Alone

[zankoku_zen]

A hectic, frenzied pinpoint in desolation: booming, bleak, and dark with the horror of loneliness and reluctant solitude. Patchouli and cardamom with bright mandarin, labdanum, muguet, red sandalwood, angelica and gardenia.

 

Cinnamon, patchouli and .... dust?

In any case, this is a dark, lonesome scent. The cinnamon is bitter and the patchouli smells dirty. This is like an old, deserted house (with lots and lots of wood panels and floors).

Creepy!

[hlinspjalda]

In the vial: Patchouli-spice, with sweet and woody notes.

 

Wet: A bit like Malkuth, without the fruit. I don't get most of the notes, but the patchouli-spice axis is very strong. This smells a lot like cinnamon, too, only concentrated, like I was chewing on a toothpick impregnated with cinnamon oil.

 

Half an hour: Still something like Malkuth, but not as rich or deep. The angelica adds an intriguing almost licorice-like touch. It's remarkably non-floral, too; that surprises me given the way muguet tends to sour on me; even gardenia can be iffy.

 

One hour: Yep, still like Malkuth. The sweet intensity of it is dying back in favor of that licorice note, and the resin seems to be ramping up. Still no sign of the muguet, and the gardenia is almost unnoticeable. Waiting for the inevitable red sandalwood sour, which hasn't happened yet.

 

Two hours: Not a lot of change. This doesn't have nearly the throw that Malkuth does on me, but it really does have some of the same notes. And the red sandalwood hasn't soured yet!

 

Three hours: Still patchouli-cardamom with a cinnamon licorice aura like one of my favorite herbal teas. I like it very much, and if I hadn't already fallen in love with Malkuth I could see having fallen for this one.

 

Five hours: The patchouli has faded to a savory sweetness which goes great with the spicelike notes. There's just a tiny touch of floral in it. It reminds me of something, like maybe a light potpourri or a room spray, but pleasantly so, without the ugly chemical notes.

[rayvn1]

This is dusty cinnamon right now and I don't know why patchouli doesn't work well on me in my BPAL's because it's one of my favorite scents for incense, etc. Just one of those things, I guess Ok...but not great on me.

 

ETA: Alone got a lot better after several hours. Now it smells very well blended and spicily scrumptious What a morpher!

Edited December 11, 2008 by rayvn1

[Lyrical]

In the vial: reminds me of Phantom Calliope without the cherries. I guess that would be the cardamom and patchouli. I can also smell lily of the valley (muguet) and sandalwood. It smells great, but I am convinced it will turn vile on my skin!

 

Wet on skin: pretty at first - spicy, woody and sweet in a non-foody way. The florals brighten it without making it actually floral.

 

Dry on skin: very dry and spicy. The patchouli stays well in the background and smells like patchouli should, rather than the way it normally reeks on my skin (yay!). This is all sweet, spicy cardamom over sandalwood, subtly brightened by mandarin and florals. It itches at first, though! This is much, much nicer than I expected! I would never have ordered it because of the patchouli, even though the other notes all look good, but I'll definitely try it a few more times now! It's Phantom Calliope without the cherries or the welts!

[CreamyJade]

In the bottle: Patchouli, spice, earth, some incense creeping in the background. I definately see the ressemblance with Phantom Calliope too, without the cherries of course.

Wet on skin: Dark oil. Very spicy patchouli!

Dry on skin: Patchouli, dry sandalwood, a bit of cardamom. Nice!

Final thoughts: Splendid, dark, complex! Really beautiful blend, I'm glad I have a bottle of this, it's not the type of scent that I'd hoard though.

[futureyuppie]

In bottle: wood, dust and patchouli

Wet on skin: warm, kind of masculine, earthy scent

 

I only got to enjoy the pleasant fragrance for a few seconds before I made the painful discovery that I am allergic to cardamom. This will have to be a scent locket only oil in order to avoid large, angry red welts in the future. Sigh.

[donnatron]

Bottle: Dank patchouli.

 

Wet: A... bar? Like... not necessarily a beer smell but sort of a whiskey bar kind of smell? High end whiskey bar? Jim Morrison has never written a song about this whiskey bar. But, uh, yeah. Smells like whiskey. At a bar. Or a gentlemen's social club but not in the stripper sort of sense. Possibly a gentlemen's social club in the mafiosi sort of sense.

 

Dry: This dries down to a nice spicy, smoky patchouli with a bit of a citrus kick. It's very dark and odd but certainly the type of scent I can see myself being in the mood for every once in a while. Other than the mandarin it's pretty full of phenomenal agers.

 

Throw: Decent.

 

Overall: I like it. My bottle is still pretty full but maybe now that I've finally gotten around to writing a review I'll remember I have it and break it out every once in a while? I can hope that, anyway.

