Forever is Mercy Built

[ladymeag]

FOREVER IS MERCY BUILT
Tamarind, tonka bean, patchouli, golden amber, and white fig.

In the bottle, this is all sticky fig and tamarind. Kind of like a chutney, almost. A perfumey chutney, that is.

On me, the wet scent has a little patchouli dirtiness and some amber but that seems to get lost as it dries down. It's all sharp fig, bright tamarind, and the tiniest hint of amber. Amber frequently goes powder on me but this one doesn't.

It's not for me, but if you like non-foody fruit scents that are very bright, this might be for you. It's also very sweet.

[yewberry]

Nice tonka and tamarind. A little amber and patchouli in the dry-down. Reminds me of Chicken-Legged Hut without the nuttiness.

[mymymai]

In the Bottle (ITB): It's a light, uplifting scent in its fruity cleanliness The white fig and tamarind together remind me a little of roasted apricot, although there is a subtle perfume note to the scent when I sniff deeper.

 

Wet: It's sweet while still being light - not overly foody, with a hint of floral and exotic notes due to the patchouli and perhaps the fig. As it starts to dry, there is a bit of stickiness to the scent quality, but the tamarind makes for an intriguing top note white the floral resins and fruit create a succulent quality that is rather enticing.

 

Dry: After a couple of hours, the scent is light, sweet, and slightly exotic from the tamarind. The most prominent notes are the tamarind, of course, the fig, the amber (which gives just a little powderiness to the scent once dried), and the complexity of tonka. It's an interesting scent and I'd reach for it when in the mood, but it isn't going to be a daily scent.

Edited December 2, 2012 by mymymai

[Gwydion]

In bottle: Incense dominant, by which I mean the Amber and patchouli, while distinct work together to be the strongest first impression. I’d call the amber slightly stronger, but that could be because the rich, juicy tamarind is providing strong support to it. The fig supports the tamarind more gently. The tonka sweetly ties it all together. It’s lovely and sexy. Wet: Tamarind moves into the strongest position with amber and fig support. The tonka strengthens; the patchouli steps into the background, soft and well behaved, but still distinct. It is a definitely a fruity blend now as opposed to the incensey first impression: different, but still lovely. Dry: Mostly tonka, some amber, and a bit of fig.

[zankoku_zen]

Tamarind and tonka dries down to an amber, tonka and patchouli blend.

 

Resinous, warm, amber.

[Monday]

'The tamarind is best described as sweet and sour in taste-' That explains why it smells so sour in the imp.

 

On my skin wet: Tamarind with patchouli. Kind of a dry, tart scent. After a while the patchouli is amping and the whole scent is going a bit herbal and just plain weird.

On my skin dry: Perfumey tamarind with a hint of fig and patchouli. The patch is morphing slowly and is going rather smoky. After an hour this is mostly very ashy patchouli with a hint of tamarind.

 

I isn't what I have in mind when thinking about mercy, I find it a very thin and spiky scent. I really hope the amber will come out with aging.

[Wwindy]

Guh! This is one of those blends that I *adore* but can't say much coherent about...

 

Normally I'm not great with fruity notes, but in this blend the lovely rich patchouli and amber make a perfect base for just the right level of sweet-sour tang from the tamarind plus a bit of clean, slightly greenish fig (from sniffing I would've said it was a fig leaf note rather than the fruit, but that might be my chemistry amping the planty aspect of the patchouli). The fruit is a bit tropical-feeling when wet, but that aspect goes away on drydown. There's something incredibly warm and resonant going on here -- much like oudh on my skin. On me this gets a tiny bit powdery but actually isn't overly sweet; the tonka and patch round it out nicely, bringing everything into balance.

 

This is a fruit-and-patchouli scent that works on me -- a non-fruit person -- in sort of the same way that Marotte does; the warm richness keeps the fruit from being too foody or candy-like. I just really, really like this. Also, I find the concept deeply appealing; the original Hebrew phrase is sometimes translated "the universe is built on kindness." Much like Daya, Forever Is Mercy Built feels... well, it just feels warm and kind and loving to me, on top of being a gorgeous resinous scent. Yum!

[Ondine]

Fruity, incensey. It smells like a warm, clean fruit and very light incense. Nice, but nothing overwhelming--neither fruity nor incensey enough for me. I'm glad I got the chance to try it in the Will-Call Sniffing Circle but it's not something I feel I need to track down.

[Wren12]

I was lucky enough to try this thanks to Suedonym's sniffing circle!

 

On wet: Sharp fruits, light incense, it's the amber. It's slightly tart, but something is coming off very 'perfumey.'

 

On dry: The patchouli makes itself known, and it's not the patchouli I like, I feel like it brings the high tartness of the fruits down and rubs dirt on them. I'm not a huge fan of amber in general, and it doesn't seem to play well, to my nose, here.

