And There Was A Great Cry In Egypt

[Diana]

 

And There Was A Great Cry In Egypt, Arthur Hacker.

Dark myrrh, white sandalwood, amber, hyssop, frankincense, honey, cypress, red musk, cardamom and saffron.

 

In the bottle: It smells pretty cologne-y. A bit astringent, but it smells pretty masculine and strong, like sharp woods & frankincense.

 

Wet: It's fairly the same as the bottle. I can smell resins & woodsy notes. It's not as strong going on as I would have expected.

 

Initial drydown: This starts to soften up a bit, but also fade somewhat as well. I can start to detect the saffron and sandalwood more easily, but this is not as strong as I'd like. It is really pretty, like a mixture of rare spices and resins you'd expect to come out of Northern Africa & the Middle East.

 

Drydown: This reminds me a bit of Scherezade, but much, much softer, gentler, and more complex. This is so exquisite, and I'm so very glad it's not a Limited Edition scent. It is akin to taking masculine, typically strong notes, and toning them down to a soft, delicate fragrance. I'm not really getting the cardamom or honey as detectable, individual notes, but there is an overall vague sweet & spice thing going on. There's a bit of the woodsy notes lingering, and just a very tiny wisp of the musk, resins and saffron (I saffron!).

 

I really love this a lot. It was really worth the extra cost for a 5mL bottle. And, I think with a bit of aging, the notes will develop and become stronger, and this will make me swoon even more.

 

edited to add imge - clover

[aedes]

I didn't really dig the smell of this in the bottle, but on, wow! It's dark, noble, a little brooding; makes me think of a polished, mahogany table with a swirling grain. I think it's the honey that gives this scent a whole new spin, that sweet top note that just breaks your heart. It's absolutely rich and complex, holy, and somber. This is everything I had hoped Penitence would be way back when, but doesn't have any "spikiness," just smooth smooth smooth and so compelling.

[filigree_shadow]

In the bottle: Cypress and frankincense.

 

Initially: Frankincense -- sweet and slightly powdery.

 

Drying: Becomes a spicy woody scent. I got the barest whiff of red musk at one point, but then it disappeared.

 

Dry: Spicy and sweet, but a little bit too powdery for me. (I have that problem with frankincense.) But I'll keep trying -- it's a very interesting scent.

[Eunice]

This is chock full of ingredients I love. The sandalwood and amber are most predominate but I can make out the cypress and red musk also. This becomes very incensy on my skin, a very deep and rich incense. Not headshop at all. And There Was a Great Cry in Egypt is so very worth the extra money for a bottle.

[shelldoo]

in the bottle: gorgeous. myrrh, musk, saffron, hyssop and sandalwood

 

wet: musky, cypress. slightly reminds me of fenris wolf a bit, maybe just the "feel" of it.

 

as it dries it is mostly red musk and sandalwood, and reminds me of scherezade but heavy on the musk.

[slave1]

In Bottle: Woody incense

 

On Skin: This starts out very strong. The dark myyyh jumps out right away along with the sandalwood and musk. Very deep and bold. The frankincense gives a lovely warm incense feel, while the amber further deepens the warmth. I love it! At first I thought it was quite masculine, but as the scent develops it has more of just a sexy raw feel to it that could be beautiful on men or women. I’m looking for the honey, but again it doesn’t surface on it’s own. It blends in very well and helps soften the sharpness of the hyssop, cardamom and cypress. The herbs do give it a nice edge and I like that they aren’t too pungent. There is a slight soapy perfumy feel to this scent that if inhaled for to long makes my eyes water, but I love just catching a whiff of it. A lovely incensey and woody scent, slightly feral but also elegant. I’m going to love this on my husband I’m sure. Overall it drys down and fades pretty quickly. I’d say it has a light throw and short wearlength.

[parrot_suspect]

Oh my God. This has got to be the ultimate resinous blend. It starts out woodsy, then dries down to powdery, musky, amber-y incense. It's one of those scents where the notes are blended so beautifully it's hard to pick them out individually. But if you like incense, powder, resin, amber or musk, you will not be disappointed with this blend. It's gorgeous!

[Celogrl]

Oh, this is beautiful! It feels like a royal, Biblical fragrance to me. It reminds me of what ancient Israel would have smelled like. It is very resinous, a little smoky, very soft and rich. On me it's mostly musk and myrrh with a little amber. Truly an inspired mix!

