Black Forest

[rhetoricians]

This is the captured scent of a cold, moonless night, lost deep within the darkest wood. Haunting and desolate, this scent evokes images of fairy tale tragedy and half-remembered nightmares. Thick, viscous pine with ambergris, black musk, juniper and cypress.

I love this BPAL scent!

At first on my skin, it's very, very strong pine. I usually sneeze a couple of times and smell sort of like an air freshener, but once it dries in a couple of minutes, the musk smells begin to come out and all I can smell is the musky scents and a sweet, alluring, vaguely innocent smell.

I think that if Red Riding Hood had a smell, it would be Black Forest. Definitely in my top 5 smells so far (even if I've only smelled a few, this does not decrease its value!)

[TheFrenchWaffle]

I received this as a frimp from an all-too generous ebay seller, many thanks to whoever you are "Starcia".

In the imp: Pine, juniper and underbrush. Lovely but rather masculine, I will have to wait and see how this one plays out. Would LOVE this as a room scent.

Wet: Juniper comes out the strongest quickly followed by pine which lags behind a few paces. It reminds me of a forest, not the rain soaked ones here at home, but the sunny warm woods in the Rockies during the summer with the faint wisp of wildfire smoke in the background. Still lovely, but very manly (in a good way)

Dry: The sharpness of juniper and pine have smoothed out, mellowing into a delightful woodsy scent that inspires smiles. Love it but I am not sure how often I will/would actually wear it.

 

Final verdict: I love this scent but I don't think I would wear it enough to buy a bottle. This would make a wonderful room scent, I've always wanted my place to smell like it (or of lavender,they both smell so good). I think I'll let my brother try it, perhaps I will enable him...

[kirsten]

I'm waiting to give this one another try before I add it to the pile to swap later, but I wasn't super thrilled by it. It smelled heavenly for about two minutes and then all the pine was suddenly gone. I'm not sure whether this is just my skin sucking up pine smells (so sad, because pine is one of my favorites!) or if it's the fault of the really faded Morocco I had on from earlier in the day. So, like I said, I'll try it again. I want to like this one.

[Gold Dust Kitten]

Smells like rugged man, freshly showered and slathered with an outdoorsy cologne. Black Forest is one the best forest scents I've smelled yet. It's a forest full of evergreens and wood. The ambergris doing something amazing to this blend in the dry down stage, there is still a lot of cypress and juniper but a sweet musk is developing. I kind of want a 5ml of this one.

[Diva Urd]

In the vial: Lots and lots of pine and juniper, but there is a fresh note to it that I think comes from the ambergris.

 

On: Very, VERY piney. Not like Pine-Sol, but natural. It's still not a scent I am excessively fond of at this point.

 

Later: Still pine, with some ambergris to freshen it up. A bit too forest-y for me, but if you're looking for something that smells like evergreen woods, this and Thanatopsis are a must. I'll pass this one on.

[OctoberGwen]

(I'm reviewing an aged imp of this: 2007 or earlier.)

 

This starts off as pure pine trees on me, and then after a minute it smells like cold air. No menthol, but I swear my skin felt cooler and when I inhaled I was standing in a pine forest in the cold. Incredible.

 

This dries into a beautiful musky-with-a-hint-of-cedar smell, but those cold trees are still in the background. What a magical, evocative scent. I didn't actually think I would want to wear this but it smells gorgeous on me.

 

WOW.

 

Later: I really, really love the drydown phase of this, but the initial cold blast of pine is too much when applied to my cleavage. Great for evoking a mood, not so great for wearing. I'll have to try and find some scents with those drydown notes for sure!

Edited June 28, 2011 by OctoberGwen

[Balame]

In the Imp: A pleasant and sweet pine note.

 

Wet: Very soft foresty scents, especially considering they are the bulk of the notes in this. The ambergris and musk are really doing a heck of a job toning them down and making this... languid - that would be a perfect word to describe it for the moment. It's actually soothing, not eerie at all. Juniper would be the gentlest of the tree notes and its definitely on top.

 

Dry: Despite being relatively sweet, this is not sugary or fake. It's like walking through a dense evergreen forest at dusk and you start to feel sleepy so you lie down for a nap at the base of a tree. It's the scent of body warmth, trees, and calm natural surroundings. The forest is black, but it's a darkness that envelops you and keeps you safe at night.

