Black Forest

[achildoftime]

This is the captured scent of a cold, moonless night, lost deep within the darkest wood. Haunting and desolate, this scent evokes images of fairy tale tragedy and half-remembered nightmares. Thick, viscous pine with ambergris, black musk, juniper and cypress.

 

Very strong pine and cypress right off the bat. I get a little juniper as it dries though. It's almost a romanticized version of what a moonlit forest would be. I don't think it's particularly true to life, but the suggestion that it evokes "fairy tale tragedy" is spot on. Describing it as artificial doen't really do it justice, but as I said it's not realistic either. Fairy tale horror is kind of perfect. And I do really like the notes. Pine, juniper, and cypress with a ribbon of black musk to tie it all up. Lovely.

[Pardona]

2 yo Black Forest:

Just put on: A mix of pine needles coated in amber, lots of amber. 10 minutes: Second smell it seems more likely it's the cypress I'm smelling. I remember this smell, as they used to be planted around the school playground, and my hands used to get all sticky with this smell when trying to pull off cypress branches. Loving it.
30 minutes in: smell has softened a lot, and while I'm not too familiar with the specific smell of juniper and ambergris, I'm fairly sure what I'm smelling now is the juniper come out to play. The pine and such is still in the background, but this is a scent of berries you picked as a kid that your parents would tell you not to eat.
50 minutes: the floor of a fir forest, completely covered in pine needles, as fragrant as you ever had it. Slightly earthy, as if the essence of all the pine needles has seeped into the ground some.
70 minutes in: Still pine-y, seems to have grown sweeter. Is this the musk?
4 hours in (fell asleep to it): the mix is still there softly, slightly headachy.

[alyelle]

I have two versions of this, one I believe I ordered as part of my first imp collection, and one a frimp from 2016. This is for the later one, which I had planned to swap but never got a chance to.

 

Imp: in 2016, I had a note that this was too resinous, and that C. didn't like it. Two years on, it's much sweeter, and slightly alcoholic - pine, juniper, and cypress.

 

Wet: on my skin, it behaves exactly like the smell of the 2009 imp - salty and damp, with a twang of earth and truffles, and a deep, rich fragrance of pine.

 

Dry: I'm actually quite glad I allowed this to age, because it's morphed into a gorgeous soft pine and cypress blend.

 

I don't get vetiver at all from this, which is quite odd for me, but in the end works well - knowing how that behaves on my skin, I think it would actually drown out the pine, and the pine is what makes this. Always fresh, but not fresh enough to be considered bathroom cleaner. A beautiful mimic for the 2007 Capricorn, and still my go-to pine scent after a decade. I recommend a year or so of aging to bring out the nuances.

 

Stars: ★★★★ (this version)

[lady_pandora]

Lots of pine, with a hazy sweet incensey note gradually creeping in like fog. I thought it might be opoponax at first, eventually settled on opium, and now that I'm reading the note list, I think it's the black musk. It's definitely evocative, but it's enough of a specific-mood scent that I probably only need an imp.

[Joyleaf_]

This was one of my first Bpal purchases, as I was on the hunt to smell like greenery in all its forms. Unlike many of its fellows, Black Forest has remained a favorite. I love the mix of the ambergris and the pine, and it stays cool and forest like throughout the day in all types of weather. I love this, and its one of my favorites for a day where I need to feel centered and peaceful, in my beloved forest, if only in a sense.

[DryFrogPills]

This imp was one of the things that motivated me to give in and make my first order. Luckily, I do quite like it!

 

In the imp: Quite strong on the pine, I can pick out juniper and a mix of resinous, herbaceous, and woodsy notes.

 

10 minute dry down: VERY strong pine/juniper with hints of something perfumed underneath, probably the ambergris or musk. The juniper amps on me on dry down and keeps it from getting christmas-y with the pine. The musk, for me, shows in up in waft, but not directly on the wrist.

 

1 hour out: Softened, still foremost with pine and juniper, but growing more blended together with each other and the musk and ambergris. Soft, woodsy, like a deep old growth forest and lovely.

 

This is still one of my favorites, although I've found that how much I like it can vary - at some points my body chemistry amps the juniper to the point where it's almost too bracing and biting, other times it stays that soft, deep forest that I just want to find a spot of dappled sunlight in and lie down to nap.

