Fortunato

[couscous]

It was now midnight, and my task was drawing to a close. I had completed the eighth, the ninth, and the tenth tier. I had finished a portion of the last and the eleventh; there remained but a single stone to be fitted and plastered in. I struggled with its weight; I placed it partially in its destined position. But now there came from out the niche a low laugh that erected the hairs upon my head. It was succeeded by a sad voice, which I had difficulty in recognising as that of the noble Fortunato. The voice said –

"Ha! ha! ha! — he! he! — a very good joke indeed — an excellent jest. We will have many a rich laugh about it at the palazzo — he! he! he! — over our wine — he! he! he!"

"The Amontillado!" I said.

"He! he! he! — he! he! he! — yes, the Amontillado. But is it not getting late? Will not they be awaiting us at the palazzo, the Lady Fortunato and the rest? Let us be gone."

"Yes," I said "let us be gone."

"For the love of God, Montresor!"

"Yes," I said, "for the love of God!"

A deep, rich sherry encased in dusty darkness, touched by oak, and damp catacomb stone. The scent begins with a sense of drunken glee, of orange peel, bittersweet berry and rose hip, and moves inexorably towards the dread and terror expressed in black patchouli.

In the bottle, Fortunato reminded me of the often-overlooked masquerade out of the GC... or perhaps, in slight passing, to the discontinued carnivale. It has that same sparkling, festive feel, anchored by bitter orange. This isn't a creamsicle perfume, thank God!

I smell a tiny, tiny bit of whiskey/cognac (description says sherry), which gives the scent some elegance, but it's mostly wonderfully tart and effervescent berries on me, with medium throw. It dries down to a surprisingly clean "baby" smell with a touch of rind. The patchouli cannot be explicitly identified as such- only the sense of it.

Despite some of my review keywords- berries, babies, festive- this is not a girlish perfume at all. Good for both men and women, and excellent when paired with a black dress. Fortunato is something truly different, and he's my favorite of the maelstrom scents so far, by far. Edited December 12, 2007 by Shollin

[Ganguro_gal]

This smells very much like wine on me, like the lipgloss Cheap Red Wine by blueq.. it then morphs into something darker.. It wasn't too boozey, just enough to *not* smell like I've been drinking!

 

I wore it on a date & he asked me out again. He also told me I smelled nice!

[sookster]

straight sniff from bottle.....very similar to rat king.....

and some jalapeno peppers

 

once applied it gets extremely boozy...with a touch of berries....

 

hmmm......not sure how i feel about this one yet...while it is

quite unique i am not sure it is what i was looking for....le *sigh*

Edited March 8, 2006 by sookster

[klio]

Hello, everyone. My very first order ever arrived today--24 imps, 5 frimps, and the bottle of Fortunato I took a chance on because of my mad devotion to Poe and to this particular story. Now attempting my first review. Watch out below.

 

In the bottle: I've died on a barroom floor with my nose stuck between two floorboards sticky with old, spilled alcohol, and rancid chewing gum up my ear. This is a terrible way to go. In the bottle it is too strong, too sweet, and I am massively disappointed in my first bpal experience. I wonder if it's a bpal characteristic, though, that such concentrated oils are overwhelmingly intense in the bottle, and hope this is so. 'Cause this bottle is killing me.

 

On, wet: First an overwhelming cloud of patchouli blooms, too fast and too insistent. But pretty quickly the orange is growing stronger, spicier. It's mixing badly with the mush on my fingers from unpacking the imps, and I still have this chewing gum stuck in my ear. Also, it's beginning to remind me of this guy from college who always had spicey orange room freshener. Which is not necessarily bad, except for the part where I feel like I'm lying on a barroom floor, wishing I were dead.

 

On, dry: After about a half hour, I love it. Love love love. Well, like quite a bit--it is my very first scent, and I should pace myself. It's mostly orange now, but not in an overpowering, Florida-sunshine way; it's closer to some sort of exotically spicey sherry (but not a hint of amontillado's almond smokiness). I am very taken with my wrist. I have become a tasty liqueur. I would take me home from the bar if I weren't walled up in this tomb. From a tiny, timid application on my wrist the scent has diffused across the palm of my hand and down my arm. I can't smell it unless I bring my arm within a few inches of my nose, but I'm too stuffed up for that to be an accurate assessment of throw. Not what I'd consider a day-to-day scent or a for-work scent; I could see brushing my arm casually across someone in passing at a winebar to make an impression and get a little attention. Also, I kinda want to lick my arm.

