The Black Tower

[Sistinas]

a review of The Black Tower

 

A sepulchral, desolate scent. Long-dead soldiers, oath-bound; the perfume of their armor, the chill wind that surges through their tower, white bone and blackened steel: white sandalwood, ambergris, wet ozone, galbanum and leather with ebony, teak, burnt grasses, English ivy and a hint of red wine.

 

Vial ~ At first sniff, I was OMGWTFBBQ!! Leather, wine, mosses and ivy,

what a combination. I cannot wait to try this out on my skin.

 

Wet ~ It is more mossy and ivy, no trace of the wine or leather, where did

it go?

 

Drying ~ I am still detecting just the moss and ivy, it comes across clean

scent and every now and then when I sniff it, I think I might be picking up

slight traces of the wine.

 

Dry ~ Oh my, it has dried to this soft powdery wine scent,with moss and ivy

still in the background.

 

Fade ~ The Black tower dried and faded almost back to it's original scent

only softer. It has faded into a truly beautiful scent that my skin has

soaked up, so far lasting over an hour.

 

Final thoughts ~ I am so happy that after drydown, the wine scent came back

and the combination with the moss and ivy just adds to the wonderful scent.

I cannot wait to get a bigger bottle of this to really slather it on. On

a scale of 1 to 5, I give it a 4.5

[Medici]

This is morphing fast, so I'll try and spit it out as it changes:

 

Onset wet: red wine, ivy, ozone

In-the-middle-wet: Strong ivy, ozone coming to the front, something sweet and floral - a white floral at that coming out. Totally amps the sweetness of this blend, I wasn't expecting that.

Drydown: Settling into an ozoney-green.

 

Quite nice. But it moves fast. The red wine disappeared within five minutes.

[sophia_helix]

This was such a hard scent to pin down that I've put off reviewing it. I think I mostly got metal/red wine from this, like Tintagel without the spicy juniper. There was something a little smoky and burnt about it too.

 

Definitely a spooky scent -- I got the desolation strongly. Not sure if I'll want to wear it.

[Ajila]

In the bottle - Interesting - green, but slightly sweetened, it's like nothing else I've ever smelt before.

Wet on me - Smoky, spicy and still slightly sharp from that greenness I smelt in the imp.

Dry on me - The greenness fades and it becomes drier, warmer and more earthy. Spicy too. It's warm, comforting, that little bit sexy and it lasts a long time as well.

[aedes]

Ohhh shoot. I think the red wine scent hates me. In Wanda, it just smelled absolutely repulsive on me, and here in Black Tower, I get the same damp, rotten grape smell I got with Wanda peeking through. There are lots of lovely woods and spicey scents struggling to hide it, but man that red wine scent cuts through like a knife for me.

 

Maybe this will be better on the boy. Oh I hope I hope!

Edited October 27, 2005 by aedes

[Northernminx]

Amazingly complex. A touch of leather, a touch of sweet grass and ivy, and an undercurrent of deep red wine. This is herbal, sweet, wine-filled and masculine all at once and changes nearly every sniff I get. I suppose it's rather gender neutral but something in it makes me think it would smell better on my beloved than me even though I'm really enjoying the experiance. Lovely!

[SeaMonkey]

mosses and smoke with a little leather and wine.

 

I wore it to a dance class and sweating amped the smoke a lot, but it mellowed to a smokey/sweet scent, almost powdery, but not quite. At the end of class, it was like smokey vanilla and wine, with a little bit of grass.

 

Odd, but it smells good!

[pinkpoodle]

At first, I smell fruit and leather. The strong fruitiness calms down after a few minutes and settles into a resiny wine scent. I'm left with red wine smell and a slight smokey/leathery aroma. Nice, but not really my style.

[Silverstrike]

This doesn't smell very happy. When wet, I smell something that's bitter. As it dries (afterwards as well), I can smell leather and something sour--which I think is the red wine. But what I smell the most is something like Worcestchire sauce, which oddly enough, was the overwhelming note I got from Sugar Skull, just not quite as strong here (but still quite prominent).