 

Unlike G'milut this is not one that I need to track down, thank goodness. I think I'm not a fan just due to the constituents, not because it's a bad scent.

[orata]

I was also lucky enough to get to try this through Suedonym's Will-Call sniffie circle!

 

First impressions: a burst of bright, tangy tamarind and fresh, green, delicious fig overlaid with a perfumey, slightly powdery haze of amber and tonka.

 

As it dries, the patchouli gets stronger, but it's a soft patchouli that just dirties up the fruits a bit. Something starts to smell a bit like latex gloves to me in the drydown, an impression I also got from The Lantern Ghost of Oiwa. If I smell it from a little further away, the latex smell seems more vanillic, so maybe it's the tonka. Although the notes don't list any florals, I would have thought this had lily or something in it if I had to guess the notes blindly; there's a definite flowery "perfuminess" to it that I associate with heady florals.

 

Fully dry, it reminds me of dried apricots, green figs, and light woods, but still with that fluffy, perfumey amber floating over the top. The throw isn't too strong--I tried applying it to my neck since often the scent wafting from there gives me a different impression than smelling directly from my wrists. I don't really smell anything from my neck. It's much cleaner and lighter than many other fruit-and-patchouli scents like Madame Moriarty or Snake Charmer, and way more tamarindy and less dirty than Gomorrah. It makes me think most of Hymn to Proserpine with its fruits and amber, but I haven't smelled that in ages, so take that with a grain of salt.

 

Final verdict: inoffensive, but nothing I feel like I need to hunt down. The sum of its parts is quite different and less appealing overall than what I would have expected from reading the notes list.

[samarablackcat]

Another of Suedonym's Will Call sniffie circle participants checking in!

 

I am thrilled to get to try this! I have no preconceived notions; I'm not familiar with tamarind, am very picky on my patchouli, am fond of golden amber, tonka bean I'm hoping to be better than tonka and fig is hit or miss.

 

Sniffing the decant, I get a resiny aroma: thick, a tad smoky (?). On the skin: sweet, sticky fruit (reminds me of peach without being peachy, if that makes sense; when you bite into a really ripe peach, breaking the skin, the juice running onto your hands and down your arm, making them sticky. Like that. Probably the fig, which I only eat dried ). It's difficult to pick out on one component; they blend together seamlessly.

 

I am still getting a very resinous wafting. It takes me to an ancient temple,like Angkor Wat, surrounded with strangler figs choking the the stones. Overgrown, monks chanting, incense billowing, voices resonating towards the heavens.

 

I would really like this as an atmospheric spray. I may hunt down a decant strictly for sniffing purposes. Very evocative (which is how I like my scents).

[bookandbroom]

And another sniffer who's grateful to Suedonym's circle!

 

Much cleaner notes are coming off the rollerbal than I would've expected! But then it starts to get richer and deeper once it's on my skin and in the air - earthy-clean patchouli, bright amber, warm everything else. It makes me think of Christmas trees even though it smells nothing like them - there's something bright and warm and comforting caught up in these notes. But there's also something that turns a little funky - I don't think tamaring is playing nice with my skin chemistry. I had high hopes for the tonka, amber and fig, but this mostly turns sour on me.

[brilliantcat]

A lovely, generous fairy picked up a bottle for me at WC which I am profoundly grateful for as this has all the notes I love and adore! So a big thank you to her

 

Bottle: Sweetly sour tamarind and a touch of amber and patchouli.

 

Wet: Sweet figs, a touch of apricot (even though apricot isn't a listed note, I think the tamarind and fig are interacting in such a way as to give me that fruity impression), and earthy patch tying it together. It's a little bit incense, a little bit sweet, a little bit sour and altogether beautiful.

 

Dry: Earthy, smoky, sweet. I am so happy to have gotten a bottle!

Edited February 9, 2013 by brilliantcat

[mistressfizz]

This is beautifully blended, like a delicious high quality bread filled with nuts, fruit and a tart glaze, served over a river of golden amber flowing through earth and dirt. It's rich and warm, with just the right touch of sweet, a celebratory scent, exotic yet comforting.

[calivianya]

I get a whole lot of sweet fig from this, which immediately gets overtaken by the patchouli. I don't know, I was expecting something different from this scent, maybe some tonka and amber, but it's a little perfumey and too figgy for me.

[Ordo_ad_Chao]

I usually amp ambers and fig. I have to admit, I was hoping the tamarind and patch would be more prominent on me, but they are hiding in the background once on my skin.

 

On me this is a gleaming amber and a dried dusky fig- it's lovely as a scent. Fig isn't very much my friend, though.Sad about that.

 

eta: 12 hours later, it has staying power, but it morphed from the dirty fruit and shining amber dual note of the first 45 minutes. Now it is creamy, earthy (not in a dirty way but a sexy way), and just hints around the edges at a fruited sweetness. I find myself falling more in love with it the longer I wear it, as the edges come off the individual notes and they swirl together into pure mystique.

