The Great Sword of War

[judas_kiss]

And there went out another horse that was red: and power was given to him that sat thereon to take peace from the earth, and that they should kill one another: and there was given unto him a great sword.

 

Mandarin, tonka, saffron, black tea, cocoa, tobacco leaf, sanguine red musk and five classical herbs of conflict.

 

 

Mike tried this one and I am going to review it from smelling him (a fave past time of mine when he's wearing sexy BPAL stuffies)

 

In the imp: Hello Tezcatlipoca. Seriously, this smells very similar to Tez in the imp. But it shows its true colors soon enough...

 

On: Oh wow! This was extremely hot on Mike. A soft cocoa takes the stage in the early stages on this scent. It's grounded and it does not run rampant, but it is like fine mexican cocoa powder... it's dead sexy.

 

Drydown: Musk comes forward and makes this baby really sing. There is a feral feel to it now. The mandarin orange lights up here too, making it feisty and very sexy. This is Tezcat without the regal, godlike feel...this is Tezcat on a rampage! There is no leather note, but it is spicey with a musky-citrus bite!

 

Overall: This is on the list. However, I do feel the need to warn the women of the board...this is a dead sexy scent and be fully prepared for other women to hit on your man while he's wearing it. Good stuff, good stuff!

Edited February 16, 2006 by judas_kiss

[desu]

In the bottle: Sharp citrus overlaying rich chocolate, tobacco, and musk.

 

On the skin: This becomes wonderfully complex once it hits my skin. There's still a citrus-like sharpness to it, but I can't pick out any one note.

 

Later on: The rich complexity eventually wanes to become something that smells a little like citrus furniture polish. :/

[Electra]

This is crazy-ass strong lemon on me, which I guess is the way my skin is amping and distorting the mandarin, since there's no lemon in this scent.

 

Lemon, lemon, and more lemon. That's all she wrote. Drowns out all the other notes.

[dnipbhsw]

I got an imp of this for my husband, so my initial review is based on how it smelled on him, and what we both thought of it.

 

In the imp: Very foody, sweet and spicey at the same time. Smells almost like a gingersnap to me.

 

Wet on his skin: Spicey and sticky-sweet, reminds me of thick, almost burnt molasses.

 

Dry on his skin: This got muskier and muskier as it dried down, and after an hour or so, it started smelling like this incense I got at a magik shop in Georgia. Very sweet and foody. It makes my mouth water, but unfortunately not for him, but for some cookies or something.

 

This is a sweet, lovely smell, but perhaps too sweet for a man, in my opinion. I like this, but not necessarily on my guy. I'll try this on my own skin, and revise my review later.

[jazlyn]

In the imp The Great Sword of War was almost overwhelmingly chocolatey and musky with the barest hint of mandarin (mmm, mandarin). At first when it's on I get the same thing, but as it dries the chocolate smell fades and it gets muskier and more orangey! Sweet! Okay, I was thinking "this is for the swaps" initially, but now... this may be a keeper

[Sara]

Sniff: Hmmm....this isn't promising. I smell a note/blend of notes that really turns me off and keeps me from noticing the others.

 

Skin: Oh crap! I completely glossed over the "red musk" part of the description. So now my tiny little dab is turning my stomach and threatening to empty its contents...grrr.. I freaking hate red musk most of all the musks. Which really sucks ass because I can catch whiffs of the mandarin and stuff....*pouts a little*

 

Drydown: Unfortunately, this smells waaaaayyyy too much like Sin for me to even consider keeping around. I can't believe I looked only at the notes that sounded fantastic and blanked out on the red musk. It's turned this into an icky drydown of stomach churning proportions.

 

Overall: I just learned my lesson about #1 - not paying attention to descriptions, #2 - not testing scents before buying a whole bottle.

[gangstaknitta]

This was a very rich, masculine blend. Kind of incense-y, but the mandarin is pretty sharp. On me it smelled like a blend of Old Spice and White Shoulders. yech. It lasted a really long time.

[brownbear]

Hmm. This starts out very chocolatey. Then later the musk and a little bit of the tobacco come out. The cocoa fades a lot once it's dry. I miss the chocolate, but overall I still like it. This would probably also be good on a guy.

[fiddledragon]

Scent in bottle: Black chocolate, musk, and something that smells almost like hazelnuts. This is either going to smell gorgeous on me, or the red musk will eat my wrist for lunch.

 

Scent on me:

Wet -- It's still that same weird bitter hazelnut chocolate.

Dry -- An odd herbal cocoa musk, with the mandarin finally showing itself as well.

 

Conclusion: This stuff is weird. I don't know whether I like it. I'll keep it around for a while just out of curiosity.