[Thaleia]

I received this as a frimp from the Lab. I don't know that I'd have thought twice about this one, because I don't usually do heavier, woody scents (I'm a Katharina and Rose Red kind of girl) ... but it's the Lab, and we love the Lab, so I try everything at least once.

 

In the vial: Sharp, dark green, very earthy. Like you're deep in the forest when a breeze blows through and kicks up the dry leaves on the ground and whirls them around. I can also kind of smell a hint of leather (not in the jacket variety, but shoes - old, worn shoes).

 

Wet: Greener, almost lush greenery of the forest. Instead of smelling the scorched-earth scent of burnt grasses, I smell a faint aquatic note. Has to be the wet ozone. It reminds me of when I was in elementary school and we'd go on day trips to an orienteering range and they'd turn us loose in the woods with a compass and a rudimentary map, to see who can get to the "finish" first.

 

Drydown: It's getting sharper and more woodsy. Dark woods, with very little light peeking through. I'm imagining a dense forest like Mirkwood.

 

Dry: Herbal and green. The wood scent goes away and you can kind of see a ray of light peeking through the branches, but then it's gone again. I'd have to say that it's something I can imagine a guy wearing. My dad might like this.

 

Rating: I give this a 3 for what it is, but I don't think I'd wear it.

Edited December 23, 2005 by Shollin

[AngellicMystique]

I get lots of wine, sandalwood, roses, ivy and ebony. I really enjoy this fragrance. It's very sweet, but has wood and charred hints just after the initial impression.

[Shollin]

First sniff: Oh, I don’t like this, and I don’t know why. It’s unsettling. Dark and creepy and unsettling and very, very cold. It isn’t that I don’t like the scent itself, but it gives me instant creepies. But I try everything on (and have found more than one unexpected love that way), so…

 

Wearing: Cold, dry and still just creepy. When I first read the poem, it reminded me very much of Aragorn in the Paths of the Dead, and I’m getting that sense again. It’s quite ethereal, fading very quickly on my skin… and as it fades, it’s done a presto-change-o into a soft, welcoming, vaguely vanilla-ish guyscent. Wha? Am I suddenly smelling Aragorn instead of his dead soldiers?

[Stumbeline]

Wine wine wine! Yum. I love the Lab's red wine note so much. It's always very warm and spicy on me and just melts into my skin. I've been wanting to try The Black Tower for a long time now. In the imp it's red wine and leather, sort of what I expected Wanda to smell like, but there's no rose. It's very sweet and fruity with a touch of green. On me, the green-ness amplifies, but is still sweetened by the wine. As it dries it smells very much of ivy and smoke and wine, and less of leather. It's wearable for me, but it's almost more of a room scent than a body scent. I think the best way to describe it is a cold scent, it reminds me very much of winter. It's a wonderful scent, but not something I would wear on a regular basis. I'm very glad I got to try it.

[PurringPulsar]

The Black Tower

 

In the imp: I smell wine here, as well as something fresh and rainy, and something green as well.

Wet on skin: now I get the burnt smell coming through…it smells like deep wine, leather, and something burnt. It reminds me of another BPAL but I can't remember which…

Dry on skin: whoa, this is very unusual! A really chaotic and conflicting mix of scents. There's fresh, windy/rainy ozone, dry woods, fruity sweet wine, deep leather, smoke and fire, scorched grass, a hint of metal…it's one of the strangest BPALs I've tried so far. It's a real clash of harsh notes, almost like a battle, it's quite an apocalyptic scent. It reminds me of, I think, hints of Tintagel and Geek.

After a while: the scent now smoothes down into a dark, moody, slightly angry scent of deep wine, leather, burnt grass and woods, and metallic ozone. the ozone now is a bit stronger now, giving the effect of wind, rain, and the metal of swords and armour. This ozone freshness on top of the dark, slightly fruity, burning background is like a flash of silver against charred black and crimson red. I can't get over how dark and atmospheric this scent is…it's like nothing I've smelt in perfume before.

As time passes, the scent gets like a conflict and more like the desolation mentioned in the description. The charred woods and wine move away and the cool, metallic, rainy ozone moves forward, and I detect the deep green of ivy. This is ozone of the 'good' kind-it doesn't soap out on me. It's an ozone note that smells like typical English weather-wind and rain. This now smells like the field where a momentous battle has occurred, devastated and burnt, but still haunted by the clash of swords and the ghosts of long dead soldiers, now ravaged by the gales of autumn.

