Black Forest

[lookingglass]

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.

Prior to BPAL, the idea of smelling like pine brings up bad memories of Pine Sol janitorial buckets cleaning up puke at the elementary school, or those yuckie trees that they hang up in cars.

...but, DH loves juniper scents mixed with sexy musk so I had to hunt down some Black Forest. I am getting to it first, though, of course!

Inital impression is PINE but quite natural, like rubbing evergreen needles between my fingers and smelling that. Not fakey. The throw is kind of like the green-soap smell of the tattoo shoppe, but that's fine by me. It dries out quicly and the ambergris really makes her presence, nice and strong like in Lyonesse. Dried out, this is way too sexy! It is giving me strange fantasies of being helpless, lost in the woods, then wrapped in the arms of a centaur! Mmmmmm.... Roll me on the wet forest floor... The musk and ambergris combine to make a deep, sweet skin scent with this breath of the forest wafting on top.

Oh, yes...he WILL wear this!

Please, if I can get over my pine hang ups, you can too! Edited November 16, 2007 by lookingglass

[theseagrows]

i got a sniffie of this in a swap. and i admit, i probably never would've tried it otherwise. pine smells like pine on me, but i don't generally like smelling like pine. however, this is one of the nicer pine scents i've tried. i do love ambergris and black musk and they give the pine a nice warmth, that is a bit powdery on my skin. the juniper and cypress remain subtle enough in the background. not a scent i absolutely adore, but a nice surprise nonetheless.

[Jenesis]

This is one of the few "Made for me!" scents.

 

In the bottle, it smells like the deep woods - woody, rich, alive.

 

On me, it smells... divine. That's all I can say really! I definitely pick up the pine and the ambergris, which blend beautifully to create a smooth wood scent. It's sweet and warm, yet sophisticated and unisex; this would smell great on a man.

 

One of my top 10!

[lainevierge]

This is nice, like almost every other pine-based scent I put on. This one has a sweet, almost vanilla afterthought to it though. Maybe it's the black musk? It makes it softer than scents like Nocnitsa & The Snow Storm.

[erraticprophet]

Initial Impression: pine

 

On Wet: Pine, musk. Later I smell some cypress and juniper.

 

On Dry: Forest, musk, hint of ambergris.

 

Final Impression: a very masculine scent, but I really love this!

 

Rating (on a scale from 1-5): 4

[Veresti]

Black Forest

 

In the Bottle:

All I smell is the pine, so thick it is choking; it is extremely strong with that black musk. I've mentioned this numerous times, but pine scents hate me and I loathe them. I can smell the juniper and ambergris, but they aren't enough to save the scent.

 

On the Skin:

Oh god, even more pine, if that is possible. Like a big cloying christmas tree with some sort of animal's skin rubbed all over it, and not in a good way. The juniper isn't really present as much.

 

Two Hours Later:

I don't think I'll make it to the four hour mark. The pine is killing me, and as always, giving me a migraine. The musk has turned sweet for some odd reason, which is really a rather foul note when mixed with ambergris, I personally think.

 

Four Hours Later:

Couldn't keep it on, my stomache was roiling. So I washed it off with a pretty powerful skin cleanser about five minutes after the two hour marker - but the thrice damned thing persisted. Wow, this is probably going to have a lot of staying power on some lucky person who doesn't turn the notes into mush on their skin.

 

Verdict:

I'm sure it would smell very pleasant on someone else. I sincerely believe that. But my skin chemistry does not get along with pine, nor does it deal well with the combination in this oil.

[Czarina]

Got this as a Lab frimp, which is nice, because it's been on my wishlist for a while.

 

In the imp: pure pine.

 

Wet: sweet pine. Sugary pine. Pine candy? WTF.

 

Drydown: sweet pine with a distinctly metallic note, somewhat reminiscent of Tintagel. Faint musky/vanilla notes drift past as well. I can practically hear the snow and branches crunching beneath my feet as I walk.

 

Divine. Not at all Pine-Solish.

[tartchef]

Ah, finally. A good deep pine that I can wear without smelling like a big burly janitor I tend to amp the solvent end of pine, and so most of the evergreen scents have been disappointments...

 

Lucky for me, the Labbies frimped me with Black Forest this past shipment. This is a deep evergreen thicket, with resiny bark & dried needles underscoring a sticky green pine scent. The ambergris is barely there, sparkling in the shadows & adding just a hint of sweetness. The black musk behaves nicely, grounding the whole thing without whalloping me over the head.