[sarahj]

The Great Sword of War

 

in vial: cocoa, mandarin, and musk

 

wet: cocoa is fading (as usual), strong mandarin and musk

 

dry: powdery tea scent that quickly fades into nothingness (gone in about 2 hours)

 

verdict: not for me...off to swaps

[ViolentKitten]

Very bright and zingy first on! A little lemon/lime fizz and a touch of the herbal mint from Envy too. Not long after, in comes zippy mandarin zest, but also some of the juice, trailed by a hint of cocoa and tonka, which makes it a little creamy, but the tea and saffron are also there adding some dryness. It’s an unusual, but lovely combination. On the drydown I get mostly red musk and tangy mandarin. It’s gorgeous. All soft and fuzzy. The parting sweet and musky notes remind me vaguely of Lust, but more herbal. I like this one very much. It doesn’t remind me of Thirteen. A kind of chocolate orange, yes, but in a different way. 13 goes more chocolate powder on me, the orange force is stronger and no powder in The Great Sword. The Come and See are all beautiful, but The Great Sword and Bow and Crown are my favourites of the four.

[cupide430]

Citrus with some sort of grounding edge to it. This is mostly tea & citrus on me, maybe a touch of cocoa but really not very much. I'm not a citrus gal, so this isn't a keeper for me.

[Amberfishy]

When I first pictured the concept of this imp I imagined a field after a great battle, and a bloody sword thrust into wet clods of earth. Reading the scent description, I thought I’d really like it. Now I’ve tried it, it’s a really great scent! In the bottle I can smell primarily the mandarin and the tobacco. Once applied onto my skin it rounds out beautifully. It’s quite herbal, but it’s warmed by the saffron, tea and cocoa scents. I could picture a man wearing this, it’s quite a fresh, clean, yet warm scent, but it can easily be worn by a woman as well.

[moon_lemming]

The Sword is such an interesting scent. In the imp, everything blends together so well that it's hard to pick any one note out, although I think I can find the cocoa.

 

Wet, it's all chocolate and tea and mandarin, and I can see where the comparisons to 13 come in. The chocolate fades back as it dries, and I'm left with a spicy reddish-black scent. It's fantastic. Totally the opposite of what I'd normally enjoy, but everything works absurdly well together. Yum. Time to add another bottle to the wish list.

 

Definitely one to try on the husband, too.

[Meg]

In the bottle: Cocoa, red musk and possibly tonka.

 

Wet: Cocoa and red musk with some saffron and mandarin mixing in. Pretty powerful.

 

Drydown: It dries down to a persistent mandarin, tea and cocoa scent, a bit foody and also plasticky from the tonka and red musk. The mandarin gets rather sweet and juicy, quite pleasant, and I get some herby scents that I can't quite place.

 

Overall: It's a rather foody mix, but something in there makes it smell a bit like plastic. For once the red musk didn't take over obnoxiously, and leaves some room to the mandarin. The other notes disappear pretty fast, leaving mandarin over red musk. Not my favourite combo, and not particularly evocative to me. Besides, it has a bitter aftersmell.

[Nekomata]

Wet this smells like lemon drops, strangely. Must be the madarin. o_O It dries to a powdery combiation of toka and musk.

[HoneyHoneyNY]

I got this imp in a swap. I had some preconcieved notions about this scent since it contains my enemy Red Musk, but in the imp the red musk was far enough in the background to make me try it.

 

At first sniff in the imp, there was a citrusy minty tea smell that reminds me of the iced tea I make in the summer with lemon and mint. At the tail end of my perception I catch the red musk. Usually a whiff of red musk is enough to send me running, but this is just a hint, and it's not overwhelming. It's an interesting mix of scents that I percieve as "cool" and "warm". The citrus and mint seem cool to my nose, and kind of refreshing. The musk, and the faint spiciness I catch underneath it seem warm to me, a bit like heated skin.

 

As it warms up on my skin, the spicy musk note comes forward, but it's still cooled off by the citrus-mint note, though I can't really smell the mint as much as feel it as a coolness in my nose.

 

Once it's dried a while, it smells pretty much the same, without morphing too much. Any bit of tea I sniffed in the beginning is pretty much gone. I sniff in vain for cocoa notes, unless the slight dry sharpness I'm getting is the cocoa.

 

For me in the end, this scent is a mildy sweet citrusy musk, with some herbal complexity dancing in the background. For once the red musk isn't overwhelming, Which is fortunate, since it does its usual evil trick of lasting FOREVER on me. It's interesting and sexy, but not really me. I can imagine it smelling absolutely delicious on a man, though it's not what I'd call overtly masculine. I think this is a scent for a woman or man who is confident, a bit earthy, and well aware of their sexuality.

[Tesseljoan]

From the bottle I do get a whiff of cocoa underneath the citrus, but it disappears on my skin, and becomes almost exclusively citrus. When it dries down, I smell more spices with the citrus, especially the saffron comes to the foreground. I can also smell the Tonka, it always gets a bit sickly sweet on me. Later on, I can smell a mildly citrus blend, with herbs and spices.