[Thorne]

Delicious resinous and smoky sexiness. This might be what I want to smell like all the time, warm and rich and a little sweet. It lasts a long time on me too - I dabbed a little on last night to test and I could still smell it this morning when I woke up.

[copyshopclerk]

In the imp - Astringent, definitely. Some kind of.. vegetable? I can't place what, exactly, but it reminds me of the scent of vegetables cooking. My husband agreed! Perhaps it's the saffron.

 

Wet - Sweetens instantly, but not to the point of being singularly sweet, just that the pungent quality it had in the imp is gone. Sandalwood, musk, and cypress most noticable. Under that, the frankincense and honey.

 

Dry - Wow, almost a reversal! Now the honey is more prominent with a deeper, resinous quality underneath. It's really a beautiful scent. It's sweet but complex, and not at all overbearing or cloying. There's almost a "fresh" quality to it, if that makes sense - maybe the cypress.

 

 

I bought a decanted imp of this. I want a bottle now!

[PurringPulsar]

And There Was a Great Cry in Egypt

 

In the bottle: dark, deep, resinous, spicy, incense-y. It is very reminiscent of some other Egyptian themed BPALs, and it reminds me somewhat of a darker, less dusty Ozymandias.

Wet on skin: I can smell the heated, dry saffron and the golden, piercing frankincense most now…

Dry on skin: oh wow. Now the red musk has surfaced, and this smell is just gorgeous. Stunning. I agree very much that this is similar to Scherezade (which is a very good thing!) only this one is more complex. I get a lovely dryness thanks to the woods, and the frankincense really shines in here, giving a fabulous incense feel to the scent, with the spices adding warmth, and the musk and probably the myrrh giving the scent a rich depth. Surprisingly, I cannot smell much honey in here…it's a very subtle honey note, I think.

After a while: ah, I think I can smell the honey now! It's just about there, I can detect it very slightly. I also get the telltale golden sweetness of amber. The scent is still a beautiful mix of musk and spice and resins and woods, all wonderfully balanced now into scent that is warm, dry, and incensy. It's a scent with luxurious, red-gold tones. It also reminds me of a richer, deeper, less airy Ozymandias-where that was the Egyptian desert in full daylight; this is a magnificent sunset over the desert.

Then, it darkens, becomes a bit drier and woodier, with the saffron as the most dominant note, with hints of woods (sandalwood adding a soft, gently powdered feel, cypress adding a hint of green), myrrh and musk. It is very much like Scherezade at this point, with a little bit of Bastet and Ozy.

And then, after a few hours, I get that wonderful drydown I get with musk-sandalwood scents…all smoky and warm and a tad powdery/dusty, only this time with saffron. I love the way this scent shifts constantly.

Verdict: this is well worth all the coveting. So exotic, mysterious, very evocative of Egypt and the middle east, this is the kind of combination of wonderful scent you could find wafting from ancient temples and desert bazaars, a beautiful, haunting mixture of spices, resins, woods and musk. All the notes work very harmoniously with each other and the result is a warm, sun-touched scent which is dry and also luxurious, very rich and deep and complex without being all over the place, with a drydown of soft incense smoke-this is a very unisex scent. This scent does bear very slight similarities to scents like Ozymandias and Scherezade but still has something unique to it thanks to it's heavy resins and woods. this scent has not let me down-it surpassed my expectations.

Emoticon rating:

Edited July 12, 2006 by yeahbutnobut

[LittleGreyKitten]

OK, I have to admit I'm not loving this blend. However, I'm not going to be dumb and automatically write it off like I've done with other resinous blends fresh from the lab, if I didn't instantly love them.

 

This is way sharp and faintly nauseating on me, with cypress and hyssop overpowering all else. I will definitely let this rest in the box for a month or two before passing judgement on it. I certainly wouldn't have swapped Luperci if I'd done that- some blends do take a while to develop, and I've ended up loving some that morphed quite a bit despite their initial off-putting aroma fresh from the lab. So yeah. I'll retry it in a month or two and see, but for now, it's a no.

[Little Bird]

So far, The Salon blends have been kind of disappointing for me (after trying Carceri d'Invenzione, The Isle of the Dead, and Two Monsters). They smell bland and aren't really what I would ever personally want to smell like. I was hoping that And There Was a Great Cry in Egypt would be a *me* scent.

 

In the bottle, I can pick out a faint honeyed sweetness, some spicy cardamom, and a slightly sharp frankincense note. It's spicy. Still kind of too sharp and perfumey for me though.

 

This could be a warm and sexy scent, on the right person. It gives me a bit of a headache.

