regret moving somewhere without any snow, and reminds me that someday, I'm going to want to move back to a region with more seasons. Stunning as this is, it's definitely not an everyday scent for me at this time of year, but I will gladly hold onto the imp in anticipation of colder fall/winter days.

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Wet: sweet tart fruits and evergreens

Dry: the evergreens back off to an interesting background scent. I’m liking this one much more than I expected.

Summary: Very nice, like a walk in the woods in summer. Definite keeper!

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In the imp : Hm, it smells a bit like one of those super expensive candles you can buy at specialty stores, like Illuminations. I can definitely smell the berries in it.

 

Wet : BERRY BERRY BERRY . . . and something else. This isn't pure sweet scent that you find in children's lip gloss this is a deep almost sickeningly sweet scent that's cool and a bit dark. I can definitely pick up the woodsy notes in this bringing it down a bit. It smells as if I should be taking a walk in some sort of deep, dark and leafy green woods to come across a thicket of almost too ripe berries. There's also something warm lurking in there which is probably the tomato leaf.

 

Dry : What a gorgeous scent! This is totally unique and I can't decide if it's love or hate but what good throw. I can smell this coming up in a cloud all around me.

 

Overall : An incredibly complex scent worthy of its name sake - something you have a little trouble putting together and are unsure if you like it or not. This is such a great woodsy, berry scent that its almost a little too true to its name. And like a good demon story this one lingered with me all day. It was there on my way to school, in classes, while sewing, on my lunch break, going home and finally when I lay down to take a nap only did it finally fade away but if I put my nose to my wrist I could still smell it.

 

This is a fabulous scent but just not bottle worthy for me, however I may want to invest in another imp. >:3

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to me this is a perfect autumn scent- like the hesperides, without the apple. after a while it gets a little greener, more piney, but overall it is just soo nice.

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Wow! The smell of pine greenery and cedar wood mingles with green, leafy notes and a hint of tart berries for a smell that is less like a perfume or cologne than it is like a room scent. This is a startlingly true "outdoorsy" smell. Just a whiff of it will make you think there is a door or window open somewhere.

 

It stays true and balanced on. The wood notes come up in the mix a little. The throw smells like the great outdoors with just a hint of cranberry. Neat. Neat, neat, neat. And, yes, there's a hint of "tomato leaf." That fuzzy, zippy smell that comes off of unwashed fresh tomato plants. It's not a food smell at all – it's a green gardening growing smell. Gah! Where does Beth get these? Does someone honestly make eau de tomato stems? Remarkable.

 

I'm not a fan of pitchy, woodsy scents, of greenery or woody smells, but this is quite true, and so it's rather more gentle than these things tend to be. There's no cutting edge here, it's a much smoother, softer scent than you might expect.

 

An excellent cologne, or, if you just want to freshen up, an excellent room scent. I like this very much; though I don't know how often I would realistically wear it on my body, I can see using it to scent my clothes or my room.

 

This reminds me just a little bit of The Carpathian Mountains, minus the sweets and flowers, and just a little bit of The Castle, minus the incense and stone. Definitely one to try for fans of woodsy blends, or someone looking for a more cologne-type scent.

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I wanted this imp for a friend of mind, but kept forgetting to order it. Then the lab sent it to me as a frimpie! Thanks lab.

 

I agree with the above poster that this is a very 'true' scent, and hooray! its a pine that really works on me. In the vial its kind of light, more fruity than woodsy. On, wet, the pine and cedar mingle gloriously on my skin, fresh and woodsy. The cedar imparts a warmth to the chilly pine and as it dries, yum. The berries and leaves assert themselves without overwhelming, and it becomes a blend that is truly its own, a unique scent with a ton of personality. Very bold, wild but gleefully so. Its an absolute pleasure to wear. Its sweeter than a Loup Garou, brighter than the Black Forest, friendlier than Nero. I think I've finally found a pine scent that loves me.

 

And though I thought to keep the imp for myself, I've decided to go ahead and send it to my friend, and buy myself a big bottle. I love it that much.

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I think I'm going to wear this around the holidays. It's so pretty, mostly cranberry and pine on me, grounded by cedar - no blackberry leaf or tomato leaf (well, I probably couldn't identify them if they DID show up on my skin!). Pretty pretty.

 

Wow, this truly is the best Christmastime scent I have ever smelled. :P

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YAY! Cedar plays nice on me for once~

 

At first this is a strange pine-y sort of scent, but it dries down into a nice tart cranberry - in fact, the same cranberry I got out of Snow Bunny! YES! This does lack the same sweet snow/perfume hints that Snow Bunny has, and instead has something else (I think it's the pine/leaf thing), but it'll most likely be a decent substitute.

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Starts off with cranberry and pine, with well-behaved cedar and the hint of tasty tomato leaf.

 

It's a sweet, woodland blend. With a slight masculine cologney edge that's altogether yummy. I have wandered into the forest and stumbled on a fragrant man. How fortuitous! He's wearing pants, but I think I see a way of relieving him of them.

 

But he's defending himself with the dry stage. With candy-sweet funkmoppet-repellant.

 

And boy, is it EFFECTIVE.

 

:P

 

Dang.

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This smells much nicer on skin than it does in the vial – I get blackberries mixed with the cedar which is surprisingly nice. I think a man could equally get away with wearing this too. I also detect the pine but am glad it is not overpowering. This actually reminds me of The Snow Maiden so if you love that (it was also LE) then this is a fantastic substitute! Amazing throw – hardly applied any and it’s very strong. BPAL berry blends really sing out on my skin. About an hour later the berry fades and it’s more gender neutral. It’s overall very pleasing but I might prefer The Snow Maiden after all.

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imp: i smell pine and something tart-sweet.

 

wet: very piney! this puts me in mind of fresh-cut firewood with sap still oozing.

 

dry: the tart-sweet scent is back with the pine scent. this smells very crisp and refreshing.

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