[Lamia]

This started so staggeringly fantastic, so magnificent, I thought it might even replace my beloved Lucifer. It began with a thick, dirty patchouli/tobacco cloud like a Bugs Bunny perfume that caressed your face with smoky fingers and drew you floating along. Alas, it turned to cardamom (dodged a bullet, no dermal reaction!) and was aggressively cinnamon-esque, shoving the patchouli roughly aside.

 

Now that time has passed, it's cinnamon gum with soft sandalwooded flowers. We could have meant so much to each other, Alone, why did you turn away?

[Invidiana]

What had me doubtful after a straight sniff from the bottle bloomed into a rich, intense, seductive spiced wood with an earthy shadow. It's a searing blood rush of a passion-frenzied scent that I could definitely use to my advantage when going out...

 

 

[alioth]

For me, Alone dries down to this lovely dusty patchouli-and-cinnamon, like the inside of an incense box. But it has this odd vastness to it, as though the incense box was in fact an incense cavern.

 

Then, about four hours after application, it mysteriously disappears as though it never was. It's not hanging on my skin or in my clothes. That's never really happened to me before.

 

This is definitely a very solitary scent, and one that fits best on days when I really do want to be alone. It would also make an amazing room fragrance if I ever get a diffuser.

[ralenth]

Source: Secondhand bottle.

 

Wet: Sweetened cinnamon with an underlying earthy musk.

 

Drydown: Still warm and spicy - reminiscent of Saw-Scaled Viper without the cassia bite or the Snake Oil.

 

Dry: Dark, a little dusty, with a warm softness menacing underneath. Killer teddy bears waiting to grab your ankles from beneath the bed, perhaps?

 

Overall: It certainly isn't the haunting, macabre perfume I was expecting, but it seems nice enough to linger in the "retest later" pile.

[cinnamonster]

First sniff...mmm familiar, pine-y, what is that...tick tick tick, brain going...aha! Karvol.

Don't get me wrong, I LOVE the smell of Karvol, but I think you could never wear it as a perfume.

For anyone who's interested Karvol is made of pine,terpineol (one of the flavourings from lapsang souchong) Thymol, from thyme oil, levomenthol, cinnamon.

 

I'm a little confused why then with the list of ingredients, it should smell the same, to my nose there is a menthol kick here, the end of my tongue is cold from it. Smelling it, not licking it!

[SheriffJoe]

Alone. Beth must have called it this because, after putting it on, you hope you're alone due to the screams of pain coming from your lungs!! Burning cinammon made the initial application a painful one, however, after the pain finally subsided, this became a very interesting scent with a strong throw and excellent lasting power.

 

The descriptions above seem to hit it on the nail. This is a dusty cinammon scent that reminds me of quiet, musty buildings, the kind you'd find in the Old West, with dusty, well-traveled floors and cinammon brooms hanging around on rusty hooks. (Did I just write musty, dusty and rusty in the same sentence??)

 

This scent is, oddly enough considering my first reaction to it, quite comforting. It is a dry, Old West blend that last a long time. It might be excellent as a room scent, but that initial wet application is a little bit of a deterent to actually wearing it. Still, a solid 3 of 5 rating.

[bellumed]

Cinnamon SN at first sniff. On skin: ah, there’s that patch. Still cinnamon dominant, though.

 

Dusty, yes, but very warm. This doesn’t feel desolate to me at all! It’s downright cozy. This scent is like being curled up by yourself in an attic bedroom where all the heat has risen and is wafting around you. It makes me want a cup of chai.

[Lucchesa]

Wet, Alone was cinnamon and patchouli (had to look at the notes to see that this was actually supposed to be cardamom. Hmm.) I didn't get to drydown because within moments my skin had started to burn and itch. Just FYI, the only other BPALs I have reacted to have been Inferno, Alice's Evidence, Baron Samedi, Nostrum Remedium and Greed. Not a lot of consistency there.

[doomsday_disco]

Alone actually reminds me of Plunder plus some patchouli and dust. It's strong on an unlisted cassia or cinnamon note and backed by an earthy patchouli, making this a spicy, dusty scent. I am surprised not to be getting most of the notes listed here.

 

I prefer Plunder, but I'm glad to have gotten to try this, as I adore the poem that inspired this scent.

[ND¢]

Something sent me off to The Land Of One Million Sneezes (guessing it's a combination of factors, but not something present in Blood Moon 2005, which does not trouble me) but I was able to note this is a very brash, bitter patch/spice scent. Menacing, almost. And then, the sneezes. 

[wolf_truffles]

This smells like red hots and a minty fresh cat nip plant (if you know, you know). I'm weirdly obsessed with this one and thankful that cinnamon works well on me.