 

There's a definite warm musk and sweet honey here.

 

After a half hour or so, the sandalwood and cypress come out to join the other notes, lending a dry woods to the warm musk and honey. I'm also picking up a bit of the amber, but only a tiny bit, and it's making the blend go powdery on my skin.

 

Overall, this is a warm and exotic blend. Slightly spicy, slightly sweet, musky, and with a drydown of powdery woods thrown into the mix.

 

This isn't something that I'd normally wear. I'd recommend it if you like honey or musk scents though, or if you like classically perfumey fragrances.

Edited December 5, 2006 by Blood onmy hands

[sofiaviolet]

In the imp: hardcore sandalwood.

 

On me, wet: Hardcore sandalwood with antiseptic tinge. Erk.

 

On me, dry: Most of the scent vanishes! There is a little bit of wood left. It's starting to smell like watered-down Yggdrasil.

 

Verdict: Not for me. It starts off badly, and my skin eats it within five minutes.

[Aredhel]

Rating (on skin): 5/5

Summarised in a word or two: Sweet saffron!

 

Pre-review thoughts: This could either be divine (amber, honey, musk, cardamom and saffron) or horrible (myrrh, sandalwood, cypress, heavy musk).

 

In the imp: SANDALWOOD.

 

On skin, wet: Saffron and cardamom! Beneath that, honey and amber, and just a dusting of myrrh. This is gorgeous. Kind of what Bengal might've been, if the honey and pepper didn't go crazy when it hits my skin.

 

On skin, dry: The only downside to this is that as it dries, the myrrh comes out, flails its little arms around and says "LOOK AT ME!" This doesn't last long, however, as the other notes stomp it back into submission, and it lingers in the background for the rest of the scent's life. Yes sir, I like this.

 

Conclusion/Notes: I wish the honey were a bit stronger, but other than that, this is lovely! Damn it, I want a bottle of this as well. These Salons just get better and better.

[quikslvr]

Very cologne-y and woodsy first kick, with the frankincense emerging as dominant in its first phase. Rich and deep and heady, the frankincense falls away a bit next, replaced by the myrrh and cardamom and saffron. This does also remind me of Bengal.

 

Oh, and then it falls into the lust phase for me: the musk comes out, and oh, man, that's sexy. I was thinking 'no' on the first cologne-y phase, but this makes it all better. Bottle me!

[edenssixthday]

And There Was A Great Cry In Egypt - This has so many notes in it that I love and a couple that don't work on me, so I was really curious to see how this one smelled. On my skin, it smells initially like a commercial perfume. It smells like any number of department store perfumes, actually, and I'm completely unimpressed. It's very woody and slightly sweet and trés "perfumey." Once the oil dries, it's not nearly as commercial-smelling. It's' now very much a sandalwood and saffron scent backed up by the husky scent of myrrh. It's very subtle on my skin, and has virtually no throw, and completely fades within 90 minutes. I'm afraid this one is definitely not for me, although I don't think I'd mind smelling this on other people or even walking into a room with this scent.

[euterpe414]

I am totally in love with scent, as I suspected! It smelled, like others have said, very strong, woodsy and masculine in the bottle. However on my skin after it dries I smell cardamom, saffron sandalwood with an ambery background. I wore this yesterday, but I think I am going to set the rest aside to age, because I am betting it will be beyond gorgeous that way!

 

The only not so nice part of this scent is that is does not last as long as other resinous scents usually do on my skin. Oh well, I will just keep reapplying!

 

eta: I am wearing today this after I have aged it for 6 months it has really improved! The resins have gained a lot more depth and really meld much better with the cardmom and saffron instead of going sharp. Also, the lasting power is much, much better. I find that this is usually the case with BPAl resins (amber and sandalwood esp.)- a little ageing helps them gain a better, stronger presence. I am glad I did not swap this one away because it is gorgeous and I will be wearing it more often!

Edited February 2, 2007 by euterpe414

[themerrybaker]

I really like the wet, perfumey phase of Great Cry. For me, birds should sing, cats should hunt, and perfumes should perf their little hearts out. To cut to the chase, this is my favorite of the frank&myrrh scents I've tried. The hyssop doesn't get gamey, the musk doesn't play its bass at 2AM, and my faves: the cardamom and saffron get their respective grooves on.

[Shannihilation]

In the bottle this is a very rich, deep, "dark" scent. Smelling it in the bottle I wasn't sure if I'd really like it. But on my skin it's fabulous. It starts out very strong and the red musk just takes over. But now I've been wearing it for about an hour and it's smoothed out alot. The red musk and the dark myrrh are still the dominant notes, but the sandalwood and amber keep them from being too bold. The frankincense is just hovering in the background and I can't smell the honey at all.