 

Overall: Warm but refreshing, a pleasing combo. This would be a wonderful scent to put yourself to sleep with!

[TastyMischief]

Wet on skin: Pinesol on crack

 

Drying: Softens considerably, feels cool and breathy

 

Drydown: The scent of skin and hair after a long walk in the woods

 

Verdict: This is superb. The ambergris and black musk combo is the tits!! I got this unsniffed in a full bottle, I'm so glad I did!

 

ETA: Good god, this stuff rocks. *swoon*

Edited July 24, 2011 by TastyMischief

[Lit Chick]

Wow.

 

Major scent memory with this one.

 

It smells exactly like Sanctuary Crystals circa 1995. And that store for me was all about freedom and newly awakened sexuality.

 

It smells fantastic on me... it's a little nostalgic... I feel the need to listen to some Pearl Jam. Ocean.

[Drae]

In the imp: Pine and acetone :/

 

On skin: The acetone is gone and the pine amps and then gives way to the ambergris. Black Forest smells very similar to another e-tailer perfume oil that I own and love, which has notes of fir, musk and vanilla. The pine and juniper are in a nice harmony with the ambergris. I'm sometimes wary of amber because it tends to get too warm, round and sickly sweet, but I love it in Black Forest, probably due to the pine and musk.

 

Lasting impression: Very dark and feminine and sexy, more a special occassian night-time scent than an every-day thing.

Edited January 20, 2012 by Drae

[ajansuz]

This was a generous lab frimp. I'll start by saying I love me some evergreens, so I was expecting good things when I saw the name. In the imp, pine hit me immediately, but there was something kind of off underneath it, a little too sweet.

 

Wet: Oh, hello, black musk, my nemesis. That was the "off" smell. It immediately overpowered the evergreen.

 

Dry-down: Baby powder and tree resin. Skin chemistry, why do you hate me so?

[milo]

This is lots of pine at first, and then dries to pretty much single note black musk on my skin. My skin and I love Black Musk, so this is nice, but I have lots of blends with this note in it. If anything, it seems a bit more masculine than the other black musk blends I have.

[Maleficium]

Imp: straight up pine

 

wet: pine with a hint of something musky. Reminds me of something my ex bf would wear with all of his flannel and combat boots.

 

drydown: after a few minutes the sharpness of the pine morphs into a much gentler pine/underbrush/musk sort of scent.

 

A very lovely, evocative scent but I'm not sure that I dig this as something to wear. I'll reiterate that it would certainly make a good room scent!

[whitsunweddings]

Bleeeeugh.

In the imp: Very cologney. Pine and juniper, fo' sho.

Wet: Cypress and pine.

Dry: Sort of a sour pine smell. The musk is sort of nice, but overall this is waaay too masculine and really gross. I had to wash it off after ten minutes both times I tested it.

[Missy_killer]

To my nose: It's pine-y, that's for sure!
On me: Pine is what I smell the most, but there is somethingthat has a slight lemon touch here too..the cypress maybe? It's also quiteminty, but I guess that's just the pine trying to fool me into believing thereis mint in here. I like this one actually, it's very relaxing and calming tome.
After a while I get sugar and vanilla from this. What?! Sugar, vanilla anda teeny, tiny hint of pine! It's smells really good actually.

Two hours or so later: This sounds so weird, but I get marshmallows in here. And pine. Marshmallows & pine. Delicious.

Of course, my skin likes stuff directly from the mailbox better than a rested imp/bottle. The second time I tried Black Forest, I did not get any sugar or marshmallows. BooHoo.

Edited September 23, 2014 by Missy_killer

[catalyst]

Wow. I really like this. I was worried about the pine, because when I see pine, I think of Christmas candles that you want to huck out a window after a half hour. Not this.

 

This is... *huffs*.... like being in a balsam forest, but darker and thicker somehow. Like a hyper-reality version of a balsam forest, like a real one is in 2D and this is in 3D. It's a sweet pitch with a thickness that makes your mouth water. I can't even describe this in English.

 

Love it. Putting it on my buy list.

[BoneBone24]

Wet: Fresh, sweet pine and cypress.

