Carnivàle

[Northernminx]

Bright, intoxicating, hectic notes masking a twisted, corrupted core: sweet wild berry, spicy carnation and heliotrope layered over deep amber and musk.

2005 version:
Carnation and heliotrope this started as a very soft, spicey floral but slowly turns darker. Musk comes out as this dries down and while the amber smooths everything, there’s a definite darkness to this. The berry only makes subtle appearances for me so this is mostly dark amber and musk and a touch of carnation

[Little Bird]

Carnivale is an interesting fragrance. My boyfriend smelled it when I first trried it on and said that it smelled like carnations. That surprised me, because I didn't think that Carnivale smelled like carnations. I was smelling sharp musky berries. It quickly dries down and smells like juicy fruit gum to me. Very powdery and a weakly synthetic fruity scent.

 

After about a half hour, I think the carnation comes out more. Carnivale starts to smell amazing and spicy. It reminds me a lot of LUSH's Skinny Dip scent in this stage. At one point I actually thought that I smelled Skinny Dip and was looking for it, before I realized that it was Carnivale.

 

An hour later it is all juicy fruit gum again. Powdery and unpleasant. I wish that it would stay in that spicy stage a bit longer...

[slugbait]

Straight out of the bottle this smells like cough syrup. It kind of grossed me out at first, but gave tis a try anyway. On my clothes, this smells exactly the same as it does in the bottle.On my skin this turns into powdery carnations. This reminds me a bit of LUSH's Potion and Santa Monica bath ballistic, but a lot lighter. It's slightly musky but I don't get any berries.

 

I like this scent, but it isn't one I would wear everyday; I would have to be in the mood for it. I'm hanging onto what is left in my bottle, though.

[arabella]

Original Version

 

First Impression: Creamy fruit, musk and jasmine.

 

Dries down to: Thankfully, the jasmine settles down and the whole becomes a rich, slightly powdery, slighty fruity floral - quite lovely but very faint on me.

 

Additional Comments: Hmmmmm - no jasmine in the description, so it must have been the carnation I was smelling. Probably explains why I liked the drydown so much - the amber, which usually works wonders on me, helps too. I'm struggling with allergies right now so I'm not quite picking up the notes properly. The heliotrope is a perfect complement to the carnation and wild berry. I'm anxious for my bottle of the new version to arrive so I can compare the two.

 

Lasted: Several hours.

 

Rating: 3.5 out of 5

 

2005 Revisited Version

 

First Impression: Faint resin-y floral.

 

Dries down to: A very, very faint, fruity floral.

 

Additional Comments: This is one of the most insipid blends I've run across; fortunately, BPAL doesn't have many. There's nothing really wrong with it but it's so faint, even right after slathering, and lasts barely half an hour.

 

Lasted: 1/2 hour, tops.

 

Rating: 1.5 out of 5

 

 

ETA: Revisited Version Review

Edited May 13, 2006 by arabella

[QueenFae]

This is definitely a berry smell, but its an EVIL berry smell. The brightness and sweetness of the berries is completely debauched by a sneaky, dark underlying force of evil. I can pick out the carnation and perhaps a hint of the amber undershadowing the berry. This one makes me think of dark, scary places and sinister black capes. I like it, but not as much as I thought I was going to.

[~AmusedMuse~]

My Impression:

To me this is a lovely blend of amber musk and berries. I cannot detect the carnation however, I still am quite pleased with what I had hoped would be lovely and as expected is. My scale of 1-5....4

[inkstone]

I discovered BPAL just as this blend was being discontinued so I'm glad it was rereleased as a limited edition.

 

On me, this is great mix of berries and musk. The amber gives it a smooth quality and the heliotrope lends a bit more sweetness than I was expecting. It's very nice. There's something vaguely spicy in here so I think that's the carnation. Very lovely.

[Em-]

OMG.

 

I'm really not sure there is much more I can say about this oil.

 

It is completely amazing. Definitely in my top five without even trying it on, probably in my top three after wearing. This is just an amazingly beautiful complex luscious spicy berry blend.

 

I almost didn't order it. OMG. I ALMOST DIDN'T ORDER IT. I debated. It didn't excite me at first and I waited until Fruit Moon came along to toss it in my cart because so many people were so excited about it, I figured I should try it.

 

 

Carnivale (the '05 version, to be sure) is...it is everything that every other berry blend I've sniffed has wanted to be. It is fruity, but savory. It is spicy, but soft. It has just enough floral to give it depth, but not so much as to make it scream "perfume!!!!!". The musk and the amber play wonderfully together, the carnation infuses pepper like a champ, and the berries are the sparking wonderful star on my skin.

