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ivyandpeony

Incessant Torture of Remorse

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INCESSANT TORTURE OF REMORSE
“You are fettered,” said Scrooge, trembling. “Tell me why?”

“I wear the chain I forged in life,” replied the Ghost. “I made it link by link, and yard by yard; I girded it on of my own free will, and of my own free will I wore it. Is its pattern strange to you?”

Scrooge trembled more and more.

“Or would you know,” pursued the Ghost, “the weight and length of the strong coil you bear yourself? It was full as heavy and as long as this, seven Christmas Eves ago. You have laboured on it, since. It is a ponderous chain!”

Scrooge glanced about him on the floor, in the expectation of finding himself surrounded by some fifty or sixty fathoms of iron cable: but he could see nothing.

“Jacob,” he said, imploringly. “Old Jacob Marley, tell me more. Speak comfort to me, Jacob!”

“I have none to give,” the Ghost replied. “It comes from other regions, Ebenezer Scrooge, and is conveyed by other ministers, to other kinds of men. Nor can I tell you what I would. A very little more is all permitted to me. I cannot rest, I cannot stay, I cannot linger anywhere. My spirit never walked beyond our counting-house—mark me!—in life my spirit never roved beyond the narrow limits of our money-changing hole; and weary journeys lie before me!”

It was a habit with Scrooge, whenever he became thoughtful, to put his hands in his breeches pockets. Pondering on what the Ghost had said, he did so now, but without lifting up his eyes, or getting off his knees.

“You must have been very slow about it, Jacob,” Scrooge observed, in a business-like manner, though with humility and deference.

“Slow!” the Ghost repeated.

“Seven years dead,” mused Scrooge. “And travelling all the time!”

“The whole time,” said the Ghost. “No rest, no peace. Incessant torture of remorse.”

“You travel fast?” said Scrooge.

“On the wings of the wind,” replied the Ghost.

“You might have got over a great quantity of ground in seven years,” said Scrooge.

The Ghost, on hearing this, set up another cry, and clanked its chain so hideously in the dead silence of the night, that the Ward would have been justified in indicting it for a nuisance.

“Oh! captive, bound, and double-ironed,” cried the phantom, “not to know, that ages of incessant labour by immortal creatures, for this earth must pass into eternity before the good of which it is susceptible is all developed. Not to know that any Christian spirit working kindly in its little sphere, whatever it may be, will find its mortal life too short for its vast means of usefulness. Not to know that no space of regret can make amends for one life’s opportunity misused! Yet such was I! Oh! such was I!”

Life’s opportunity misused: opopponax, lavender, blackberry, patchouli, olive leaf, myrtle, and white cognac.


There were a few moments of terror, when I first sniffed this from the bottle and when I first applied it. Lavender terror! It was incredibly strong, like single note lavender. And I like lavender, but not as a dominant note, so I was wondering if I had rolled the dice and lost. But then, after just a few minutes, the lavender fog lifted and this scent started to morph into what I wanted it to be. It is soft, a little sweet and a little woody - nicely anchored by the opoponax, with a hint of blackberry, a gentle and cooperative patchouli (as opposed to a raw and dominant one) and a little bit of a green feel. The cognac floats just on top and is also a gentle version as opposed to the in-your-face cognac note in The Imp of The Perverse. I really like this one & I am looking forward to seeing how it ages - hoping that sassy lavender will step back a little bit, but it's worth the few minutes of dominant lavender for the rest of the ride.

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When I first put this on, I thought Sweet mercy, that smells like shoe polish. Whew. I thought I'd give it a few minutes to calm down. That lavender in there is LOOOUUUD. And wouldn't you know, that's the listed note that I like the least. Luckily, it does calm down.

 

It ends up smelling like a bit of a jumble, but mostly like a dry (in a rather woody way, probably from myrtle) sweet blackberry, with a hint of something vaguely alcoholic. The lavender is still there, but it mixes up with the blackberry in a pleasant way. It's a brighter scent than you were probably expecting.