Verdict: this is probably the strangest, most unique, most unconventional BPAL I've smelt. It's a really chaotic blend of harsh, burnt, intense and sometimes conflicting notes. It's a scent encapsulating destruction and the devastation that follows. The predominant scent is that of burning woods and grasses-it's like smoke, fire, it smells charred and blackened. Then there's the wine, which is surprisingly strong here, adding it's deep red fruitiness. There's a background of leather, a hint of ozone on top, all these notes come together in an almighty clash. It's quite an unsettling smell, very much one of conflict or cataclysm, there is nothing reassuring or gentle about this scent. This scent is very dark and loud, very atmospheric. It then settles, the battle ends, the ozone becomes dominant and the smell is now a tiny bit calmer, yet it feels destroyed, barren, weather beaten, and still has the memories of the cataclysm that happened before…but it's not really my sort of scent. It was an interesting experience to wear it though…but I think it's one for swaps.

[Hawke]

Oh, I like this.

 

In the vial, I smelled the wine and ivy notes, I think.. Certainly the warm, redness of wine and something sharper and cleaner, which could, I suppose, be the teak, but I'm almost sure is green and thus must be ivy.

 

Wet on my skin, the bite of citrusy-ozone showed up and I, for one, am glad of that. I truly love the lab's ozone scent. As it dried the musk mingled with the blue-green smell and dry, that seems to be wear it's stayed.

 

I can understand why people would call this cologne-y or masculine, but I don't think it works purely on the male body.

 

It's a familiar, not bright, but comfort-in-knowing scent to me, not at all devastated or wrecked. Definitely me.

[Neely]

In the bottle: Like a shop that has burned and sells incense for years. A shop with wooden bookshelves and magikal items. At the same time, it invokes the imagery of the poem. Maybe I am easily suggestable, but I think it is the genius of Beth and the lab!

 

Wet: I smell the wine, and somthing which I think is the leather. I also smell, stone. You know stone of the tower with ivy climbing up its walls. I am really liking this scent. It isn't like cologne (you know that certain element that makes something a perfume). This is pure imagery in a bottle. I see skeletons or armored men, fallen in a great battle long lost. It reminds me of Lord of the Rings when Sam goes into the tower and saves Bilbo, the Orcs and Uruk have killed each other.

 

30 minutes: Sweeter wine, leather that grounds it, still get that "stoney" smell. Maybe ozone? I am liking this very much. In some ways this smells like a lighter version of Herr D on me. I think I would like to get a big bottle of this, it isn't my favorite, but it draws me to it.

 

rating 1-5: 4

[Diana]

This is an unusual one.

 

It starts off slightly sweet with a slight touch of ozone, and something dark and mysterious and deep and brooding in the background. As it wears on, the dark note must be a resin (galbanum, I'm guessing!), with just a touch of the wood + ambergris. It's almost burnt smelling, but not in a bad way. Just something dark and foreboding, lurking. The sweet note, which is most likely the wine, doesn't totally disappear, but blends in more and more with the other notes as the day goes on. The ozone is almost undetectable now.

 

This is really hard to describe. It is really unusual, and slightly reminiscent of Lurid because of the ozone & sweet notes, but Lurid gone wrong. Beautifully done.

[Caletara]

This scent smelled really dark and smoky on me when i first applied it, but i confess, I didnt have much time to really smell it as I got an instant migrane after a few seconds. I would have loved this scent to work out!

[LiberAmoris]

The Black Tower is a really complex blend. On my skin is like a darker Mabon, with a splash of Tintagel. There's a note that's slightly astringent and bitter, I think it's the ivy, that strikes me as almost academic. The red wine and ozone are perfectly behaved here, and the overall effect is of wind through ivy, carrying something smoldering and slightly sweet on it from far away. It's incensey but also green.

 

I don't think this is one that I need a bottle of, but I'm keeping the imp. I think this would be an amazing autumn blend on my boyfriend, and there are times when I think I might want to wear a bit as well.

