Black Annis

[moonarcana]

... Black Annis' perfume is a mixture of damp cave lichen and oak leaf with a hint of vetiver, civet and anise.

Sniffing from the imp and going on wet, Black Annis is a frightful hike through an ominously dark, damp and mossy woods. It is too overpowering for me in this stage.

As it dries, the scent develops with more promise. The anise crystalizes, not with a sugary finish but like the rich black licorice that my grandpa used to keep in a jar on his desk - the kind that made me grimace with distaste when I was a kid, but that I actually prefer now that I've ripened over a few decades.

Unfortunately, the combination of all the other stuff still keeps this scent from being anything I would ever enjoy wearing.

But I'm grateful to the Civet Evangelism Circle for letting me discover this in a safe and supportive environment! Edited June 8, 2008 by moonarcana

[mybrainhurts]

n the bottle:

Very sharp smelling. I almost didn't try it once I opened the bottle.

 

On the skin:

I'm having a hard time deciding if I like this one or not. I can smell the anise which is a faint licorice scent. I don't really like licorice but this really isn't as strong as all that. It has a faint scent of baked goods almost but is -not- a foody scent. Or maybe it's a faintly 'clean' smell. I don't know... this one is a hard one to describe for me. Again, almost catching a faint scent of cedar? Odd scent here. It smells SO much better on the skin than in the bottle, though.

 

End of Day:

I don't hate it. I don't love it either. To me, it smells like perfume. You'd think that was a good thing because that means that it's got a rich body and a scent that lingers... but there is a sweet note to it that I don't love. All perfumes should wear like this one... just enough scent left at the end of the day to remind you that you -are- wearing something... but it was never so strong that it punched you in the face from across the room. I think I may pass this one one to someone else eventually.

[galahad]

In The Bottle

Smokey sweetness. Kind of a powdery scent. Not what i was expecting.

 

On Application

Man this is interesting. At first I got a good whiff of anise which I love but it was then overshadowed by civet So far loving it.

 

Dry Down

Despite the sweetness of this, this is a really dark scent. The anise becomes really strong which is great as far as I am concerned and, yes, there is a real earthiness which appears. I originally would have said this is quite a feminine scent but after it dries down it gets really dark and dry, losing some of it's initial sweetness. Huge throw and staying power.

 

Rating (0-5)

4

[clawsight]

As others have mentioned this is quite the evocative scent. To my mind it brings about two images: The first is the one in the lab's description, old lady, eats kids, terrifying, lives in a cave, etc. The second is of an old lady, eats kids, terrifying, lives at Lowes* in the garden department hiding behind the flowerpots crooning to her licorice collection.

 

Seriously.

 

In the imp: A slightly spicy, licorice-y, version of what Lowes smells like. Not quite garden department yet though.

 

Wet on me: The moment this touches my skin the spiciness dies away, and a dirt smell comes out. Lowes. Garden Department. Yes.

 

Dry: Repeat of wet, though the licorice smell is slightly stronger.

 

In the end I'm not entirely sure what to do with this scent. It isn't for me -- I doubt I'll ever wear it -- but in some ways I like it. It's neat. I like the character of Black Annis. I almost want to keep it around so that I can open the imp and take a sniff occasionally. But, that's prolly not a good enough reason to merit keeping it -- in all likelihood this will be off to the swaps.

 

3.3 out of 5 licorice collections.

 

----

* Lowes, or Lowes Home Improvement as it is sometimes known, is a Home Improvement and garden store that I know exists throughout the USA. No idea if it's anywhere else. Google it, and you'll get an idea of what I'm talking about here, if you dun know...

Edited June 24, 2008 by clawsight

[crimescenecleanup]

OK, clawsight, I loved your description of the blue-faced hag at Lowe's.

 

I remember the first time I tried this scent, back when I first got into BPAL, it was from a fresh imp and it was very sharp, sour, and musky, all wet lichen and civet.

 

Now that I've time to sit down and do a proper review with an imp that's settled a bit, it's not sharp at all.

 

The first thing that jumps out is oak - this is a warm, woodsy scent, all the way through. The one characteristic of Black Annis that never changes on me, from bottle to drydown, is the scent of oak.

