Port-Au-Prince

[sarahmarie]

Dark, decadent and incomparably exotic: the rich scent of buttered rum flavored with almond, bay, clove and sassafras.

I tried my sister's imp of this, without any idea what was in it. Interestingly, the first thought I had was "cherry!", and my sister agreed with that assessment. Almonds can smell a lot like cherries, I guess? Or maybe my nose is crazy, but I definitely smell cherry.

Once it dries down a little bit, a lot of spiciness comes forward. I smell cinnamon and clove, and something underneath that I don't recognize. As it dries, that smell I don't know becomes more prominent, and the spicy fades a bit. The cherry/almond becomes quite subtle. It does get more masculine, but I think I really like it.

[Aredhel]

Rating (on skin): 4/5

Summarised in a word or two: Festive!

 

In the imp/bottle: Sweet, very faint almond.

 

On skin, wet: Ooh, clove! Clove with just the faintest hint of almond. Sweet and spicy, this one. While wet, this one reminds me of French Creole, only rummy! The almond continues to fade, leaving a spicy clove that I simply adore and a soft, yet surpisingly deep rum.

 

On skin, dry: I do so love clove, and it blends so beautifully with the rum. This, for some reason, reminds me of a warm house on a cold (but snowless), dark November evening. A very comforting spice scent. Festive.

 

Conclusion: As much as I love this, it's a fleeting scent, and it's completely gone within two hours.

Edited December 24, 2005 by Aredhel

[pranashakti]

MMMMmmmmmm...almonds and bay rum on wet, super-sweet and borderlining on amaretto.

 

The almonds disappear fairly quickly and the cloves and sassafrass appear. This is a sweetly spicy, woody scent with a rummy kick, and just perfect for the newly arriving fall weather. It's soft on me but has a spine (a touch "masculine", but not "manly" per se) and is very long-lasting. This puts me in mind of ripped jeans, a man's old butter-soft sweater and a breezy autumn sunset. I must to also try this on my other half...'cause it's so damn slurperiffic on me!

 

Bottom line: Love it. Completely slather-worthy, especially on days when I'm feeling a bit sassy.

[Footnotegirl]

This.. is so lovely. So amazingly beautiful and lovely and spicy and. Wow. It's warm and deep and smells like all the things advertised. And like the ocean. It's like smelling a romance novel pirate king with the fire and the rum and the heady..

Notice how I said king?

As much as I love love love this scent, it is too masculine for me. It smells gorgeous, and now that it has faded (I put it on at about 2 p.m. and it's nearing 2 a.m. and there's still the lightest whiff of it) I could go with it, but.. for the first few hours? Way too masculine for me. And I'm not a girly girl flowery perfume type.

[dreadeddragon]

In the bottle: Rum! And salt water? And something sweet. Odd.

 

First on: Mmmmmm..... clove..... with a bit of a rum twinge in the background. This is all clove on me and I like it that way.

 

Drydown: The rum & bay is a little more noticeable, but it's still such strong clove on me. I absolutely adore it!!! I was afraid to try it at first because I don't like smelling of rum, but I'm oh so glad I did.

[Little Bird]

I really don't care for almond. It smells like sickeningly boozy cherries to me. Port-Au-Prince is all almond at first.

 

5 minutes later. This is actually reminding me quite a bit of Cerberus. It has that same lemony-sweet biscuit smell, but with sharp clove in the background.

 

This disappears on me after about 2 hours, but it remains a sort of light version of Cerberus with added clove. I also got a darker sort of chocolatey scent in Cerberus that I don't get in this blend.

 

It's okay... but I like Cerberus a lot more. I'll probably swap my imp of this one.

[Julilla Regina]

At first this was strong cherry cough syrup. That was over pretty quickly and wowza, did the clove take over on me! It was all screaming "clove! clove!" and I was loving it. After about fifteen minutes it smoothed down into a slightly medicinal, masculine clove blend. Rum wasn't there at all on me, which is probably for the best. This is a great masculine scent, I think, without being totally overpowering and common.

[wolfie13]

In the bottle: Almond

(the same almond note I get from Hecate and Black Phoenix)

 

Wearing: For the first 5-10 minutes, it's still almond, with clove.

 

After about 15 minutes: The almond fully disappears never to return and leaves mostly clove. Like sniffing-cloves-in-the-box, CLOVE. (My personal favorite type of clove - unadulterated). I can smell just a tinge of rum and sassafrass around the edges.

