Carceri d'Invenzione

[gingersnapp]

Redwood, red sandalwood, black pepper, blonde tobacco and frankincense.

Sweet woods. Looking at the notes in the blend, I am very surprised that there is no musk in this. This reminds me of a red musk or some other sweet musk note.

[supremegoddessofall]

Very interesting! It smells...Christmas-y somehow, but not in an evergeen way. More like in a hot spiced mead way. The sandalwood and the pepper are sitting on top and the tobacco adds a bit of a smoky-like quality underneath.

[maijasu]

For a scent with woods, resins, spice, and tobacco, this is actually quite light and subtle. It does have a warmth and richness to it, but it's so well blended that I honestly couldn't pick out any of the individual notes when I was testing it. I've found this to be the case with lots of the Salon blends I've tested, more so than other catalog blends.

 

It's beautiful, intriguing, and comforting at the same time. I will be keeping my decant and trying it out some more!

[ND¢]

I don't find this as woody as I do sweetly spicy (without having the spice of, say, something as overt as cinnamon.) I have to guess it is the frankincense making it sweet? The scents blend together quite seamlessly. At first it is almost a sweet, luscious flower on top of the spiciness (which is never heavy or overbearing) and after maybe ten minutes the sweetness settles down to the same level as all the other notes. By far my favorite Salon scent of what I've tried.

[Monster]

Hello....lovah..erm, I mean, Carceri d'Invenzione

I received this from a swap with the fabulous Miss KateM.

 

I knew I was going to like this one right away based on the notes listed. Sandalwood, redwood, tobacco, pepper...yum!

 

Out of the bottle I smell a rich, elegant blend of resins and wood. Everything is so so well-balanced to me, I can't pick one note that jumps out right away.

 

On my skin wet this has a warm and cozy firewood feel to it. It's slightly sweet and reminds me of a rich, and elegant perfume and gorgeous Italian movie star would wear to a premiere or party. There's a commercial quality to this, but not a Macys commercial...more of something you'd find in a high end boutique or a perfume you'd come across while vacationing in Europe or something.

 

As this dries down it warms up and becomes sweeter and even more woodsy on my skin, this is mostly redwood and red sandalwood now (red sandalwood is one of my favorite scents). I'm guessing the sweet smell I'm getting is the blonde tobacco. I'm not getting the "juicy" quality many people have described, but maybe I'm mistaking that for the sweetness of the blonde tobacco.

 

This is hands down one of the most gorgeous things I have ever smelled..EVER. It makes me feel really really sexy. I think it could probably work well as a unisex scent as well.

 

Final verdict...AWESOME swap find and already in my top 5 Bpal scents ever

 

[steffanina]

In Bottle: Ooh, very sharp and eye-watering insect repellent like.

Wet: Something like an ozone version of amber, kind of noxious to me.

Dry: Okay, this got better, but it took a while. There is amber at the heart of this and that part's nice, but I'm not sure the wait is something I'll want to sit through.

Overall: Conditional, but has a nice dry-down.

[Emma2403]

In the bottle: I like it! But I don't really recognize anything… it's not at all what I was expecting from the notes listed. It's kinda sweet and not as fiery as what I'd have thought.

 

On my skin: well, it's floral… it shouldn't be, should it? And I even have a kind of a bubblegum feeling out of it. Maybe some incense but no pepper or tobacco AT ALL.

 

After a couple of hours: it gets sweeter and sweeter, and all I recognize is incense. It's weird, I have no wood, no pepper, and I seem to be the only one with such weird skin chemistry!

 

Verdict: I don't know. It's okay but I'm not too enthusiastic.

[slave1]

In Bottle: Sweet woods

On Skin: This is so sweet and beautiful. It’s actually much more simple than other Salon blends, which is not a bad thing. It seems more to the point, but still is very skillfully blended. The woods are very light but still dominant. I’m actually shocked at what a mild scent this is. The notes listed sounded so heavy but it’s a very subtle pretty scent. Very warm and red feeling. The pepper is also light thankfully, it doesn’t tickle my nose at all. The frankincense offers a beautiful sweet incense feel and the tobacco is lightly smoky and not scary in the slightest. I thought this would be an overly smoky scent but instead I’m treated to something quite beautiful and sweet. I would wear this again for sure. Light throw and short wearlength on me... it faded super quick.

[Voleuse]

The woods are a strong on my first sniff, dry and the faintest bit sweet. After a moment, the pepper kicks in as well, with the other notes lending smoke to the blend. This is pretty, a light and freshly-cut wood scent.

[phedre]

In vial: Woodsy and peppery, with a bit of sweetness from the frankincense.

 

Wet: mmm sandalwood. I adore sandalwood in a blend! A touch of spicy pepper to keep it interesting.

 

Dry: Warm, deep, and soothing. It becomes a lovely blend of sandalwood and sweetness. I'll be hanging onto this one!