 

On drydown the vetiver comes out full force to blend with the oak - this is a vetiver that is more "cream and mown hay" than "earthy and green". The anise adds a touch of cool sweetness, and there's a warm, sweet, fierce musk behind it all - maybe the civet? And just a hint of something astringent, sour, and cold in the background, which reminds me of lichen liqueurs my brother buys when he goes back to Iceland, so I think it's the lichen.

 

Altogether, it's almost foody - foody like some kind of unholy whiskey and absinthe cocktail due to the oak and anise, but still warm and sweet and almost edible. At different stages it almost seems like there's caramel or cedar in this.

 

The downside? The throw. I have never, ever tried a perfume with so much...ooomph. I tried a dab of this on the inside of my arm and I feel like I'm being beaten over the head with vetiver grass and oak branches, while small musky forest critters pelt me with licorice and caramels. It's nice to have a BPAL with a lot of throw, but this might be too much for me.

 

After about an hour the cooler notes come out, the vetiver and oak start to behave themselves, and it does take on a sour sharpness but it's so well blended with the warm woods and musk that it never overtakes the blend. It gives the impression of walking through a forest in autumn, ankle deep in dry , decaying leaves, a chill in the air, the last warmth of the setting sun leaving the wet earth, and the animal musk of a predator following you. Creepy, indeed. What an evocative scent. Perfect for Halloween.

 

I love this and how well blended it is. Unfortunately it's way_too_strong for my tastes. headache inducing too strong. With amazing staying power. It's now four hours after I put it on, and it's still really powerful. Even washing my arms up to the elbows and doing a two-minute surgical scrub, the scent hasn't gone away. If I can find a way to dilute this a bit before wearing it, I think it would be a lovely, unique scent, one of my favorites, but for now I'm too concerned with how to get it off.

 

Maybe it should go in a scent locket next time?

[Allumina]

This one really grew on me. I loved the description, and was actually disappointed that it wasn't all in-your-face anise. I wasn't too crazy about the throw, which was strange and sort of powdery old lady-ish, but again, it grew on me.

 

An intial bloom of anise with a bit of veviter sadly fades away, into murky, hard to define forest-y smells. After a while there's a hint of anise candy. Dry down is a touch foody and actually kind of sexy. Interesting and unusual and just plain neat- more of a scent that I like smelling on myself rather than thinking I smell amazing in it. Keeping this for sure.

[Delirium1009]

In bottle/imp: Vetiver and light peanut butter. Yeah, really.

 

Immediately on skin: This is an odd combination of scents. Everything together smells like vetiver and peanut butter… but when I separate the notes as I sniff, I get the vetiver, sweet resin, and anise. This is STRONG and a very thick, black scent.

 

After a little while: This has gotten even more bitter as I wear it. That lingering peanut butter feel has dissipated though. This is now a bitter vetiver and anise scent. This is really strong and very thick and dark smelling.

 

Overall Impressions: I'm not a fan of black liquorice, so this blend really doesn't appeal to me. It's like corrupted zombie liquorice or something... deep, dark, bitter, and so so evil.

[anguissette]

I don't think I'd wear this. But it has depth. Its dark vetivert earthyness with layers. It reminded me of Malediction with some more complexity given by the wet dark woods notes my nose picked up. Mine ended up in the swap pile, but I would definately try it on my guy if he'd let me. Its just a little too earthy for me, but still a nice scent.

[rayvn1]

This was an imp included in my first shipment from BPAL (yay!). After reading some of the reviews I was a little leery but figured "let's just jump right in". I absolutely loathe licorice, but I didn't get that scent at all from this. It's really hard to describe, but wearing it I felt this urge to hide behind a bush and drag some unsuspecting unfortunate back to my lair to do some nefarious acts. Seriously. No perfume has ever affected my mood in quite this way and I'm going to follow others' lead and chalk it up to the civet It was very dark smelling and if anyone wants to get themselves in a diabolical mood pretty quick - slap on some Black Annis! I know I will whenever I want to feel like a bad, bad woman

[zankoku_zen]

Okay, so it's definitely mossy and anise on wet. As it dries, I get more of the vetivert in it and maybe the civet - it just smells darker and kinda like a cat.

 

On wet though, I was pleasantly surprised. I liked the moss/anise combination.

[Iceblink]

Wet: yummy anise!

Dry: this is starting to smell like an old-school, classic perfume now that I can't quite put my finger on. I think it's the civet. It's not a good note on me--it's too animalistic...but there's something very old-fashioned about this blend. Weirdly enough the vetiver is barely there! Not a hit for me, this one, but it's interesting.

