Night's Pavilion

[smallvoice]

Not the desperation, desolation and anguish of unrequited love, but the distant, chill and pitiless scent of the object of that doomed desire. White musk, osmanthus, Nile lily and frankincense.

This is actually very pretty on me, but the main problem is that it resembles other blends on me that I prefer- Katharina and Whitechapel, just with flowers instead of fruits. So, yeah. It's what I just said, essentially: It's predominantly white musk with a sort of incensey floral as a faint backdrop. I like it, but I don't love it. Edited November 18, 2007 by Shollin

[vylit]

Osmanthus and Lily are the first things I smell when I put this on. Though they don't really share in the way of notes, Night's Pavilion reminds me of The Perfumed Garden. I think it's because they both have a more traditional perfume smell.

 

As it dries, the smell mellows a bit and I can pick out the white musk and frankincense. It doesn't smell bad, and I'm sure it'd be lovely on some people, but it doesn't work for me. It does, however, have great throw.

[filigree_shadow]

I had a decant of this last year (the 06 version), but it was during my floral-hating stage. I sniffed it and said, "Bleah! Flowers!" and swapped it. Since then I've discovered that there are a few florals I like a whole lot, so I'm sort of going back and trying some of the ones I had previously passed on.

 

I got a decant of the 07 version of this, and I think it smells lovely. I don't really know what osmanthus smells like (it's too cold in my zone to grow osmanthus, so I've never smelled it in anyone's garden), but I read online that it's supposed to have somewhat of an apricot-fruity scent. Well, I don't smell that. But I do smell a delicate pretty floral note that I know isn't lily (I really enjoy lily scents), so I guess that must be the osmanthus.

 

Also something odd here is that I get a definite wood note in this. Something dry and solid, like oak. I think it's the frankincense trying to trick me by being dry and sweet.

 

I think this is quite pretty and would be a good nighttime floral scent. It doesn't seem like a daytime scent to me, but it would suit the evening/twilight hours very well.

[Ishtar]

Night's Pavilion sounded so lovely that, after missing out on it, I stalked the For Sale forum and ended up buying one bottle plus a backup- unsniffed. Needless to say, I had high hopes for this blend: white musk and frankincense are pretty much foolproof on my skin; and as a white tea drinker, I am very fond of the subtle fruitiness of osmanthus.

 

Alas, it was not meant to be. The woodiness that some forumites mentioned above (and that I would have welcomed since I like woody notes) translated into pencil shavings on my skin.

Perfumy pencil shavings. And not much else.

 

Although it is certainly not repulsive by any means, Night's Pavilion definitely does not work well enough on my skin for me to keep, especially not in large quantities!

[AEris]

This has an incensey, woody quality to it from the frankincense, but the florals cool it off a bit.

 

I like it, but it's a little powdery/soapy on me. It's just not unique enough to my nose for me to wear again.

 

I'm glad I got to try it, though.

 

3 out of 5

[twilighteyes]

In the bottle:

Kind of a green sweet woody incense.

 

Wet on skin:

Musk, lily, and frankincense are all there blended. The lily is the lightest part, giving a tinge of sweetness.

 

Dry on skin:

Musk top with a bottom of woody sweet floral.

[alicia_stardust]

Night's Pavilion is a light floral. The white musk dominates and gives it a cool sharpness, crisp, clean. When that couples with the osmanthus and lily I get a strong visual image of a garden path on a still, dark night, where only the light of the moon casts a slight glow on light colored flowers. The frankincense deepens this and has an almost herbal quality, but again it is in the background compared to the white musk and florals. This is beautiful and a must try to any floral lovers.

[crimescenecleanup]

Oh my. I was so looking forward to this one, because I adore frankicense, white musk, and osmanthus, and being into herbal medicine, I'm quite intrigued by the Nile Lily, or Blue River Lotus.

 

Straight out of the bottle, the osmanthus gives this a very "perfumey" quality - not the lingering chemical overtone one associates with modern perfumes, but more the astringent, flowery sweetness of a good classic perfume. The smell of osmanthus always reminds me of strongly scented jasmine tea, and it's definitely a strong note in this blend.

 

On the skin...blueberries?!?! Blueberry jam?!?! With an overtone of musk?!? What?

 

Now I love blueberries, but this is odd. Odd in a "I love it - it's like fresh fruit"! way, but I can't think of any other cosmetic product I've smelled that reminded me of...blueberries. Maybe it's the Nile Lily?

 

Well, at any rate, it's a cool, musky, fruity scent at this stage...it definitely has a "blue" feel.

The osmanthus is still perfumey, and the frankincense is powdery, hardly there at all.