 

It stays this way the whole time. Throw and lasting power are medium on me.

 

(I read the reviews and a lot of folks deem this to be more "masculine" but it doesn't strike me that way.)

 

This will likely be a large bottle purchase for me at some point - and is a top ten contender!

[lemonade]

In the bottle i loved this scent. almondy yummy butterty goodness.

 

On my skin it turned into pure clove, and a very acrid dry clove at that.

 

This was double dissapointing as in bottle this smelled warm and rich.

 

Oh well may try it in an oil burner or scent locket.

[malanna]

This starts out smelling strongly of rum, but shortly after application, this is rum and sassafras in equal parts. After half an hour, it mostly smells of sassafras, sweet and sticky. Throughout this, I can definitely pick up the clove and almond, maybe a little almond. This makes me think of two things, the first, an oily (not like oily hair, but intentionally oil) Haitian man that is sensual and smooth. The second thing is just of cooking pies and sweets, because clove's used in pumpkin pies and such. Over time, the rum and sassafras fade away, just leaving the spices. It smells mostly of pumpkin pie spices to me now.

[AngellicMystique]

This is a beautiful scent. Warm and familiar, but exotic and mysterious at the same time. The almonds and rum amp on my skin.

 

the almonds and clove amp on my husband. Yum!

[angharad]

Admittedly I am sick and can barely breathe, but this is my review of Port-au-Prince from today:

 

This was a rich, almost candy-sweet almond. I could smell the rum in the background, and after a while the clove came out a bit more while the candy-sweetness faded a little. I don't recall any bay or sassafrass peeking out from under the other notes. Since I'm sick I'm not sure about the throw, but this did last for several hours. I like it and will wear it again once I can breathe properly.

[Merlu]

In the imp: Whoa! In-your-face marzipan!

 

Wet, on skin: Marzipan again, and bay rum. Smells deliciously exotic and warm.

 

Dry: Clove has taken over, while the rum and marzipan are still there, in the background. It's so yummy... warm and spicy. It's like drinking amaretto on the beach, under the hot sun.

It's masculine, but not so much that a woman couldn't pull it off.

Unfortunatly, it doesn't last very long on me, only a few hours. It's amazing while its there, though.

[Rhowan]

*PORT-AU-PRINCE*

 

In the bottle: First sniff and all I can get is an amaretto sour drink. I too confuse almonds with cherries. This reminds me of Kabuki a bit because of that cherry spice like scent. I love both amaretto sours and Kabuki so this smells really good. I am worried about the buttered rum because butter usually turns to playdough on me and rum usually ends up just being stinky on my skin.

 

Wet: First swipe and I am getting the amaretto/cherry but a deeper scent in the background. A hint of the clove maybe? My hopes are raising for this!!!

 

Dry Down: The cherry almond scent receeds at a pretty good pace and the other scents come forward to make a marriage made in heaven! It takes on a very lovely and warm clove scent . I almost expect my skin to literally be warm where I have applied it. This isn't the dry clove that one gets from the spice itelf in a jar but an almost liquidy warm spice.

 

Conclusion: This is warm and spicy reminding me of warm spice cookies and eggnog for some reason. Maybe a hot spiced rum? As someone said before me, it is very festive! Great staying power and a pretty good throw too. I will definitely be buying a bottle of Port-Au-Prince to wear for the holidays next year. Put this one on my big bottle wishlist!!!

[perpetua]

very sweet and spicy, and ALMONDY!

This blend did weird things on my skin, but it is just freakin gorgeous as a room scent. I'm telling y'all, something magical happens to this one when it hits the heat of the diffuser. Yummy!

[Chrysantza]

Got this in an imp swap.

 

In the bottle: Strong, clovey, rummy almond.

 

On me: All clove, all the time. In-your face clove drowning out every other note. Just a little bit too much for me.

 

Verdict: Swap.

[lyri]

When wet, it smells quite a bit like rum and something else. However, once it went on, it went to near pure clove. Not a bad thing, all told, but rather unexpected when I did not read the description before trying. Probably going to keep this imp for random urges.

[LiberAmoris]

Another old skool BPAL blend. I tried Port-au-Prince at the beginning of my BPAL addiction but gave my imp away and didn't get another until the Lab threw in one as a freebie (thanks!) in my last order.

 

Wet, this is loads of almond. As it dries, it's very buttery, but that quickly morphs into the dry clovey rum blend that I have all through the drydown. It's like clove cigarettes...yum.