[angelicruin]

The vetiver in this oil overpowers the other notes while wet. As it dries, I begin to catch the licorice scent, but still too much vetiver for my taste.

[Usagi]

I'm glad I didn't read the description before testing this. I read it after taking notes of the scent, and I'm impressed how well this suits the story and draws those images in your mind.

 

Imp:damp and dark-- perhaps charcoal grey; kind of musty anise or licorice candy with a faint perfume-like echo.

 

Wet: licorice and cologne, not a very strong scent; sweet and powdery

 

Dry down: it’s disappearing, very faint sweet cologne fading to the background.

 

Later: very faint sweetish powder, like insipid granny perfume.

 

Slightly later than that: It seems to be warming up again and I feel as though I'm being surrounded by ghostly old lady perfume for no apparent reason; quite disconcerting.

 

 

If the old lady were real and living in a neighborhood where children had begun disappearing from their beds at night, this is the scent that would linger in their darkened rooms.

The scent started out just as the story described-- somewhere in a dank cave. Then it lulls you into a false sense of security by nearly fading away. After an hour or two, you have this strange sense of something not being right, before your mind realizes it's that faint sickly sweet odor that has been following you around.

 

Right before she jumps out of the shadows and grabs you.

 

Extremely creepy and evocative, but not a scent for me.

Edited September 20, 2009 by Usagi

[Reaver]

Someone earlier said corrupted zombie liquorice? I agree. When I first put this on, it was total and utter mossy vetiver. I had hopes that this would be THE liquorice blend for me - suitably dark and delicious and I was upset when all I smelt was that sticky vetiver. I LIKE vetiver but I have many other blends with it in which are far more interesting than this wet. Dry, however, the vetiver gives way and lets liquorice become the main attraction. It's SO good. Where other anise/liquorice blends are sweet or bland, this is... expansive? I can't think of a suitable word for it. It's one of those scents that grows as you sniff it until you finally run out of breath and you still haven't explored deep enough so you want to sniff more but have to start the journey again. I'm not one for imagery in scents, I prefer them to be WORN by me, not vice versa, but Black Annis really IS like exploring a cave and expecting a monster at the back of it. You back out when you run out of nerve, only to want to try again.

 

9/10. Keeping the imp. I don't know if this is an everyday scent for me because of the crazy distraction it leads me too, plus it's a little too boisterous. I prefer my scents as a passive sigh rather than a punch in the face.

[Argentwolf]

The licorice/anise component stands out the most for me -- which is great, because I love that scent! It is framed subtley by faintly-woody tones...so I can sort of see how one could get that 'witch in the woods' imagery. As time passes, it turns extremely creamy -- as if I had put on some anise-scented lotion. Which would be great, if I actually had lotion that smelled like this...but is sort of disappointing from just the oil.

 

I would have loved for this to have more throw. It has very decent staying power -- I could still smell it, on my wrist, at night when I went to bed -- but it is too subdued for me to really desire a bottle of it.

[Bamels]

I bought this based on reviews and the fact I wanted a dark/creepy/ghostly scent.

 

In the bottle I definately get an eerie smell, but one that is giving me a creepy smile on my face. I can smell a bit of liquorice, perhaps that is the anise.

 

When wet I can smell a dark green/earthy smell, aha the damp cave lichen! The anise is making my mouth water, I wish this were a sweetie It's drying and mixing with the leather smell of De Sade (another tester on my arm) and is making me woozy in a gorgeously dark-smell way. Very gothic, I may have to mix these 2 together.

 

When dry it is slightly sweeter than when wet. I doubt I would wear it on it's own, but am very tempted to mix it with De Sade for a truly vampiric gothic smell.

Edited January 10, 2009 by puddingirl

[kjirstiben]

Initially on, this was all vetiver, in its woodsy, earthy darkness. Over the course of the drydown, a touch of the anise emerges with the vetiver… nice.

 

Through the next hour, the civet comes out to play, but it balances nicely with the other notes and gives some depth to the scent without hijacking it and turning it gross (which is what I had feared it might do).

 

In its end stages, this scent has a powdery, deep, resiny character, full of unplumbed depths. Perhaps a little heavy for summer--this is a good autumn and winter scent, or maybe a nighttime going-out scent, for when you're feeling darkly powerful.