 

Aaaaah, here we go. The drydown stage is really lovely. The osmanthus has settled a bit and developed a rich, dry, tea-like quality on drydown, while the frankincense has developed into a deep, true resin base note, and the Nile Lily comes across as sweet and fresh, while the white musk has the creamiest and softest drydown of any of the BPAL musk scents I've tried so far.

 

About an hour after wearing it the sweetness has become little more than a whisper, and this has become a lovely, musky, dry, cool scent.

 

This is so beautifully blended, I'm very glad that I found a bottle!

Edited June 4, 2009 by crimescenecleanup

[mgrazulis]

In the bottle: spicy, aquatic, sweet flowers

Wet on skin: resinous frankincense, water lily

Dry on skin: white musk blends beautifully--the crispness of the flowers is gone, leaving a deep blue cool bath licking the warm of the musk.

This is understated--like a cooling gentle powdered breeze on a summer evening, luminous water lilies floating in a pool shrouded in moonlight . Wonderful!!

[Lyrical]

In bottle: sweet frankincense, pale and cold.

 

Wet on skin: white musk and pale florals, crisp, cool and sweet. No throw!

 

Dry on skin: it's cool, floral and just a little bit soapy. The white musk is the same as the one in Black Pearl, but the frankincense and florals make it sharper and colder.

 

Later: more frankincense comes out, and it's sweet, pale and smoky. This is now much nicer than I thought it would be. Because All Souls was dreadful on me, I thought perhaps frankincense was to blame, but this makes me think of a white version of Horreur Sympathique. It's very, very clean!

[Sapphiremo0n]

I recently purchased this from Puddin in one of his "look what I found in the back of my closet" ebay sales and I'm so glad I did.

 

In the bottle: It is very bitter and tangy, I'm thinking it is the frankincense.

 

On: I'm picking up more of the lily and (I think) osmanthus (although I'm not familiar with this note). I know the musk hasn't come up...white musk usually waits a bit before entering the scene. Honestly, I could swear I'm smelling sandalwood, almost but not quite.

 

The dry down: It's very soft and exotic but still lovely. The lilly and musk come out on top of everything, beautifully.

 

This is one that I picked out for the name, and have been delighted with all day, definatly one to keep.

[hlinspjalda]

In the vial: An unfamiliar floral, an unusual musk. The resin comes in a distant third, but is there beneath everything, holding it together.

 

Wet: The floral is stronger, not as sharp as before; it does have an ethereal, not quite grounded sort of tone to it. It's almost as if the musk and frankincense is from another scent entirely, one placed near the first but definitely separate. this needs to develop.

 

Twenty minutes: Still needs to develop more. Very pungent, sharp musk, not enough warmth from the frankincense.

 

One hour: Definitely still ethereal, not very grounded. There's more warmth than before, but you have to get past the floral and musk to get to it. I think it's probably not done developing on me, though.

 

Two hours: The musk-resin axis is stronger now, but the florals are still rather piercing and unearthly. My body chemistry doesn't often give me back an impression much like the catalogue description of a scent, but this time it definitely does. "Distant, chill and pitiless" sounds pretty much right to me.

 

Three hours: Now the scent has finally gone to ground on me, it's pretty pleasant. A sort of honey aura has developed; I'm guessing that's the osmanthus as it ages.

 

Four hours: Warm, sweet, musky floral. This developed well on me, but it took too long to get to the place I wanted it to be. I'll be finding ways to share this with more appreciative owners.

 

Six hours: Generic sweet floral tinge atop resin base. Not bad, but not distinctive either.

[zankoku_zen]

This was a sweet lily with a hint of melon actually, but then it went powdery with a hint of cedar.

 

Yeah.... not so much.

[rayvn1]

There was a light brush of flowers bursting out of the imp when I first applied. (Made me a little nervous, I'm not a big floral fan). A sharper woodsy-spice not was predominant on initial dry-down. I would have been really happy if that note stuck around longer, but its faded to almost nothing now, just a slight muddle of flower and musk. Hardly any throw. I'll try this one again, though, because it has alot of promise!

 

Edit: A few hours later this was a lovely golden perfume with a hint of my beloved musk. Perfect for after a bath and hanging out before bed.

Edited March 18, 2009 by rayvn1

[devilot]

In the Bottle: Frankincense. Lots of it. Something floral (just not sure if it's the osmanthus or Nile lily I'm smelling).

 

Wet: Smells pretty true to the bottle, has a v cool and aquatic feel to it, but definitely floral.

 

Drydown: Like others have mentioned, dries down powdery. I think that it's predominantly the white musk and frankincense now.

 

Verdict: It's nice and pleasant, but not a fave of mine, and for the last year or so, I haven't been as big a fan of such clean, aquatic floral scents.