 

I can see the Twin Peaks/Ent associations, but to me, once Black Forest dries down, this is the lovely scent of solitude - spending an off-season weekend at a cabin in the mountains, splitting a bit of wood for the stove, but mostly just sitting with a good book, sunlight filtering down through the pines, birds twittering away in the canopy... ahhhh. Peace & quiet in a bottle - can't beat that, especially this time of year.

[taramarie]

On me, Black Forest is pine SN. I love pine, don't get me wrong, but I expected more from this. I'll keep it for now.

[alaitallon]

Oh god, this is my favorite out of all of mine. It may be a bit from it being one of my first BPAL scents, it may be from its intriguing blend of smells that invoke thoughts of a cold night in a pine forest, wind blowing through the trees. The scent itself is pretty strong and will last on you all day, especially the pine. It's a bit masculine, though, admittedly, but still wearable on a woman. I love it!

 

Rating: 10/10

[Luxari]

it's delicious in the bottle. Dark, ominous and earthy, clean and fresh.

 

On my skin it's dark and tempting and sultry, and didn't go over dry earthy- it stayed fresh and cool.

 

definitely a prospect for the future for a 5ml.

[butcherbaby]

what a lovely surprise i got with this scent!

 

my husband loves earthy, foresty, piney scents so i bought an imp of this for *him* to try. when i got it, it smelled so nice i thought i'd sample it first. i am glad i did! he's going to have to fight me for this one...or i am just going to have to buy each of us a big bottle.

 

this one is a nice strong scent that i could smell even outside the imp. lots of pine, but sweetness too. on first application, the piney scent is very strong, but so very sweet it smells like incense. in fact, EXACTLY like an indian pine incense i used to buy in the 80s. it was very strong and filled the house with a heavy, sweet pine scent that made most people gag, but i LOVED it. i've never found a scent that was quite like it, until now.

 

an hour later, i am still loving it. most earthy scents don't work for me at all, but this is perfect. it has earth, and green, and heavy sweetness all in the right balance. it is described as the scent of a "cold, moonless night" but i find it to be very warm smelling indeed...perhaps it's the warmth of the forest animal in the musk and ambergris.

the inital burst is powerful (might be too much for some) but it has settled down to a strong, steady scent that seems like it will stick for awhile. and it's definately on my list of big bottle to purchase.

[VioletChaos]

in the imp: yep. forest: loads of pine - not pine cleaner - and some cypress.

 

wet on skin: more pine. lots and lots of pine.

 

dry down: pine with a sweet christmas-y 'other' pine mixed in, like balsa and fir together.

 

in all: if you are really into pine, you will want to marry this oil and live with it forever

[djsiberia]

this smelled ok in the imp...

put it on and it was very woodsy.

 

dry down and we had pine cleaner with musk.

[DarthArwen]

In the bottle/Wet: eek pine cleaner. *whimper*

dry: Ohh, it's really settled in and the other notes come out to play. Very nice

Later: strangely enough the pine fades quite far and it's now a soft, warm green scent. Quite nice, but not quite what I expected.

[Dark Angel]

Source: Lab imp

 

At first (wet on): Wow, this is sharp and cold--doesn't strike me as actually smelling like pine, in the sense of actual pine trees, but there's definitely a cool, wintery note in there that's very strong at first. Yet oddly, there's something else quite sweet under that.

After it settles down a bit and dries, it's still a cold kind of smell with some sweetness lurking in there. I can't decide if I like it or not. The waft is lovely, but up close there's a kind of hard, sharp note that my nose doesn't like.

After several hours, the long dry-down is much more sweet and mellow, and just a bit musky.

 

Not sure if I like this or not--it's quite a bit different from my usual spicy/sweet preference, yet I can see the attraction. Must do more testing....

[jparrack]

Wet: Pine! Pine and lemon? Lemon Pine! Not pinesol pine and not fresh pine either. It was waaaaaaaaaaaay too citrusy for that.

Dry: The musk starts to come out, which is good, because the pine was too intense to be pleasant as a perfume on me. Now, after a half hour, my skin has eaten the oil like mad and it's a warmer scent, like a clear end of winter morning when the snow melts. Now the scent is reminding me more of pine sap than pine needles, which is fine by me.

Verdict: I'll keep the imp around to try, and see how this continues to evolve on me.

[Victory]

This is indeed thick and viscous pine. It's a dark, deep forest of pines looming over you as you walk quickly through it. I smell like I've crushed up pine needles and spread all of their sap across my skin. It's VERY evocative of the name and very much in line with the description- but absolutely not my thing. I'd put it on without reading the notes and it's really no wonder- pine is not a favorite, ambergris is ok, and don't know much about black musk, but juniper and cypress are notes I truly dislike. Despite that, I can really appreciate this oil because it IS the scent of a black forest. Wow.