 

I suspect this is one that will age beautifully.

 

 

Thank you Suedonym for the chance to try this!!!

Edited February 27, 2013 by Ordo_ad_Chao

[BuxomM]

Wet, tamarind and fig. It's very pulpy and earthy. The patchouli adds depth. Dry it's mainly patchouli with a pulpy edge.

[angelamaria]

In decant: the first thing that went into my head when I sniffed this is the word "confusing". It's tamarind, but instead of feeling tropical, it's more of a "cool" tamarind. There are hints of the creamy tonka as well.

 

Wet on skin: there's still the somewhat sour tamarind, but then something very sweet comes out, almost foody-sweet. No, rather, juicy-sweet, giving this a definitely fruity vibe, with the creamy tonka underpinning it all. There are hints of patchouli coming out at this phase as well.

 

Dry: tamarind and fig, with creamy, very creamy tonka and amber. There's a hint of dirtiness from the patchouli now to spice it up, and as it stays longer on my skin the patchouli gets this earthier, dirt-ier quality to it. Well blended and lovely.

 

Verdict: though it's a lovely blend, I've never really worn fruity blends, so this is a pass for me.

[bellumed]

Pretty and soft orange-gold scent. A little fig is noticeable.

 

Lovely as the notes sound and nice as it smells in the bottle, Forever is Mercy Built just doesn't work out on me. The tamarind becomes bitter and the patch is dirty, and while the result isn't terrible, it’s nothing to write home about. I'll pass my bottle along to someone who can enjoy it more.

[Ryan Hemphill]

This was a blind Ebay buy.

 

The first 5 min or so I got a slight hint of the dreaded "cat pee" scent, but it was so slight I decided to wait and see what happened. Thankfully that faded quickly.

 

Then I was left with a nice bright and fruity scent with a bit of dirty patch so it doesn't get too sweet.

 

Lasted like that about 4-5 before fading to a very light powdery version of itself.

 

I don't have a lot of fruity things that I like, so this one is a keeper as there nothing else very close to it in my collection.

[sunlitgarden]

In the bottle: This reminds me of a "traditional" perfume that you might find at a department store. I think that's mainly because of the amber -- often times scents with amber make me think that. It isn't a bad thing, though -- this smells good. If I had to give it a color association, it would probably be a dark wine-red leaning towards brown. It smells a little bit fruity, thick, almost sticky and almost alcoholic. Tamarind is a note I'm mostly familiar with in Mexican soda and in the dipping sauce for naan at Indian restaurants, and this scent does have that same sort of thick, sticky-sweet sort of quality. I can also smell the patchouli, which is usually a note I avoid, but in this oil it's in the form I can manage - it's more of the dried-grass type than the strong type that I associate with BO.

On my skin: still that sort of purplish-brown fruity syrup sort of scent. The fig is behaving; it can smell overripe and rotting on my skin, but this time it smells pretty true to the fruit. I can still smell the amber in here giving it that sort of "perfume" quality, and it's on the sweeter side. This is reminding me a little of Bath and Body Works' now discontinued Brown Sugar and Fig, which is a scent of theirs that I used to really enjoy. I had almost forgotten what a fig note is *supposed* to smell like -- hopefully this is a sign of changing chemistry that means I might be able to wear fig now! (I'll have to keep trying.)

As it dries more, it starts to smell a little bit green and stemmy. To me, fresh figs have an aspect of this "greenish" taste, which I'm actually not too fond of - I prefer dried figs. I'm also starting to get more patchouli at this point. It's recognizable, but it's behaving, and is still leaning sweet. Sometimes tonka can have a slightly unpleasant "burnt/stale" quality on me but it's not doing that here, thankfully. I think it's just adding to the overall sweet base of the scent.

There's a stage in the drydown where the patchouli is more prominent, and I don't like that stage as much, but it eventually retreats again and I am left with a soft, almost powdery, amber-tonka base with a bit of that purple-brown fruitiness still present.

[Lucchesa]

I tried this once before and it went into my swap pile without my reviewing it.  Another sample has come my way, so I tried again, thinking it sounded just the thing for a bright September day.  I love the tangy flavor of tamarind and am not sure I have any other scents with it, but it's not very prominent here.  Forever is more of a sweet amber and fig blend on me, with almost no patchouli.  Like some of my older decants, this one has lost all its sharp edges and some of its distinctiveness.  No throw and fairly short wear length.  Not a standout.

[Cali]

A pink tonka i remember smelling in i winter in my room! But, other than that it's a very well blended, kind of old-lady scent in the best way? Amber always goes a bit dusty on me. as it mixes with the other notes, the white fig freshening this up with a squishy sappyness.