 

Drydown: More sweetness. Cool, sinus-clearing evergreens. Almost a menthol-vibe. The ambergris mixes in bringing complexity and a touch of warmth to the cool evergreen notes.

 

Dry: A dense evergreen forest with shafts of amber-hued sunlight sneaking through every few yards. Fresh and dark. Very outdoorsy and rugged with just enough softness and sweetness to qualify as gender-neutral.

[Gwydion]

In bottle: lots of juniper with pine and musk strong seconds. The cypress supports the juniper, The Ambergris supports the musk. It’s darkly sexy and a touch alarming. I’m not skin testing for juniper and musk.

[ShannonElisabethJones]

This one was a little bizarre, but I ended up keeping it on for a while. Not too piney, but definitely deep-dark-foresty. Like you're about to meet all the evil witches the Brothers Grimm ever wrote about. Interesting - might not be an everyday scent, but I'll keep it.

[urbantravels]

I love woods and evergreens a lot, and I don't particularly think "Christmas" when smelling evergreens. Probably the result of growing up with an artificial tree.

 

Black Forest to me is not cold and ominous at all. It develops as sweetly warm. I love pine and juniper a lot, and these are like the sun-warmed pines and junipers of Southern California - even those poor twisted Hollywood Junipers, which are so butt-ugly but smell so great in the sun. I think I'm getting a cedary note too, which must be the cypress, although I don't have a good mental picture of cypress. I think it's the ambergris/musk combination that contributes to the "warm" feeling - the evergreens feel like wood and boughs that are sitting in the sun, or have been brought inside to a warm room. If there were a little smoke in there I could even imagine pine, juniper and cedar burning in a fireplace. As it is - this could be freshly carved wood sitting near the fire, maybe a wooden box with the ambergris inside.

 

I don't get the bitter resinous side of pine at all here; maybe a little bit if you sniff the bottle cold, but there's none on my skin. Doesn't smell at all artificial to me either.

[livingdead71]

I like this a lot! Having discovered fairly recently that I love both black musk and ambergris, I notice those notes here just as much as the woodsy ones. This is a very pretty scent. I'm going to test my imp a few more times, but this one might become a bottle upgrade.

[Ajila]

In the bottle - Thick dark pine and juniper, almost medicinal

 

Wet on me - Warm dry woods with sharp spicy juniper

 

Dry on me - Deep, slightly harsh pine, with a sticky juniper smeared on it

 

Overall - I don't dislike it, but it's not really me

[quickdrawkiddo]

In the imp this smelled almost fruity! So weird. Once I applied it I realized that was the juniper. As soon as it started to dry, the pine comes out more (LOVE the lab's pine note), but the juniper is still at the front. So far it's reminding me a bit of Troll, but without the pinesap-y sweetness. This is a bit more astringent, but I can also detect the black musk (another favorite note) lurking in the background and giving it a bit of softness. I think I like Troll better but so far this scratches my woodsy itch too

[Chanteuse87]

Weirdly, this is a dead ringer for Golden Priapus on me. I know they only share a couple of notes, but even into the dry down, they seem identical. I'll have to do a side by side comparison to be sure, but for now it's just uncanny.

 

Anyway, wet this is bracing pine and juniper with a warmth underneath. I don't get moonlight or coldness or anything, I get much more of "lovely afternoon in the sunlit forest" type of thing. It's awesome! The pine fades quickly, but it stays pleasantly warm and spicy for a good long while, before finally drying down into a sweet musk with a touch of masculinity. Most everything sweetens on me, so I'm not surprised, and I love the effect with this blend.

 

I wore it to Oktoberfest today and it was just the perfect outdoors scent!

[Teaotter]

In the imp: Whoa! That's a lot of pine you've got there!

 

Wet: Evergreen forest and crisp, clean air. I was expecting the pine to slap me around a bit, but this is a nice balance of green, and sweeter than I was expecting.

 

Drydown: There is a powdery sweetness to this, with a hint of juniper, and a very strong effervescent note. I have no idea what it is, but it reminds me of the gold note in The Magi.

 

I'm not getting desolation or despair at all. I'm also not getting the evergreen forest I was expecting. Huh. Skin chemistry is strange, y'all.