 

This really is a beautiful blend. It's very exotic, sexy, and just a little mysterious.

[juniperus]

Bottle: resins, especially the frankincense and myrrh

Wet: much the same..amber stronger, tho, and I can catch a hint of the sandalwood.

Dry: the musk is really stepping up, and I can barely make out the saffron. none of the floral, yet.

Later: I had really feared the honey because it usually not only amps on me, but turns really sharp and stale, but like jasmine it's either all or none, and I'm getting none. YAY! I'm not getting much of the cardamom either, but I'm not complaining because this is truly gorgeous and I must order a bottle. Oh yes. This was the one that I thought had the best chance on me (since all of the salon had notes that concern me)..it's complex, a warm red-gold in tone...and just spectacular.

[bifemmefatale]

Oh, this is lovely and complicated! It's a shapeshifter, morphing back and forth between sweet, spicy, resiny....At first application it's a cool, sophisticated department store cologne and I do not like it. I think that's the sandalwood, frankincense, musk and cypress. Within minutes, however, sweetness creeps in--the saffron, honey, amber and cardamom flitting in and out of the department store on feathery wings, until eventually they decide to settle in for a while. The dominant scent becomes a honeyed saffron musk, with the resins adding depth. I don't really get any hints of hyssop's aniselike scent. This is the Snake Charmer's more refined older sister who went to grad school instead of joining the circus. Same family without the sweet plummy cinnamon. Don't know if I'll order a bottle, but definitely keeping the imp.

Edited July 28, 2006 by bifemmefatale

[portalkat]

When I read the reviews, I thought that this would be the Salon scent that would fulfill my quest for incense-like blends.

 

One swipe of the wand and....................Dragon's Blood?!?!?! I have no idea what note is the trickster, but after an hour it hasn't budged one bit. The dragon has come to roost.

 

2 hours later - It has changed slightly and the sandalwood comes out a bit with the cypress and cardamom, but it still reminds me of the dragon blends.

 

4 to 8 hours later - I'm not sure if it was closer to 4 or 8 because I was sleeping, but whatever it was, or the combination of notes, that smelled like Dragon's Blood is now gone, leaving the woods, resin, musk and spices. This is what I had hoped for in the beginning. Maybe I should just try it again and see what it does because I really like the way that this smells after 10 hours - my skin just hangs on to BPAL

Edited July 31, 2006 by portalkat

[sarada]

Oh my.

 

It's funny that in reading the ingredients to this I didn't really put together the fact that frankincense and myrrh, amber and sandalwood were all in it...along with, well, pretty much everything else in this is a favorite of mine. How did I not think to just buy a bottle unsniffed? I think I was completely dizzy and disoriented by the update that day!

 

To put things simply, this smells like walking into Mystickal Tymes, a store in New Hope, Pa. This smells just like it -- a combination of every possible type of resin and complex, powdery incense blend, all in one. It's incredible. I get a wave of nostalgia smelling it...kind of like the nostalgia I felt when I first smelled Tisiphone, though this does not smell quite like that (since it shares none of the ingredients!). It has a similar powdery incense store feel to it, but this is a bit lighter, more resiny, and refined.

 

I don't specifically smell the red musk, which normally really comes out on me, and the honey seems to take one of its more light and powdery forms -- I wasn't sure if the cardamom and saffron would spice it up too much but it's just like a faint layer of golden dust.

 

The sandalwood and resins come out the strongest on me, but they are more like sunlit motes of incense dust floating through the air, than the smoky, dark incense of the "churchy" blends.

 

Great, another bottle I need to get! I am afraid that all of the Salons are looking like bottle scents at this point. They're just SO good.

[cranberry]

In the imp, this smells like herbs, resins and amber.

 

On the skin, wet: mainly saffron, myrrh, resins. This smells golden brown.

On the skin, dry: Now woods are coming out. As are more resins, amber, musk. I like this stage of the scent, this is really pretty. It’s rich, seductive, slinky, and warm. It is absolutely beautiful. The more I wear it, the more I like it. It is a fairly faint smelling oil. It doesn’t have much throw at all, but what is here is just gorgeous. Damn, this does smell a bit like Snake Charmer. This is easily becoming my favorite of the Salons that I’ve tried so far. This is an amazing scent and one day I will need a bottle of this.