[gwyllgi]

This was a frimp in my very first order, something that I never would have ordered for myself just from reading the description, but which I'm thrilled witless at having received. It was a big bottle in my second order.

 

I can pick out the notes - primarily mandarin and red musk on me - but they also blend together so beautifully that it's easy to forget the components and regard it as a single entity. The scent isn't mandarin-musk-tobacco-saffron, it's just the Great Sword of War. It's a very hot scent, very stimulating, and quickly became one of my favorites.

 

Strangely enough, this scent also amuses me terribly due to my association with the Four Horsemen with 'Good Omens', the novel by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett. This is certainly a scent that I could match easily with War: seductive, aggressive, composed, and ruthless.

[feline.by.design]

Gah!

 

:::sniffs arm again:::

 

Gah!

 

:::sniffs arm again:::

 

Gah!

 

:::makes a face:::

 

I've got it. When wet, it smells like the inner mystery of a spitoon.

 

Off the bat, I'm glad I didn't get the Great Sword of War in a 5 ml format, as I did with Death on a Pale Horse and the Bow and Crown of Conquest (and as I wish I did with the Scales of Deprivation). But, being the good little BPALer I am, I wait patiently for the oil to mingle with my skin and hopefully produce a more pleasing fragrance.

 

:::waits five minutes, then goes in for a sniff:::

 

Oh, no, honey. The spitoon smell is gone, but now I get something that smells like Pepto pills. Seriously. Maybe mandarin doesn't work for me with out other scents, or maybe it's the saffron. I don't know, but it's like weird Grandma candy that came from a different decade. It smells sweet, but it also smells dusty, and not something you'd want to put in your mouth.

 

Well, the Great Sword of War is certainly a very unique fragrance. It doesn't work for me, but that could be due to a bad combination of my nose and skin chemistry. I don't really want to smell like Pepto-coated Granny candy, and that's what the Great Sword's givin' me. Maybe it senses I'm not much for war.

 

-doreen

[rhubarbbear]

Dry, about 2 hours later: HOT DIGGITY DAMN! IT'S SHUB-NIGGURATH!

 

WORD.

 

unusually for me, i didn't read the notes or reviews before i tried this one. it smelled a bit masculine in the imp, but then it blossomed into orange gingerbread...and, as Uploaded Lobster said, a sibling, maybe even a twin, of shub.

 

i am so, so happy today

[Shollin]

First sniff: Cocoa and orange! And something deep and furry.

 

Wearing: Bright orange and green herbs, drying down to bright orange and deep red musk. SO good.

[Naamah_Darling]

This thick and viscous oil is the color of iodine in the glass, and on opening it, it smells of orange and cocoa, with a flush of musk.

 

It goes on smooth, and the orange is like a flare of light. The cocoa dies back, replaced by tonka's warm, almost vanilla edge, and the sweet lick of saffron. The tea is here, and the tobacco, a kind of swirly stew of masculinity. The orange is the edge of the sword, it's really quite cutting. All of the scents in this are red or brown or darkly golden. With the name, it gives me a picture of an old bronze sword sheathed in well-used leather.

 

This is a civilized scent, much more civilized than I had expected. As it dries and mellows, it reminds me of some kind of orange/chocolate liqueur. It's not foody because it's not sweet, so it smells sort of boozy. The orange topnotes die fast, just like Severin;s did, and the residue it leaves behind is lingering, but rather soft and faint.

 

Very pretty.

[theseagrows]

i definitely sense the mandarin, tonka, saffron, black tea, tobacco leaf, and red musk, with the mandarin, tonka and tea being most prominent. kind of reminds me of a perfumey orange tea, if there were such a thing. it's very light and pretty with slight spiciness underneath. a keeper!

Edited June 19, 2006 by theseagrows

[edenssixthday]

The Great Sword of War - What a beautiful blend! The Great Sword of War is full of gorgeous food scents, yet it is not a “foody” blend in the traditional sense (and it doesn’t have that “bakery” scent that I dislike so much). When first applied, it smells very strongly of chocolate, but a dark, dry cocoa as opposed to a sweet chocolate. The chocolate combines with the richness of tonka and the husky sweetness of tobacco to make it deep and rich and so much better than just cocoa on its own. As it dries, I begin to note the very distinct scent of red musk surrounding the chocolate scent, but it also has a very, very faint bite of citrus. This is just gorgeous! I can’t get over how pretty a scent this is. In fact, it reminds me so much of Storyville that I decide to test them side-by-side, and sure enough, while they are not the same, they are very similar. TGSoW is dry whereas Storyville is sweet. However, they are so very similar that when I no longer have any Storyville left, I won’t mind too much because I can get the same general experience and scent from TGSoW. It’s beautiful, complex, blended really well, and it lasts a good long while on my skin. I can’t say enough good things about TGSoW!