[akuaa]

tangy fresh pine needle with a touch of a floral overnote (ambergris?), and buttery warmth underneath (musk?). nowhere near as herby as belladonna, but in the same family. it's a very nice, light, pleasant scent.

[Nimthiriel]

Initial impression:

Mm, dark juniper and cypress – how declicious, in a cruel kind of way.

First on:

It goes extremely foresty on my skin! Like freshly cut evergreens, bark and moss...

 

Dry:

After about 10 mins, it's dark and masculine (possibly the musk) with a hint of evergreen.

 

20 mins later, it's less intense, but still gorgeous. A very manly scent, but still – yum.

 

Finally:

Wonderful – I shall keep it. It reminds me of Sweden's forests. <3

[iiinterstate]

Black Forest is the first pine blend I have ever really liked wearing. The ambergris really warms up the evergreen, but the musk keeps everything feeling pretty dark, so its true to the name.

 

Not right for this time of year, but I'll remember it in the fall/winter months.

 

If you are a lover of the pine, you should add this to your next order, seriously.

[ClareN]

On me, this is:

 

Pine pine pine pine pine pine pine musk pine pine pine.

 

This is my experience with most of BPAL's pine or snow scents. I'm not saying they all smell the same, because I've sniffed various pine scents side by side and they do smell different, but my nose just refuses to discern the other notes.

 

I'm jealous of the reviewers who are getting juniper, musk and ambergris, because I think I'd like this if the notes were a bit more balanced. If you're like me and you want a pine scent where the musk and juniper are stronger, you must try the very underrated Thanatopsis, which is everything I wanted Black Forest to be.

[SueDonym]

From the lovely Baitu and the Civet Evangelism Circle -- Go Civeteers!:

 

For me, I can smell juniper in the imp from the start. It's not a gin drink in your face, but simply nice and fresh and there.

 

On the skin, the musk comes out and I think that's the ambergris (I'm never too sure). But definitely pine/juniper-y resins too. For a sec I did get that candied pine impression that a previous reviewer got, which was exciting, but that's not really where this is right now. I get a little pitch, too, if that makes sense. As someone who grew up close to the woods, this is a pleasant experience and a memory trigger.

 

As it dries it tends to vary between a more artificial pine note and something more interesting and deeper.

Edited May 27, 2008 by SueDonym

[carrickfergus]

I'm not sure what whim made me order this over other scents I was considering, but I did, and I'm glad. It is piney, woodsy, rich, with subtleties of rose and moss and night-scents... What really hooked me to this perfume is that it's the only perfume I've ever had to which I would apply the description of "sexy."

 

If anyone has ever seen the Abbots Bromley Horn Dance, this invoked a similar feeling of raw instinctive power.

[Magpie]

This is a scent I've wanted to try for a very long time - in fact, it almost made its way into my very first BPAL order. I love forests and going to the Black Forest in Germany was amazing for me, as we were staying near it and drove through at night, at sunset and just as dawn was breaking as well as taking multiple walks through bits of it. A scent that smelled like a proper deep forest is intensely desireable. I finally got round to ordering this scent, and I'm glad I did.

 

On first smelling this, I was mildly disappointed, because it just smelled like pine, very basic, could easily be mistaken for a decently realistic pine-scented cleaning material or air freshener. It reminded me of Slobbering Pine in its slightly one-track scent, which is all very nice but not really the proper scent of a forest for me. So I put it away and only got round to trying it today.

 

Well, it's lovely! It's a dark, living woodsy pine smell, like the actual smell of pine trees, not just the needles, and the juniper and cypress make it a forest, not just a single tree. I think it really catches the slightly dangerous scent of being so deep in a wood you can't hear the traffic any longer. It reminds me a lot of The Yew Trees, which I adore (I wander around squeeing "I smell like trees!") and also of Robin Goodfellow, though that reminds me most of wet holly. As it dries, it doesn't really lose the slightly wild edge, and doesn't change much. It lasts for a really quite decent amount of time, but doesn't have huge amounts of throw. It settles down nicely quite close to the skin, though, after a while.

 

One caveat, though: My friend smelled it and said it smelled like toilet cleaner. I get a slight hint of that but I think it's mostly just that pine scents now trip off the 'artificial scents' thing in most people's brains, and I think this actually avoids that association really well. Definitely a thumbs up on the Black Forest!