 

Over all, this is a dark and resonant scent.

[Limelight]

I've just tried this for the second time and I had a better experience. I can pretty much make this one do what I want depending on my thoughts. If I think about dried blood, fetid breath and damp caves, I get that. Yet if I ponder slinky black dresses and licorice, those come forth. Attractive or unattractive depending on my state of mind. It's bitter and gives a lichen-like aroma, gets sweeter with time, stays civety and resinous. I don't need to own it. Fun trying though.

[savage_rose]

Straight-up licorice and vetiver. Pretty much the worst possible combination for me possible...it calms down a bit and smells like licorice and vetiver and wood, but that's a marginal improvement at best.

[Gwydion]

In bottle: this is surprisingly nice. The anise fits beautifully with lichen and oak. Wet: The civet comes out. Alas, so does the vetiver, but not so strongly I can’t take it. Annis remains strongest, though the lichen/oak cave scent is present. Dry: anise seed and vetiver. No, just no.

[zomathesadist]

I looooove the smell of licorice, and fennel, and star anise, and any number of other things in that family! (But I hate eating licorice, so go figure. ) Vetiver and I are ok, and I like earthy scents well enough. let's proceed...

 

Wet in imp: pungent, earthy. about what I expected. Not getting the animal smell, or anise, surprisingly.

 

On skin: Definitely wet, leafy, and earthy. This is a chilly wind on a November morning, before it freezes, before the snow comes. I get a faint sweetness that is presumably the anise, but on me, it's not strong, and not immediately identifiable as anise. =( bummer. Humbug and Le Pere Fouettard are two of my favourites. Come back, anise!

 

Drydown: now, in light of all the other reviews, my impressions are...different. This seems cuddly! I just have this vision of a big comfy wool sweater on a chilly wet day, and a mug of herbal tea. Not getting the creepy old lady imagery, not getting the animal musk. It's definitely unusual, and it definitely will stand out. I like it. But I don't LOVE it, and given that I have more perfume that can last a lifetime, this isn't a bottle purchase for me.

[femmefatale]

Very interesting. It's a dark, earthy, evil...licorice. LOL. Surprisingly, I really like this but I think I would *love* it on dh.

 

 

ETA: Ok, I *really* like this, even though I usually hate civet and only occasionally like anise. There is something about this, I just can't stop sniffing myself. I feel very strong and mysterious. DH will have to get his own.

Edited April 10, 2009 by Femme_Fatale

[Caerphilly]

In the imp: Patchouli

 

Wet: Actually changes on me. The second I smell patchouli, it's patchouli and I have to wash it off. This is the smell of wet dirt and moss.

 

Dry: Woodsy and earthy. Can smell the vetiver. Kind of reminds me of church incense in a way. masculine.

 

Overall: Not my type of scent at all. But a lot more pleasing than my initial reaction. Won't wear it, but pleasantly surprising.

[Poenari]

This is all dark smoky vetiver and licorice on my skin- way more than a hint of vetiver and anise! Fortunately, I love both of those notes. The smoky note is predominant at first, with the anise trailing behind. This is very earthy and dark, but softens to a sweeter blend at drydown, though the smoke never fades on me. It definitely won't be for everyone, and I am certain that my husband won't like it, as he never likes any of my vetiver-based scents, neither on me nor on him. But this is the kind of scent that I can wear to work on those rainy, cloudy days in the spring when I know my office will be freezing- it would warm me up!

 

 

[blacklacestatic]

Initial Unsniffed Impression: I think this might remind me too much of Absinthe (both the drink and the scent). Not too fond of Absinthe, bad experiences.

 

In the Imp: Lots of words immediately come to mind, this makes a serious impression. Bitter, dark, masculine, damp, thick, musky. It is however, very well-blended.

 

Wet on skin: Dark, thick and masculine. Reminds me a bit of fresh, hot asphalt.

 

Drydown: Mostly very sickly sweet, dark anise. I don't particularly like licorice blends. It definitely feels evil, creepy, eerie. Licorice and musk. Does civet smell like leather? I get a leather feel from this too.

 

Overall: It's just horrible on me. There are no parts of this that work for me. This will be one of the few BPAL blends that I truly can't stand. I even get a slight headache from it. I give it credit for being a very good representation of it's story.