[garbagewitch]

Sharp, clean pine right off the bat. As it dries down, the pine doesn't budge an inch, but the black musk sort of blooms behind it, giving it a soft, shadowy backdrop. The juniper and cypress come out to mingle with the pine, giving it a bit more dimension (and I think a hint of sweetness?), making it less clean and more foresty. Meanwhile, the black musk just gets warmer and fuzzier, more animal than shadow. It manages to be very cool and crisp, but at the same time, soft and lived-in.

 

Black Forest is definitely a scent that lives up to its description: it's freshly fallen snow, looming woods, and dark figures that could be shadow or beast. Not overtly menacing, but certainly wild and unknown--and what's more frightening than the wolf that might be there?

 

It's also an unsettlingly perfect fit for a character I've been writing: a shapeshifter who spends a substantial amount of time trekking through the woods. It's the pine needles she collects for tea, the snow caught in the wild tangle of her hair; it's her clean, damp fur at one moment and, at another, her bare skin flushed red from cold and exertion. I've taken to wearing Black Forest almost anytime I write about her, especially when it's from someone else's perspective, because it's pretty much the exact scent that would waft off of her when she walked into a room.

 

Though they don't actually smell that much alike, this and Dracul feel slightly related to me; I think it's the contrast between cool, crisp woods (pine in Black Forest, fir in Dracul) and the soft, fuzzy black musk. But where Dracul is a gentleman who knows what it's like to wear the skin of a wolf, Black Forest is simply the wolf, pure and untamed.

 

Between this and Dracul, I've also realized I really enjoy black musk. It has a soft, yet very animal quality that makes me think of clean fur, or maybe not-quite-clean skin. It's distinctly wild without being aggressive or dirty, which fills a niche I didn't even know I wanted filled.

[Lucchesa]

Wow, I have the privilege of following two new forumites who are already writing stunning reviews. Welcome to the community, DryFrogPills and conflagrantThief!

 

Black Forest was one of the earlier imps I purchased, and I realized today that A. I felt like wearing it and B. I'd never reviewed it, so here goes. Wet, it is sharp, realistic evergreens, broken boughs, trailing sap. I'm not going to pretend I can prise apart pine, juniper and cypress; it is just dark forest to me, and it stays this way for an hour or so. Gradually, the evergreens soften and the ambergris sweetens so that the drydown resembles a favorite GC of mine, Golden Priapus, but with black musk instead of vanilla, making Black Forest darker and dreamier. This is absolutely unisex: outdoorsy and vital at first, soft and cozy with longer wear. Lovely.

[Biocarbons]

That pine Yankee candle + soap. :')

Edited May 16, 2019 by Biocarbons

[cyborgutena]

On wet, this is the kind of tree and plant smell I like! It goes on sharp and green (probably pine with some cypress), but with something dark backing it up. I think I smell the juniper blending with the pine at this point too. It doesn't veer into That Overbearing Pine Scent for me because of the complex base backing it up. Ambergris and musk emerge more as it dries down, which is nice but it ends up too kind of... sweet and musty (?) for me when dry. 

[Soupy Twist]

Woody juniper in the bottle. Goes on as a sticky pine with definite ambergris notes. Refreshing, actually. That light, pretty note fades by the time it’s dry and it’s just a menthol-y pine. This then starts to sour, and I’m done.

[rhinestone tempest]

Very piney and warm for me--the description is actually kind of funny, since rather than being scary or dark I consider this scent one of my favorite comfy ones. It's very inviting. It can be a little cloying if you apply too much, so it's important to be judicious with it, but at the right dose it's lovely juniper/pine with a strong base of musk to round it out and give it staying power. This is one of my go-to bottles for daily wear.

 

To compare to other woodsy ones: I find it a lot stronger and more well-rounded than Loup Garou, which in my experience was too thin and weak; it doesn't have the earthy, grassy notes you'd find in something like Jersey Devil; it's not as harsh or masculine as Fenris Wolf, but I think it'd be fair to consider it about halfway between Fenris and 21.

[puellacaerulea]

The pine and juniper jump out instantly to me, both in the imp and once applied. This one's not a big morpher -- the cypress amps up a bit more as it dries down, but pine and juniper are very much the dominant notes. Very much a dark, cool take on a forest scent. Give this one a go if you enjoy forest-y scents. This could potentially make a good room scent.