[Tess]

In the bottle - This is very interesting and well blended. It's hard for me to pick up notes here, but I'm getting some aquatic florals. That's not to say it's "flowery" because it's not, that's just the only for sure note I can get.

 

Wet - Much more lily now.

 

Drying - Night over a calm pond with lilies. It's that captured in a perfume, which just enough musk to make it smell like it IS a perfume. As it warms with my skin, it's becoming more and more a perfume scent, mostly with those lilies and musk, but it's still very aquatic.

 

Dry (3 hours) - Frankly? I smell like a grandmother. Soft floral and slightly musky.

 

Overall - Not for me at all, bah.

[Invidiana]

Reading the description, I was skeptical of the osmanthus at first, because I had a bad experience with an osmanthus candle that smelled like cat pee several years ago. However, I love white musk so much I had to take the dive wtih this one. It was worth the gamble; an ethereal yet dark floral steeped in the sexy vapors of white musk. Maybe if I wore this on an actual night's pavilion, a gorgeous male vampire would somehow be drawn to me from the shadows.....

[ralenth]

Source: Puddin's eBay enabling

 

Wet: Sharp, bitter floral.

 

Drydown: The same edgy floral note I can't quite pin down and soft musk radiating outward. I also detect a bit of a powder note as lilies and I don't play too nicely.

 

Dry: Bitter, cool, and unsettling.

 

Overall: Unnervingly reminds me of Psychological Horror. I don't know what the association is, but something in this makes me incredibly uncomfortable. This is going off to the swaps.

Edited November 15, 2009 by ralenth

[lishal]

Upon sniffing Night's Pavilion the first thing to my nose is the white musk that often tends to attack my nose right away in some blends. The flowers here are present but they are hiding out behind the white musk.

 

On application, I get an immediate flare of white musk that starts to mellow out soon after leaving a gentler fragrance behind that's distinctly floral with a light touch of frankincense. There is nothing sweet in this fragrance. There is a bit of a bitter note but I don't notice it too much. The bitterness adds a bit to the florals and sort of deepens the scent for me. The scent has a very interesting life cycle. The dry down starts very early on this scent as I get the frankincense coming up a bit more, not really overtaking the florals but rather balancing them out before Night's Pavilion disappears entirely within four hours.

 

 

[countessmouse]

In the imp: very sweet frankincense. Wet on my skin: very sweet frankincense. Dry on my skin: Oh, thank god, the aquatic floral finally popped, but, oh my, the musk did as well. On dry down, it has blended into a very light, musky white floral that is quite pleasant. I may have to get more of this.

[Geminirubyshoes]

2011 version:

I love, love this! It's a big surprise for me as I would not normally pick this purely based on note listings but I tried it and it was love at first sniff.

I get a juicy sort of smell, I swear it's almost like ripe pear but with a musky edge and a smoky quality at the end. It gets a bit sweeter the longer it sits on my skin and the lily is very much there. Throw is pretty decent. I think I will be wearing this a good bit and I bet it will smell even better in a couple of months.

[cfrancesca]

2011: I found this version much stronger on the osmanthus and lily, whereas the 2007 was stronger on the frankincense and white musk (I hardly got any florals). This has a tart, kind of apricot fruity scent on me, I'm guessing it's the osmanthus, the lily blends with the osmanthus and create this tart fruity/floral scent, the frankincense peeks through and I start getting some white musk, but I find it a bit too cloying in here.

[calivianya]

This was a real surprise for me. I'm not going to lie, I got a decant for the name and poem.

 

I agree that this smells juicy and a bit citrusy. It does not go OMGFLORAL! on me, it's just enough floral to keep this away from smelling totally like fruit. This scent to me smells clean and light, and it does not morph on my skin. I am definitely keeping my decant, and I may get more.

[thekittenkat]

In the decant: White musk, florals, frank.

 

Wet: The lily is a stronger presence, now.

 

The dry-down: And the notes have slowly combined into a somewhat bright and somewhat heady floral. It's nice, but nothing that I would reach for on a regular basis. I tested this mostly because I like most musks and love frankincense, but wasn't sure how the Nile lily would behave, as I usually have problems with lilies in general. I was pleasantly surprised by this lily.

 

ETA: This is for the 2011 version.

Edited March 20, 2011 by thekittenkat

[tealeaves]

I got a half-imp of the 2011 version because I love frankincense and musk and I generally like lily. In the bottle and wet it has a sort of smoky sweetness, like incense and juicy fruit. I'm assuming that's the frankincense and osmanthus playing together. It remains much the same once it dries down, a sort of heady, smoky, sweet floral. The lily is not aquatic at all, which would have been nice to cut the sweetness, I think. As a scent I do enjoy it but it's a bit sweet for my taste.