Brick Single Note

[doomsday_disco]

The essence of grit and obstinance distilled into 5ml of pure oil: crumbly kiln-fired clay and a hint of sand.

[musicallum]

This whole collection is very special and I love what it represents.

 

I’m generally a bit wary of single notes but this is gorgeous and more complex than I’d expected - and very wearable!

 

There is a bit of grit here, and warmth. Something that evokes caramelization without overt sweetness. Unconventionally comforting.
 

 

[doomsday_disco]

Both my partner and I didn't enjoy the smell of this in the decant; it reminded me of the dead leaves accord that either features neroli or orange blossom that's too sharp on me, and my partner described it as bitter. But on the skin, it immediately smooths over, which goes to show that you should always skin test things and not just judge by your first impression of a scent!

 

This is mostly soft, smooth, warm, and clay-like. There's really only a hint of sand. I actually don't think this is very gritty at all. I wonder if there's some tonka in here, but I'm not great at picking out that note and can't say for sure. I just feel like there's some vanillic softness that's not quite due to vanilla. I still smell some of the sharp dead leaves accord in this, with some definite orange blossom or neroli that I detected in both this and Brick Snek, but the clay in this keeps that part of the scent in check so that it's not screechy and headache-inducing on me. So if you are a fan of the Lab's dead leaves scents, you should probably give this a try.

 

I still have one more Brick scent to test, but I already think that Brick Snek is the winner as far as the brick blends go, because the vanilla and musk of the Snake Oil goes really well with the clay of the brick.

 

While I don't think I need a whole bottle of this, I think I will keep the decant around to try different layering possibilities.

[reasonsays]

I love the smell of clay, and being from the south, I smell it a lot. Wet, baking in the kiln, dried, digging in the garden, it's just the perfect mineral/dirt combination. I was cautious about this one, because BPAL's single-notes are never truly single notes, but I needed to take the risk.

 

This one is... also not a single-note. In the bottle and wet on my skin, it smells like something vegetal and decaying, something I've smelled in previous perfumes but can't identify; very probably the dead leaves scent mentioned above. But after it's had some time to sink in, while the dead-plant smell doesn't go away, it's accompanied by more than a hint of, yes, that perfect mineral/dirt combination I was hoping for. It's a wonderful scent, after it dries, and it's nice to have a perfume that can cheer me up without being recognizable as applied fragrance to anyone near me. But there's still that adjustment period after application.

 

It may be that the scent is better-balanced this way, that a pure brick note wouldn't have worked for some reason, but I wish it hadn't been advertised that way, then, so I would have known what to expect.

[monocainsheresy]

I have an antique brick of unknown provenance next to me for comparison, and I must say this is dead on for wet brick. I think what was throwing me off with the perfume is that it's so strong, but if you get very close to a wet brick and take a big whiff there is a very faint, but almost identical scent.

I agree that in the bottle there's a strong dead leaves vibe. However, I think given the way it goes a bit sweet/vanillic on the skin, and the concept, that it might be a hay note. 

 

Overall, this is a sweet, mineralic clay + hay scent that is much friendlier than the advertised "grit and obstinance" implies. "Kiln-fired clay" and "sand" also implies a dry scent, but that's not what this is. Instead, this evokes old brick roads drying in the sun after a good rain.

[Frills]

It smells like green bell peppers to me. I don't know why! I like it, but it's very unexpected. I'll have to let it settle and try it again, see what it settles into.

[feyofthefellwood]

Maybe I'm just hungry, but this smells like bell pepper and pineapple to me. I was hoping for a clay-like scent like in Lekythoi, but this is certainly . . . interesting. It does dry down weirdly wearable, but it's hard to shake the food association. Will see how it ages.