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Brimstone

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In Hermetic alchemy, brimstone is one of the Three Heavenly Substances, one of the primary alchemical Priciples. It represents the strength of will and the vigor of passion, and it is a symbol of the process of fermentation. A smoky, gritty blend, husky and gray.


Alright, my nose not be as trained as the lot of you, but here I go:

BRIMSTONE! WOW!

What can I say;

In the Imp: Very sharp, almost a stinging scent. Very mysterious and dirgeful.

Wet: Reminds me of childhood. The last dying embers of a raging bonfire, put to death by morning dew. After I put it on, not using the wand mind you, I immediately felt like I was about 6 years old again, going outside at our lake house in the early morning, perfect.
I wasn't scared to try this one at all, the description sold me.

Dry Down: I do notice a very fragrant spice, must be vetiver. I honestly feel a bit "violent" when smelling it on me. Makes me feel a bit evil.

All in all, I will be buying a 5ml of this. It certainly does have a menacing quality, I like that.

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In The Bottle

Scorching and smokey

 

On Application

Piney and very smokey harsh

 

Dry Down

5 minutes in I can pick ginger over the pine. This is a very pungent scent totally evocative of the concept. I am really liking this 20 minutes into the drydown. It has actually got a lot drier and smokier. I was tempted to say that I wouldn't wear this but at this stage I can absolutely imagine using this on a regular basis. :P

 

Rating (0-5)

4.5

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Bottle: Wow. This is what you should use instead of smelling salts; has a sulphuric note with gunmetal. Acrid. Stings.

 

Verdict: Must put imp away before it implodes. Ew.

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Wet: Wow. That.. is very very pungently smokey.

 

Dry: O_O OMG. LOVE! Burning spice and smoke and... ooo I so cannot adequately describe this.

 

Half an hour later: Still love :P

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It smells like you'd expect: dirty, gritty, dark ash. No hint of wood or resin or anything else. Just, pure ash.

 

Wet, it has a strong barbecued vetiver quality with a sour edge, but this fortunately goes away as it dries. Once dry, the vetiver seems to blend well and doesn't stand out to my nose as it often does.

 

It gets lighter and cooler the longer it dries. Less gritty, more pale gray. Something about it smells almost wet, to me, but perhaps it's just memories of rinsing out fireplaces that gives me that sense.

 

Obviously this is not a conventional perfume, but it's more subtle and wearable than you'd expect. It's amazingly dead on for the concept. Beth's blending powers never fail to amaze me.

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I thought i would give this a go because one of my boyfriends favourite smells is that smoky fireplace smell. unfortunately when first applied this smelled like chemicals then it turned into dirt and then on the drydown it turned into single note patchouli on me. Hopefully one of the other smokey scents bpal does will be a winner.

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In the bottle and on my skin wet, it's a harsh smoke scent. As it dried, it remained smoky, but also developed a spicy smoke scent. Not for me. It's just too harsh.

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Holy shit. Beth has managed to create the pits of hell in a bottle! Brimstone is all smoky vetiver that dries down into smoke and ash. I swear you even feel the heat from it. It's absolutely hideous but completely perfect as a concept scent.

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In the imp: a smoky, acrid, and kind of pine scent. Very strong.

 

Wet: just a single swipe from the imp wand has a lot of throw! Very smoky, evoking campfires, beach bonfires, burning the old wooden toilet seat in the wood stove that one Christmas (to my stepmother's chagrin), and a foresty earthiness. I've never gone to pick out my Christmas tree at an actual Christmas tree farm, but that's what this kind of brings to my mind. If that Christmas tree farm were to be on fire :P

 

Dry: the pine notes that my skin was amping (or imagining) are starting to back off, and I'm getting a cedar scent that reminds me a lot of The Yew Trees. If the Yew Trees were on fire. Because Czernobog set it (that's my Vetiver reference, get it?). This is a slightly sinister scent, but not one that makes me feel threatened, but rather makes me feel a little bit wicked.

 

Somebody mentioned earlier in the thread mentioned using this as a room scent while running a hell-plane D&D session, and I totally dig that. I can see the Pit Fiends now! I don't think this is something that I'll wear as a daily scent, but I'll probably keep my imp around and swipe every once in awhile for Faustian inspiration.

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Woah! I thought I would never find a BPAL "burning" scent I didn't love but this one just smells BAD one me :P Darn it! I was really looking forward to this one. It's not so bad once it dries, then it's a slightly cedar-ish, vetiver smell (this is so weird because I loves me the vetiver...). But on wet! I almost washed it off and stood in the bathroom looking at my arm in horror for a while. I'll try this again later, but it's not looking good for Brimstone.

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*GAG* This was a frimp. One sniff and its a blast of vetiver in my face. Vetiver is my LEAST favorite note ever. I have to try everything, so I will soldier through this...but good god. Smoky vetiver DOOM.

 

Yep, dark, smoky vetiver-fiery.