 

When it's dry, it still has a little too much lavender in it for me, but it smells waaaay better than it did at first.

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I do love lavender, patchouli, and cognac... I tend to not love so much the blackberry. However this was one I really looked forward to trying.

First sniff – lavender incense, it's dusky and musky and has a feeling of resins and powder.

On my skin – this is a powdery pleasant lavender. Very powdery. I can't distinguish any of the listed notes after a bit of dry down.

On my skin for a second test, this is pretty and powdery and it does smell like some kind of resin. I don't get the sense of blackberry or cognac or even patchouli. All the notes blend so well together that it forms a whole.

Powdery isn't usually something I feel like wearing though. I would be happy to take a bottle if it landed in my lap :)

 

update:

I found a low level bottle for sale and have found that it seems quite different than my initial impression from the imp I had. This bottle is Very Strong Lavender. It reminds me of when I'm on a walk and I pass by some lavender and give it a squeeze with my fingers. That fresh, sharp, intense lavender is what I get from the bottle. On my skin it smells the same. Very potent. I'm not smelling anything but lavender - not a hint of patchouli, resins, or powder. After a bit of dry down it has turned into a slightly softer version of itself but it still smells like a very true lavender. At this point it smells like I've been rolling around in fields of lavender and then laying in the sun - it's warmed up considerably. Not what I expected from my imp, but nice in a different way.

Edited by strahlend

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On my skin this is sharp, bitter patchouli and herbal lavender. As it dries I get hints of blackberry and opopponax, but just barely, the other two overpower everything else. I'm left with dark, gritty, slightly astringent lavender.

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Big wash of lavender to start off, but as it dries I get something soft, dry, and sweet. This is the opopponax at work, I think, with maybe a little support from the patchouli and myrtle. I don't get any distinct berry or olive, but I think I might get a whiff of cognac, although it doesn't smell boozy, more like leather and old leaves.

 

This is oddly comforting to me, and I could see myself acquiring more of it.

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I had a really hard time with this one at first -- all I got was the smell of pickling spice. As other posters have mentioned, the lavender is really strong here and overpowers just about everything else. Two hours after application, I am just beginning to get hints of patchouli and the sweetness of the opopponax. It's drying down to something I can live with, but this is definitely one I may pass on to the swap pile.

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This has what may be the sharpest, strongest lavender top note ever. Whew!! When it fades I'm left with a very bitter patchouli/opoponax blend with a tiny smidge of the myrtle/olive leaf. No cognac, and maybe the merest breath of blackberry--overall it's just very bitter and dirty-smelling. Pass.

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Patchouli'd lavender over a bed of blackberries. It's extremely sweet, resinous and thick. Even though it has notes of win, the patchouli turns on my skin, making this blend extremely sweet, with too much fruit, lavender and patchouli and not in a good way.

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Wet: dark wispy lavender, oppoponax, and cognac. There's a touch of patchouli behind it but mostly lavender. Very soothing, murky, and a touch boozy and earthy.

Drydown: all lavender and a slight hint of patchouli,blackberry and myrtle. I like it for it's soothing, not torturous, qualities.

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Incessant Torture of Remorse smells a lot like Misericordia on me (opoponax, lavender, and black currant) and a bit similar to the yule blend On Darkness, but not as good. I mostly get the dark, cloying, sticky-sweet incense feel of the opoponax (which is like some sort of heavy incense syrup on my skin), and a cool, sweet lavender. The blend gets a little black peppery in the drydown, which opoponax usually does on me. I was intrigued by all of the other notes, but I can't pick them out here.

 

This is all dark, heavy lavender and opoponax on my skin, and has a deep, cloying sweetness to it.