 

I almost didn't order a bottle! Why didn't I order two?!?!?

[Eros]

Revisited:

 

Starts out beautifully...a bit dry, musty and acrid with a hint of sweetness. After about 10-15 minutes it turns all fruity/floral sweet. Kinda like Fruit Stripe gum :/

Got this for a friend, so just as well, I guess. Would've been perfect(for me), if it had stayed the way it started out

Not bad, but not me.

[dawndie]

I discovered the BPAL site in September '04, placed an order, and right after that Carnivale and a bunch of other scents were discontinued. So upon re-release, I ordered a bottle for the novelty and I liked the name, description, and now-ex-HBO show (RIP, weird show! I'll miss you!).

 

In bottle: sweet Bubble Yum gum.

 

On skin: sweet and spicy! I'm such a foodie. The spiciness might be the carnation, as other more attuned reviewers have pointed out.

 

Half-hour later: more cinnamon, like a fruitier Yuletide (which was Big Red gum on me). Like my feelings for Yuletide, I don't know if I want to smell like gum. It's not very strong, though, and disappears quickly so I end up missing it anyway.

 

In conclusion: not a bottle I'm grabbing every day, but more of a "jolt" of carnie weirdness in combination with whatever else I'm wearing. Plus it'll be very nice in a linen spray or the oil burner.

[ayelienne]

First time I tried it, I was a little, "i'm not sure about this" - a week's worth of aging and a good rubbing between my palms before I applied...oh my, this is lovely!

 

Initial Pop-out scents are carnation and berries, sort of sharp to start off with but mellowing out nicely over the morning. I've received a lot of compliments on it as well.

 

It's definitely worth a second try if you weren't sure about it the first time.

[Miss Lynx]

I didn't like this so much when I first tried it the other day, but I wasn't sure I was ready to write it off, so I tried it again today, and I'm glad I did.

 

It initially struck me as way too floral for me -- in particular, heliotrope and I don't tend to get along unless it's well masked by other notes. But this time it seems like the other notes are coming out more strongly, so I get more of the berries, amber and musk, all of which I quite like, and a slightly cinnamon-y scent that I'm guessing is the carnation.

 

Doesn't smell foody at all on me -- the berries and spice are well-balanced by the rest of it, and there's a Haunted-ish undertone to it. I do still get a fair bit of floral of it, which I suspect my skin is amping since other people don't seem to have found it all that floral, but not enough to kill it for me.

 

I don't see it necessarily being a top favourite -- it's a lot more, well, girly than the scents I like best tend to be -- but I do like it, and will definitely keep using the imp. I guess by the time that's done we'll see if it's something I need a bottle of or not.

 

Grade: B, maybe B+

[sarahj]

Carnivale (2005)

 

in bottle: faint carnation

 

wet: faint musk, berry, and carnation

 

dry: slightly soapy carnation and musk...fades after about 4 hours

 

verdict: I'm not too fond of the soapy scent...I am tempted to swap this but will give it another try before I make my final decision

 

ETA: I tried again this weekend and am sorry to say that the scent is so faint I can hardly smell anything at all. This just doesn't work for me, so I believe that I will swap it

Edited October 11, 2005 by sarahj

[brownbear]

From the bottle I didn't know if I'd like this one. It was fruity and slightly slightly floral. Once I had it on it changed to a really nice spicy berry. It reminds me of Christmas.

[moon_lemming]

In bottle: Berries and lemons. Or cherries and lemons. I know there's no lemon listed, so I think I may be misreading a floral combo as lemon. Either way, it's tangy and sweet, and I think I smell carnations underneath it all but I'm still pretty hopeless when it comes to picking out floral notes. There's some sort of floral there, though. And the musk is there, too. It definitely smells hectic and kind of like it's trying to cover up something.

 

Wet: It turns to baby powder moments after I apply it.

 

Dry: No matter how much time I give it to morph, it's staying in the baby powder stage. So I guess it's not really a stage, it's just the way my skin's disliking the scent. My skin likes to pretend to be rebellious.

 

Should it stay or should it go? No point in keeping this one. Luckily it was just an imp.

[KimberCelt]

In the bottle:

 

This smells like warm spicy berries

 

Wet:

 

Still smells like warm spicy berries

 

Drydown:

 

The berries are gone and all I can smell is warmth and spicy. The scent is very familiar and comforting (maybe a cross between cinnamon and clove); but, not for me to wear. Unfortunately, my skin really seems to kick up the spicy scents and it over powers the berries. I miss the berries For some reason this scent is reminding me of the Christmas season

[dreadeddragon]

In the bottle: Bubblegum. Is there lotus in this? Or is it just the berries? Poop. I was hoping for more of a spicy carnation scent.