 

Bleh. Yeah. Vetiver. If you like vetiver check this out, but I can't really judge this fairly because of my intense dislike of vetiver. *shudder*

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Okay this blend totally has vetiver in it --- because for the first 30 minutes or so, it smells like smoky bacon to me. After about an hour, it has morphed to a smoky, woodsy blend.

 

But the first 30 minutes were absolutely horrific. Even the husband kept asking if BPAL made a scent that was called "Bacon, burnt to a crisp!"

 

Funny now that it has calmed down. Not quite when I first applied it.

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I had hubby try this one since I new right away it wouldn't be for me.

 

This one really lives up to it's name. It's sharp and smokey and smells like what I would imagine....well....brimstone smelling like. :lol: I love it on dh. Very sexy and dangerous smelling. :twisted:

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I've always loved the scent of burning wood, especially on a crisp Winter's night when you can smell everyone's fireplaces going, so I thought I'd give this one a shot. Unfortunately, for some reason, I get burnt, moldy leaves with a strong twinge of something astringent. I wanna say tea tree oil, but it's not -quite- it. It almost reminds me of when my grandfather used to "service" our old heating boiler with kerosene (he was a do-it-yourself'er from hell; he coulda blew us up many times, lol).. the smell would permeate the entire house.

 

After the burnt leaves fade, all I'm left with is that astringent scent that I simply cannot seem to wash off. :/

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I really wanted ashes, smoke, charcoal, something! But, alas, what do I get....vetiver. In the imp, vetiver. On skin, vetiver. Doesn't last that long on me, about 2 hours and at the very end, just before it vanishes, I get a last whiff of lemon (???) and then it's completely gone! Will have to try it in a week or so to see if this is just my imagination.

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I made the crucial mistake of letting my guy smell this one. He took one sniff and yelled, "GIVE IT TO ME!!!" I was so taken aback by his uncharacteristic BPAL enthusiasm that I complied, and he proceeded to dance around the house clutching it like his precioussss and then came back into the room bragging about how his little BPAL box is now all full. I'm just sayin, if you want to keep this one, you might not want to share it with any boys, because it smells really good and gender neutral and they will probably want to steal it from you like mine did.

 

From the brief encounter I did have with this blend, it smelled really gunmetal grey and glittering, like the asphalt street that's in front of the convention center in downtown Seattle that sparkles so hard it will make you barf if you walk over it with a hangover...especially if it's one of those rare sunny Northwest days, too. Um, except that...this won't make you barf, I promise. Even if you are really hungover. This would probably make you feel better, because it smells really amazing and I'm going to have to get more now and hide it far away from my SO.

 

 

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this is so masculine...

 

smokey but has that pine sort of thing going on...but still manly..

 

not sure what to say, not really my gig or something i'll wear .. ever. maybe dab on a pillow when im boyfriend-less but thats rare..and well...i rather not. hah.

 

overall if someone gave me a bottle i wouldnt argue but im not going to actively search this one out.

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This was warm with a lot of veviter, a bit of smoke, but ultimately too heavy and with a harsh perfume undertone. Something in it doesn't work with me. Unfortunately for me, my roommate tried this on and on her it was a delicious campfire smell. Drat for me.

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imp: vetiver, smoky and smooth.

 

wet: the etiver is not exactly strong, perhaps dominant but not overpowering. there is another scent here, something crisp and brilliant... it reminds me of the way wintergreen feels on my skin...

 

dry: this mellows very well, it's still smokey, but it's a fresh smoke from a campfire made of fresh-cut wood. far nicer than i was expecting.

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This was a frimp from my last decant circle, and, well...it's pretty much the opposite of me. It's incredibly smoky vetiver. It's so evocative that my eyes sting a bit from the nonexistent smoke. It's very dark and heavy and not for me. Vetiver/smoke lovers, on the other hand, need to try this.

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Imp: medicinal vetiver. The medicinal reminds me of eucalyptus

Wet on Me: more vetiver than medicinal now. Ze vetiver it does not like meeeeeeee

Drying Down: this is musty sooty vetiver. Really does smell like a smokestack.

Dry: I can honestly say this is not for me. Off to the re-home pile

 

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Imp: Burning metal.

 

Wet: Fire and smoke, metal and wood...smoldering.

 

Dry: More and more acrid. Hot twisted metal, charred cedar trees a whiff of sulfur. I think Mr. Isis will love it.

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In the Vial: Smells like cinnamony (?) vetiver. Ick.

 

Wet: Still smoky.

 

Drydown: Yeah, I'm thinking this is still really smoky.

 

Verdict: Not much more to add. Really smoky. That's it. I'm... not a big fan of this blend at all. :P

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In this imp this is alll vetiver. A glorious, smoky vetiver. Love!

 

On my skin this is just perfect...it sort of reminds me of Moai (just without the hints of green). Brimstone is black and smokey all right! If you love vetiver scents this one is for you.

I think I might also detect sage in this somewhere...not sure though. This dries down to a pure, perfect vetiver perfume on my skin.

I will be using all of this imp and purchasing a bottle.

Brimstone = :wub2:

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