[Jeena]

My Black Forest imp is at least a few years old. When I first tried it, I think I got weird medicinal vibes from it? Now though, it's pleasant. I get pine wood more than pine needles, and I mean heavy on the wood. This scent is dry and woody, and as the day goes on, it get's a little sweeter and creamier. I can still faintly smell it after eight hours, but the throw isn't amazing. I've placed it on my wrists and neck, so I'm really smelling what's on my neck most, all throughout the day. I'd like to get the full bottle, but i'm a little afraid that what I have now just happens to be perfectly aged for me, and a new bottle might be too sharp still. 

[torischroeder9]

Ooh, a Lab frimp of a scent I haven't yet reviewed! 

 

In the imp: Pine, black musk, juniper, and cypress. The plant notes are distinct but sort of held together by the musk, if that makes sense. 

 

On my skin:

 

Wet, it's a lot of juniper, actually, followed by pine. The immediate scent is all sharp cut botanical. As it dries, the juniper fades back a lot, and the musk comes out, so it's mostly pine with musk, with a softer but still detectable undercurrent of juniper. Cypress might also be mingling into those notes. If there's ambergris, I can't detect it -- which is good as ambergris is usually strong and foul on me. 

 

Oop. About twenty minutes later, the ambergris finds me, oceanic, soapy whale poop. It doesn't make this scent fully unwearable on me, but it's not something I could find myself reaching for when there are... other scents in the world. 

 

Edit 9/28: About an hour after ambergris shows up (so just under 2 hours from initial application), both it and the plant notes die down, and I'm left with a lot of soft, powdery black musk with just a hint of juniper around the edges. This is actually a very nice place to end up. I'm not sure it's worth it to me to go through the initial stages of this every time, but for someone who liked the notes a lot, it's worth noting that the final iteration of this is soft and musky. 

Edited September 28, 2020 by torischroeder9

[myrrhmyrrh]

In the vial: This forest is indeed deep and scary – Snow White must have lost her way here and been frightened out of her wits, and Hansel and Gretel too. The pine and the juniper are clear and something adds a darker note, either the ambergris or the black musk.

 

On me, wet: astringent like a cleaning fluid of some kind – not terribly pleasant. And still that dark note: Out damned spot?

 

On me, just dried: that dark note rising over the cleaning fluid, makes it somewhat more pleasant to the nose as a scent but the scare factor rises along with it

 

After 15 minutes: settling down now – it’s still vaguely frightening but the scent of the trees arises, and the black musk “Light thickens, and the crow/ Makes wing to th' rooky wood.” - I was scared this might be a scrubber but that phase seems to have morphed into sth much more pleasant, if creepy.

 

After 30 minutes: oh now this is morphing into a beauty! I wouldn’t have seen this coming. It’s much more low key woody now, wood itself as well as pine/juniper, along with the musk. Snow White has found the dwarves’ cottage.

 

After 2 hours: a very soft scent now –barely there, in fact- nothing scary anymore and certainly not a trace of cleaning fluid. What is perceptible is pleasant but I can put a name or image to anything so faint is it, except perhaps vaguely woody.

 

Verdict : Frimp. I would have thought this one would have more staying power, somehow but it doesn’t, on me at least. At first I didn’t like it much then not at all, then I started liking it but I hardly had any time to get used to what I liked than it was all but gone.

[Rane.]

Received an imp in my recent order. I bought a bottle of this 3 years ago in my first purchase. It smells like a forest with some richness/elegance to it. My bottle turned sour when I reached the last bit of it. This imp smells more like a delicate forest with a glimmering smell from the ambergris. I really enjoy the lab's black musk note. It brings up thick, black, oily fluids to mind. & combined in this it has fresh tree resins to cut thru the musk, & ambergris to make this into a rich, damp forest scent. I need to buy another bottle!

Edited November 28, 2021 by Rane.

[MolyH]

This smells like...playdough. Or maybe pencil eraser. Either way, a plasticy, artificial scent. And it's very weak too. In less than 15 minutes, it had completely vanished. I'm very confused--never had any problems with any of these notes in other scents. I have no idea what happened. Perhaps I will let my imp rest a bit and try again?