[Naamah_Darling]

This is one of the scents whose description prompted me to make my first sample order. I have really high expectations of this one.

 

Let me try to make sense of what I'm smelling in the bottle. Hmm. Sweet and fruity the way dragon's blood always smells fruity to me in the bottle. Dragon's blood is not listed, so this may be the wine. If it is, there's not so much of it that it smells grape-y like it does in other blends. This scent is very cool, though; not warm at all. I smell the ozone in it as a high-pitched whine, and there's maybe a hint of sandalwood in the slight sweetness of it.

 

I rub it in and whoa! Hellooo there! I just got a faceful of hard, smoky man-muscle! This is a very grown-up, very masculine scent on me. I smell the burnt grass, and a polished, woody smell that reminds me strongly of the library scent in Miskatonic University. The wine is gone. No leather yet, but that's probably for the best. We all know how it makes me lose control over my lady bits.

 

If I wait a while, the leather comes out at last, faintly, faintly. This is like Tintagel after the feast is gone and the land has gone barren with war. Masculine, dry, not foody at all. Not aggressive, either, but not a smell you'd want to screw with in an alley. Or maybe you would. Maybe you like uncommunicative, dangerous men.

 

Dry, an hour or so later, I can smell the wine again. It's less smoky and more sexy. The armor comes off.

 

On second try it was winey straight off, which threw me, and also very woody/burnt. It dried to a powdery finish. Not quite as nice. I'll have to go for a tiebreaker at some point, but this one is so complex and evanescent and mutable that it will probably shift a lot with my chemistry.

 

There is something very lonely and sad about this smell; probably that it's smoky and winy but not warm, which both of those things usually are.

[sthenno]

It's really sharp and alcoholic in the vial. On my skin, it mellows and sweetens a bit. I can smell an undercurrent of something green. The ivy, I assume.

 

This is surprisingly bright and warm when it dries down completely. It turns into an interesting blend of ozone and fruity leather. I'm glad I tried this one out. Sniffing the imp, I thought I would hate this, but it's quite nice. My only complaint is that it's a bit too sweet.

[olympia301]

The Black Tower is a blend with great charm and it would be a wonderful day scent for a woman. You can easily wear this one into work without being accused of being a witch or worse. It reminds me of some of the great old perfumes of yesterday, I suspect that is because of the leather note, which was so very popular in the 1940's and '50's. If you are not familiar with that sort of thing, you would love to discover it here in The Black Tower. It is a romantic blend, sharp and long lasting (no that is not a contradiction in thoughts). somehow I don't get any red wine from The Black Tower but it's pretty delicate and I am not disappointed.

[mirutai]

Sweet, fruity wine in the imp turned... straight into astringent smoke and burnt wood on my wrists, like someone bombed a vinyard. VERY smoky and bitter. I get woods and mosses, and maybe a tiny touch of leather, but floating on the top of this is a peculiar bitter, almost rancid, note. Maybe this is the ambergris? (never tried another blend with this note, though I have encountered all of the other notes in this elsewhere)

 

The scent certainly fits the description - devastation and ruin. Unfortunately, to me devastation and ruin are not a pleasurable olfacory experience!

[melrose]

In imp, and on, wet: Well, slap me in the face! This is STRONG - black pepper and dirt. I like it.

 

Near drydown: Almost immediately changes. It smells like a shop where high-end spices are sold. The shop is in a very old building, all wood, creaky floors. This is getting better and better.

 

Later: Whoa, it completely changed again. It's as if I wandered outside the shop to a swiftly-flowing stream. People are selling fruit next to the stream. It smells of ozone, with aquatic and light fruit notes.

 

Far drydown: So good. Woodsy, spicy, just a hint of something sweet. I bet this would be great for layering. I never got a sense of desolation, or cold, dry bones, even though I wanted to. This smells warm through and through.

[undream]

Mmm, wine & leather. On my skin, it becomes mostly wine, which is lovely; I absolutely love the BPAL wine (&leather!) notes. Overall, The Black Tower is definitely a more masculine scent, I think, but I love it for myself as well and cannot wait to get my hands on an imp or bottle of my own. I simply could not stop sniffing at it when I tried it!