 

Can't wait to start opening imps...

Edited March 9, 2006 by klio

[zenvodunista]

like most berry scents, this one is Jolly Rancher sweet on me, though this happens to be an evil Jolly Rancher. At least it starts out that way. Lurking beneath the surface, I get a sense of the bitter part of that orange mentioned and some of the oak -- which i think may be the thing that makes Montressor goe all cough syrup on me. will try again, but i don't have high hopes.

 

n.

[Medici]

Wow, this is a dark. I wasn't sure what to expect with patchouli being the last note on Fortunato's roster, in fact, I'm quite surprised that even as it grounds the blend into a nice, dusky, earthen atmosphere, I can't get the image of dust-covered library tables out of my head.

 

How on earth did she reproduce dust? (It's awesome!)

 

In the bottle I get a smack of dried citrus - like an orange rind left in the sun too long.

 

In the onset the orange and berries sweeten the blend, before the wood comes to the fore. From there it's all oak tables, dust and a nice, dry earthy patchouli.

 

I am mightily impressed, I might add. This is how I hoped Miskatonic U would go, not that I mind that its dominated by coffee, but Fortunato definitely captures the "disused library" smell.

 

...

 

4/5 on Medici's Scale o' Lurrrve

[Shollin]

I’ve re-read “The Cask of Amontillado” since Maelstrom was released, and Fortunato’s description absolutely gives me chills because it’s so perfect. Oak-casked sherry in catacomb gloom, drunken glee surrendering to sheer terror… just meep.

 

First sniff: Rowdy, drunken oranges, tumbling into the dirt.

 

Wearing: Wet on my skin, it’s oddly pale, faint and bittersweet. I had orange marmalade with breakfast this morning and Fortunato reminds me of the taste of the bitter peels inside the sweet jelly. It got sweeter throughout the wearing, never to the point of overwhelming, and ended as a wonderfully sweet fruity orange with just a hint of something darker. Simply marvelous.

[MissMorbus]

Fortunato

 

Beth had me at berries and booze and sealed the deal with patchouli.

 

In bottle: Tart berries and booze, which I assume is sherry. I'm actually not sure if I have ever had sherry.

 

On skin: Wow the tart berries are amped up at first, but they settle down after a little bit. The berries seem to get dustier, and the sherry gets a little drier. I never can really pick out the orange peel, but I can tell its helping the fruit with its tartness. I can definately smell the patchouli under there making everything dirtier, perhaps its the one making everything dry and dusty. I'm not really sure what rose hip smells like, so I can't really pick out where it is.

 

I really like this scent. Its a tarter, fruitier scent than my beloved Blood Countess. The patchouli really helps round it out and keep the berry from being to sweet and tart. I'm not sure if this will warrant mass hording, but I will definately enjoy my bottle. But then again, its only the first day I have worn it, and I have pleanty of time left to massively horde.

 

rate: 4 of 5

 

ETA:

 

I am actually kind of disappointed, because in only a few hours this has faded down to pretty much a skin scent on me. I am having trouble smelling it. I knocked off a star for it.

Edited March 12, 2006 by MissMorbus

[filigree_shadow]

Drunken glee, indeed! It's like dusty oranges covered in booze.

 

It's playful and silly at first, and then it turns into a strange mix of happy fruits and sad incense as it's drying. Dry, the bittersweet fruity smell backs off a little. But it's still tart incense. Have you ever smelled tart incense? I haven't. I didn't know it was possible.

 

This is really like nothing else I've ever smelled, and I've even worked my way through about 200 BPAL scents. I can totally see this being a love or hate scent, and I would be too worried that others near me might hate it to wear it when I'm going to be around a lot of people (like at the office).

 

Personally, I like it.

[jewelbug]

Bottle: Mustiness with a sweet fruitiness under. I can definitely pick out the patchouli.

 

Wet: The smell of fermentation and berries with just a tint of orange.

 

Drying: The orange departs, and the berry takes precedence in this blend. The patchouli transforms the berry to a dirty gritty scent. This really does manage to smell like wandering around a damp stone wine cellar. The musty stone smell wears off after about 2 hours, afterwhich this is a dark earthy berry. It only lasts about 3 hours.