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On me, this starts really lavender-heavy. The lavender is a very herbal one, and as it dries, the blackberry comes out a little more. My skin does not like blackberry, so this starts going a little funky on me. The blackberry and lavender contribute to a dark purple kind of vibe here, and the opoponax adds an incensey tinge. I agree that this shares some similarity to Misercordia and On Darkness. Overall though, the blackberry ruins this for me. Damn skin chemistry.

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This is very woodsy on me. Maybe it's the patch? Not getting much here but a strong, masculine wood. No lavender or anything else for that matter. I do like woody, and this is so warm and comforting, but this is just a bit too masculine for me. The title doesn't really fit the scent description here, as I would love to cuddle up with someone wearing this scent.

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Oh! Hello lavender! It's a very herbal lavender surrounded by darkness. Probably patchouli. The myrtle & olive give it an herbal tinge, while the white cognac - which I hated in other blends for being sharp & bitter - smooths it all out. I get no blackberry. After the initial dark blast, this scent fades to a dusty dark skin scent. Dry on my skin, it smells sort of like mud.

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This one has a very strong lavender note on wet, and then dries to a warm patchouli with a hint of blackberry. Because of the lavender, I find it very soothing.

 

Soothing, warm, herbal.

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Fresh lavender that doesn't smell like cologne! That is a first for me with BPAL lavender blends. The other notes are present, but far in back of the lavender. It's pretty much all I smell, I'll need to test it further before making up my mind on this one.

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Incessant Torture of Remorse - The remorse started the second I put this on my skin and smelled the lavender in it. The torture started about 0.5 seconds later. I can't wear lavender or blackberry and in this blend, they are in cahoots to make this as inhumanly horrific as possible on my skin. The olive leaf even jumps in to give it a green edge that, when mixed with the lavender, reminds me of the weird caraway note from one of last year's Ode to Mars scents. I'm a lavender- and blackberry-hater, and so this is just awful. If you like those two notes, YMMV.

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What I expected...a kind of Black Lace, strong on the cognac note, with blackberry instead of vanilla, and a more masculine slant.

 

What I got: An Ignorance and Want chamomile-y-ness, mixed with lavendar and strong celery salt. Later all this fades to a vague blackberry, very faint and dusty. I didn't like this very much really. Sad :cry2: as I thought this would be kick-ass.

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In the bottle: There's patch and blackberry, tempered by the cognac.

 

Wet: And now here's Lavender and Opopponax! Good grief!

 

The dry-down: Thank goodness the lavender and opoponax have calmed down, and are lying down in an arrangement with the very mild patch and the gentle blackberry, and dripped over with cognac, but again lightly. The myrtle and olive leaf combine to round this blending out. A unisex blend that will smell awesome on the bf, I'm betting. I did have to try this, as I always like to try any scent where Beth uses blackberry or blackberry leaf. Without the lavender and opopponax this would have been one of my faves of the A Christmas Carol set. As it is, I do like it, but will probably decant out half the bottle for the bf, or just wear it in my scent locket.

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Sharp and somewhat bitter, the first onrush of scent seems to be generally attributed to lavender, but I normally like lavender and this still doesn't smell right to me. I suspect that repeat offenders myrtle and cognac are sharpening things. The patchouli is trying to help everyone get along and eventually makes the scent herbal, but it's a prickly sort of herbal compared to Christmas Eve on the Moor.

Edited by melange

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Incessant Torture of Remorse doesn't sound like the name of something I'd like to wear, but I keep trying to make BPAL blackberry happen, so I had to give it a try. Sad to say, I don't really get any blackberry. I get lavender and opoponax-a sour, woody lavender scent. I wouldn't wear this as perfume, but I might try it at bedtime if not for fear that it would give me bad dreams. :(

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Like Gin, I got almost no blackberry from Incessant Torture. It was all strong lavender at first, but an hour later the lavender is almost totally gone as well, leaving a faint dusty patchouli with a dry herbal edge, presumably myrtle and olive leaf. So Incessant Torture is not at all incessant on me; my skin chemistry gobbles it right up.

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