 

First on: Ok, no lotus that I can smell now. It's mostly berries with a hint of the carnation. I can detect a small amount of musk as well. I like it. It's light, yet devious.

 

Drydown: Most of the berries have gone, leaving the carnation, amber & musk. I like it much better now, though I don't know how often I'd remember to put oil on 2 hours before I want to smell good. It's definitely a keeper though.

[alicia_stardust]

I got a frimp of this and fell in love! It has such a wild, vibrant scent to it. I can detect a lot of carnation, warmth, berries, and a touch of spice at the end. They all swirl together nicely. Very uplifting.

 

In my personal review sheet, I gave this a 4 out of 5 stars!

[quikslvr]

2005 version:

 

This is wild. I don't know if the name brought it to mind, but the sense I get is being under the big top, surrounded by sweet things to eat. Then it goes darker, into the dark berries. And dark berries they are, too, especially combined with the musk. I might also be crazy, but I feel like there's some wood or other buried in here. That may be the amber, though. It's strong, overall, and carries pretty well, though it doesn't last more than a few hours on me. Once it's dry, it settles down and smooths out wonderfully.

[Voleuse]

2005 Version:

On first application, this is a light and bright berry, sweet and almost innocent to smell. As the scent dries, the floral notes make the blend more complicated.

 

Unfortunately, after a while, it turns to a dusty musk on me, with an animalistic, wet fur sort of smell. In contrast with the sweet overtones, it makes me a little nauseated. A nice idea, but not compatible with my body chemistry.

[sookster]

big whiff straight from the bottle is all berry sweet goodness!!!!

after dabbing just a bit on my wrist the fruity scent dissipates quickly

and the amber comes through loud and clear; this

has some serious staying power; then, turns dusty smelling

 

i loved how this smelled without touching my skin so perhaps a scent locket

may be in order to keep this blend true to the lucious aroma that i originally

get when uncapping this....

[jazlyn]

Interesting. At first Carnivale was sweet... and then I got the floral... and now it's spicy... and it's not changing again! The spiciness ends up staying dominant, not letting this become more floral or sweet really, although all of the notes start to fade a bit.

[lookingglass]

This IS a gypsy carnivale: colorful silks on tattooed bodies twirling in the dark, dizzying playful music, fire eaters, spicy stomped flowers in the dust of the hot earth, the juice of sweet fruit, with a big dollop of the lust for it all...

 

Bring it back!

[Kittyflop]

Carnivale is a frantic swirl of sensory input. Spicy, fruity, tons of fun. Colorful. I think it's the carnation that I'm really taken with. As many others have noted, this doesn't stay constant but twirls and changes!

 

My only disappointment with it is that it vanishes much too quickly - I find myself re-applying every couple of hours. Worth it, though.

[jewelbug]

Thank you to Original Wacky for this quite unexpected frimp!

Imp: I get predominantly a quirky sweet berry and an off-putting note (carnation?) . The scent is cacophony to me--there is something unsettling in this. I get a bit of an oddly spiced carnation (bay/laurel kinda tinge, I think). There is something in this that puts me in the mindset of Freak Show (which I didn’t really get along with), and to a certain extent, gypsy queen.

Wet: This sweetens up a bit and gets less “unsettling”. There is a sweet powdery hint coming out, which I believe to be amber. Mostly I smell a corrupted berry and a bitter green carnation. The carnation doesn’t smell like the laurel spiced note anymore, but a very astringent chlorophyll. There is something creamy dancing in the distant background, which I believe to be the slightly vanillic heliotrope, which gets stronger as the blend dries.

Dry: There is a hint of rancid berry and old people in this. Something is ruining all the notes, and I have no idea what it is. Now I’m slathered in this, at work, and can’t get it off! Argh! Don’t get me wrong, there are good things happening in this blend. The sweet kinda creamy berry floral is nice. But SOMETHING is twisting all those notes to badness.

Later Dry: Well, the dirty people seem to have dissipated. Happily, this has turned into a bitter carnation floral with a creamy vanilla berry pie in the back. Its pretty, but its not for me. It also smells a bit of honey now, though I know that’s not a listed note. By 7 hrs in it smells of honeyed spicy carnations, at which point I actually love it.

 

Overall: Well, some unknown note REALLY didn't agree with me in the early stages. Freak Show, Gypsy Queen and now this all seem to put me off in the same manner, but I don't know that common note. I thought it was the bergamot in FS and GQ, but since carnivale doesn’t have that, I’m thinking it could be a shared musk note? The late stage was lovely, but I can't wait 6-7 hrs for a stage I like. I’m passing this onto a friend who is planning a crazy carnation sniff-a-thon.