 

Overall: This is much sweeter and berrilicious than I expected, but it very well blended and beautiful. I would like to compare this directly to montressor, but of the two boozy fruit blends in maelstrom, I think that I prefer montressor.

[Little Bird]

Oh, this is yummy, but it reminds me of something that I cannot quite place, and it’s driving me crazy. This smells like some pleasant memory from my childhood that I can almost reach, that I almost recapture the feeling of, but I cannot quite make it. *sigh*

 

And then it hit me just now - Persimmons. Wild persimmons... the way that they smell and taste when they’re sweet. I’ve only seen or eaten them once before in my life. My family and I used to live in Missouri in a little back country town. When my father and I drove to pick my mother up from work one day, we parked for a while next to what happened to be a wild persimmon tree. He assured me that they were okay to eat and they were pretty tasty little fruits. I haven’t seen one since then, but I remember how happy I was, just talking to my dad and sitting on the hood of his truck...

 

Fortunato is all fruity persimmons in the bottle and on my wrists (the “bitter berry”). A quick burst of zesty orange citrus comes out for a few minutes, but fades away pretty quickly. I also get something woody and a bit earthy, though I never smell really strong patchouli, it’s more of a light grounding note in the background. This smells very much like being outside and laying under a persimmon tree

 

I really love this one.

[slave1]

In Bottle: Fruit, berry

 

On Skin: The berry is the fist note I smell. It’s quite powdery though, not a juicy berry. The orangepeel provides a nice tart twist. I don’t smell the rose hip… The sherry is gorgeous, slightly boozy and decadent but not anything that will knock you over. The oak gives a nice deep woody undertone. The patchouli isn’t overwhelming either, thankfully. Just dark and resiny and it gives the scent that perfect spooky note. Overall I love this scent. It’s quite pretty and festive. The throw is medium as is the staying power.

[feline.by.design]

This smells... bizarre.

 

I really can't determine off-the-cuff if I like this fragrance or not. One part of it intrigues me, while another repels.

 

This smell reminds me of deeply-fragranced candles in a head shop or a rituals store. The berry is dark and rich, and I imagine it bitter if bitten into. It doesn't come off as powdery to me. The orange peel is stabbing sharp citrus notes into Fortunato.

 

This is a strong fragrance with a lot of character. It's definitely something to wear if you want to get noticed. As the wearing continues, the oaken wood notes assert themselves while the orange peel kind of ebbs away, lost in the general murkiness of this fragrance. There is also an undercurrant of a musk; it smells sweaty. Perhaps that is the boozey note others have mentioned. Fortunato has become darker in only a short span of about five or ten minutes, max. It's as if one is descending into a cave, with the bitter berry fragrance still filling your senses as the world gets darker.

 

After this scent adventure, I'm not sure if Fortunato will be something I would use often, if at all. However, it's too intriguing to casually dismiss it right away. I think I will need some time to deliberate further.

 

-doreen

[Meg]

In the bottle: bitter dry wood and berries, very dark and somehow stony.

 

Wet: Berries, but rather bitter and sour ones, with the orange peel peeking out, and perhaps a hint of flowers. Delicious!

 

Drydown: As it dries, the berries seem to ripen and darken, I think I get rosehip. There's something dark looming in the background, and I suspect it's patchouli. As it develops, there's a slightly stony, dusty quality to the scent. The berries start to smell rather spicy and a bit herby, too.

 

Overall: A bitter, acid berry blend with a spooky coolness of catacombs. There's a smell of stone and dank wood in here from the patchouli, and the berries are reminiscent of cranberry, raspberry and blackberry all at once. It slightly reminds me of Lampades, but it's much darker. It certainly embodies this scene very well, and I'd consider a bottle...

[Laurel the Woodfairy]

Fortunato is bright sherry-gold in the vial, like the best Amontillado. On me, it's sweet berries--not as annoyingly sweet as Jester, but still sweeter than I like. There's an interesting sense of floral underneath, even though this isn't a floral blend--somehow, the rose hip and orange combine to read as orange-blossom. Overall: a sweet, fruity blend. Not very "me", but I'm glad I tried it.

[aidenraine]

At first I smell orange rind and berries, very sweet on me. A sweet orange lies below it.

 

As it dries it becomes a bitter orange, definitely the scent of the rind. It's dark and dusky, which I imagine is the patchouli. It's an aroma that I'm not sure I love, but I definitely like.