 

This isn't something that I'll ever need a bottle of, but I'm hanging onto my imp for those days when I *really* want a clove cigarette. Like now.

[ancilla_morte]

I smell cherries first off. then cinnamon, maybe cloves or allspice. and fruit tea?

 

it fades very fast. the cherry smell goes away and I am left with the fruit tea- spicy smell. it smells like apple cinnamon tea.

 

not bad. if it had more staying power I would keep it.

[absinthea]

Im reviewing this scent on my 10-yr old son because I'm already sniftesting another scent on me at the moment.

 

My first impression of this in the bottle is "warm iced oatmeal-raisin-rum cookie". The scent is warm, and the cinnamon and rum smells really stand out. I'd dare say there is also a sharp tone of sugar, but the sugar scent presents itself like baked goods rather than a pungent overpowering smell.

 

On the skin, the buttery rum starts to really stand out. It still smells of iced oatmeal raisin rum cookie, but with more of a rum edge to it. As it dries down, the clove starts to stand out on his skin. It is a sweet clove scent but it definitely takes the lead. There is also a nice almont undertone that is present but nice and mellow.

 

Very nice, something for wearing to the club at night while wearing your darkest gothic finery or as a lovely everyday scent for a man.

[Neely]

In the bottle: sweet, with tobacco ( I don't look at the notes until after I try it) fruity.

 

Wet: sweet, spicey and creamy.

 

Dry down: creamy and spicey. I did not get any rummy or buttery goodness.

 

30 minutes: spice really starts coming out. This is so soft on me, and not much throw. Could the imp be old? The oil breaking down? It has no throw.

 

Conclusion: this goes too soft, and that the spicey stage isn't enough to wow me. Could be an old imp. May have to try a new one from the lab.

 

Rating on my skin, this is a 2.5 (unless I get to try a new one and this changes, I will edit then).

[pale]

in bottle: almonds! and bay rum. the preponderance of almond makes me nervous, as bpal almond usually goes to utter stink evil on me.

 

on me: the almonds fade a bit, and wow, bay rum. *very* strong. very much a men's cologne scent, and a little goes a loooong way. this isnt throw, this is getting the ball to the catcher in time and getting two men out at home base. so not the usual terrifying bpal almond fate, but just a wee too strong. will be lovely on many guys, tho!

[trins-ravengirl]

As nevermore has threatened bodily harm on me if I don't start reviewing the bagful of imps i've been trying on everyday, I figured I best get started!

 

Port-Au- Prince

 

I was warned that this might be a bit sweet for my liking but after putting it and letting it sit for a few seconds, it is definitely more spicy then sweet for me.

 

When I first put it on, I get the hit of cherry and almond that it smells like in the bottle, but after drying on me for about 10 seconds its all cloves! Mmmm cloves.

 

One of my newfound favs methinks, loving ths spicyness, and the girl likes it better on me then on her.

[damuddymeg]

In the imp: Almondy, with a touch of spice.

 

Wet: Serious buttered almonds. The spices start to purr during the drydown.

 

Dry: YUM. Buttery spices. The almond gives up, which is ok, because I have several scents which are my go-to's for when I want to smell like biscotti. This is just amazing--all food notes without going foody on me in the slightest. A hint of root-beer-y sassafras, a boozy bit of rum. A bite of clove and bay without being manly or overwhelming. Perfect and spicy and warm on this sleepy, foggy morning.

[bifemmefatale]

Straight off, all you get is bitter almond, really strong, almost as strong as in Eclipse. Then the clove and bay rum come out as the almond dies quickly back. I'm not really getting the sassafras. I swear there's a light musk in here somewhere though--maybe it's the butter note? I think maybe my nose is overwhelmed by reviewing other scents still. I'll give this another try at another time. My gut reaction is that these are a lot of the notes I like, but they're not quite gelling in this one.

 

Second try:

Fresh sharp almonds, bay and clove in the bottle, the clove warming up and the almonds dissipating almost immediately on contact with skin. Clove grabs my skin hard. I can just smell the buttered rum in the background, but it's been well-clobbered by cloves. I could easily see this going masculine.

 

Eh. I like the bay rum in Jazz Funeral more, where the cloves are softened by florals eventually, and for rum I'll stick with Grog. After about 10-20 minutes this goes Desenex, which is reminiscent of my dad but not something I want to wear.

Edited April 21, 2006 by bifemmefatale