I imagine it'd make a really interesting room scent, one with more depth than your average fruit blend.

[Aredhel]

Rating (on skin): 0/5

Summarised in a word or two: Dirt and candles.

 

Preconceived notions: Hmm, dunno, really. Berries?

 

In the bottle: Orange peel, berries and patchouli. This shows promise!

 

On skin, wet: The patchouli in this is already disagreeing with my skin, smelling of sickly, rotting hippies. The berries are underripe and bitter, and the orange is... bad.

 

On skin, dry: Oh, this is not turning out well for me at all. It smells of... something bad. The sherry peeks out, and throws itself at the patchouli, berries and orange peel in a most hideous way. It smells like the remnants of a freshly burned-down candle shop.

 

Conclusion: Most definitely not for me. It showed promise in the bottle, sweet, rich and earthy (not dirty) as it was, but my skin did such horrible things to it. Wonky skin.

[arabella]

First Impression: Dried fruit.

 

Dries down to: Dusty, dried fruit with chunks of dirt.

 

Additional Comments: This one just doesn't work on me. The mix turns muddy and bland almost immediately.

 

Lasted: A couple of hours.

 

Rating: 1.5 out of 5

[isyche]

Not really a fruity-sweet scent on me – it's like a sophisticated orange/tart liqueur darkened by patchouli and woods. It's really perfect for the character because the lighthearted orange feels ominously shadowed by the darker notes, like Fortunato being walled in.

 

I love the creativity of this and Montresor, but I think a decant of each will hold me, because they're not really the kind of thing I wear.

[LiberAmoris]

Fortunato really is like a dark sherry---and I really can smell the oak and catacomb stone. I'm not so fond of the boozy blends, but thought I'd take a chance since I love patchouli and I tend to enjoy BPAL's fruity-patchouli blends.

 

On this skin, the orange and berry notes are playful and loud, but they evaporate quickly and leave the rose hip and patchouli. I can still smell the oak note. It reminds me a bit of Urd or Depraved meets Bess somehow, because of the intersection of fruit/patchouli notes and grape/orange notes.

 

Even with the patchouli to temper it, I think it might just be too sweet for my tastes. But I'm awfully glad to have tried it---it's a great capture of the Poe story.

[ariesathena]

So far I'm 0 for 2 on these Maelstrom scents. And damnit, I love Poe. But I can't even give a good description of this one because I actually had to wash it off. Something turned very ammonia-like on my skin and I haven't figured out what it is yet, but I didn't particularly fancy smelling like cat urine.

[mandragora]

In the imp: Sour smelling booze.

Wet on me: Very boozy with some light fruity, floral tones.

Drydown: The wood notes come out as it dries, with traces of the sour fruity booze note. The sour note is turning me off.

Verdict: A very confusing blend. I'm not enamored, yet not completely repulsed either. It's a "meh" kind of reaction. On a scale of 1-5, a 2.

[jidabug]

Whoa. That's a very dry sherry. Just a bit of fruity overtones and a bit of mustiness. Dries down to be sharply boozy still, with some fruit notes coming out, but they're very bitter about it. The patchouli darkens the whole thing...and makes me want to sneeze. Overall this was bitter and boozy, dark and musty. Perfectly suited to its name, but not for me.

[Neely]

bottle:In the musky wine and berries, but not sweet.

 

Wet: berries, wine, and musk.

 

Dry down: berry wine with musk and something very mineral like the stone of the catacombs. Oh yeah, this is what I am talkin' about!

 

30 minutes: berry wine. I think this needs to age a bit more, and I will try it again. I tried it at a Meet N' Sniff, and it smelled different on me then. More stone, less berry. I suspect it is all in the aging, just like a good sherry.

 

Conclusion: I like it a lot, but I don't need to hoard anymore bottles. The label rocks, especially since it goes with Montressor's label.

 

Rating 1-5, on my skin this is a 3.5-4.

[QueenFae]

A very unique blend! I think the orange and the bittersweet berry are definitely on top on my skin. The rose hip is there, but like more of an afterthought, I probably wouldn't be able to pick it out if I hadn't read the ingredients. The whole gorgeous blend is complimented by the looming black patchouli, a favorite of mine. The patchouli gives it a hint of earthiness and depth. It's hard to stick this one in a category, it's sort of a berrilicious/ incensey blend. Absolutely gorgeous!! I need a bottle!!