[forspecial_plate]

This is one of my favorites of the Salon scents that I've tried. It's wonderful, woodsy and peppery, sweet and resinous. Gingersnapp is right...something smells like musk in this, but not red musk to me, at least not like the red musk in Scherezade or Fenris Wolf.....I don't know, maybe a golden musk.

 

I have both an older imp of this and a brand new one. I think with age it has lost some of the sharper spicy edges and gained some dusty sweetness, but not dusty in a bad way. It strikes me that this is what I wanted Cathedral to smell like (although I do like Cathedral).

[moon_lemming]

Oh noes, pepper! I must have ordered this before I realized that I hate pepper in bath and body products.

 

The woods are . . . very woody. In the imp, Carceri d'Invenzione smells almost fruity, but feral. On me, whatever I thought was fruity is gone, and the woods come on strong. The frankincense keeps up its end of the scent chain, and the pepper unfortunately shows up as well.

 

I'm not exactly sure why I ordered this, honestly -- this blend is so not me. It fades quickly during wear, but is still way too agressive of a scent for me. Plus, you know, pepper.

[couscous]

Carceri smelled in the imp of pepper and powdery sweetness- almost a cassia-like sweetness, or perhaps an herbal blend along the lines of Anubis.

 

On the skin, the pepper bite fades quickly, and I'm left with a frankincense and red sandalwood blend- one dry and one sweet playing around with each other and switching up the driver's seat. In the air surrounding me, it's very "church-like" rather than true forest wood- Penitence, Cathedral, and Midnight Mass fans (I count myself among you) know this general quality quite well and can imagine it without any trouble. It's only when I press my nose right up against my wrist that I smell the elusive fruitiness others have spoken of. I don't know what it is, though- maybe pomegranate, or Shango's deep red apple? Perhaps it's a very cleverly placed amber that reads as fruit?

 

When it dries, after about an hour, I smell a tobacco that hasn't been used in any other tobacco blend I've tried. I recognize it because I still have nightmares over Dia de Los Muertos, and this blend has that pleasant smoke quality I liked so much in DDLM without the terrible, splitting headache I had to endure to be able to have it on my skin. YAAAAAY! It's a variation on the stronger, dominant BPAL pipe smoke I'm used to, and it's so much easier to wear.

 

This is a lovely blend. The only real drawbacks for me include a slightly waxy quality I can't really pin down, and the fact that I have this scent niche already well-represented in my collection. Still, fans of the "genre" should absolutely try this one for an enjoyable, surprisingly light variation on classic resins.

[grrrlennyl]

at first: a sweet, spicy incense.

on: very odd. definitely a red scent, spicy and incensy. i think i like this.

3 hours later: sharp and spicy. i'm not so sure about this.

5.5 hours later: weird. a tiny bit soapy, but with some sharp pepper and something almost sweet. i'm having a hard time with this one.

overall: this is really interesting, but not the sort of scent i would wear.

[hypatia]

Carceri d'Invenzione was my very first Salon scent. I had to order it when I saw the name (I love those Piranesi engravings) and the description (I also love the sandalwood-and-spice blends).

 

On me it's really, really light, with very little throw. I've been experimenting with wearing it to work because it's so subtle, and therefore unlikely to make any coworkers sneeze or raise their eyebrows, even if I slather it on. But I have to stick my nose right onto my wrist to smell it. I don't get any one single note from it until the end, when the tobacco peeks out. It's like a milder, more sedate version of Hellfire, without the booze and debauchery -- perfect, actually, for when you don't want to smell too debauched, but you still want the warm wood-and-tobacco atmosphere. I like it, even though I wish it were a bit stronger.

[jiggahava]

Incensy and dry. The redwood and the sandalwood are very noticeable, and this is one of the few times where I can actually SMELL the sandalwood in a blend. It is a very comforting scent. I'm not sure what blonde tobacco smells like. I'm getting the frankincense too, which is giving off that dry smoky feeling, but I like it. It is quite a beautiful and intriguing scent, and I'm not quite sure what to make of it. The throw is rather minimal. It makes me feel like I'm in an art museum, very artsy and sort of like a "woman of the world". A sophisticated scent.

Edited March 28, 2007 by Hava

[The_Merf]

Like someone else, I am surprised that no musk note is listed (although I'm detecting more black than red musk), because there is definitely something around the edges of the woods in this blend. I think the redwood and tobacco give the scent an overall "red" character, but that doesn't really emerge until the scent has been on my skin for awhile. This is a really light blend, which surprised me, as woody/resin notes tend to be very strong on my skin. The pepper seems to come and go. The first time I tried this on, there was a definite pepper edge, but when I tried it on again, I couldn't detect any of that.

[tinyvulture]

my husband tried this imp out first, and on him it was pure tobacco. i have to say i like it better on me. i love this tobacco note and it seems to be blended with…caramel? buttery, salty, sweet caramel! looking at the description, i have no idea what could be creating that smell, but i am in love with it! the frankincense and sandalwood hang out in the background, i smell no black pepper at all, and i’m not totally sure what redwood smells like but there’s nothing especially woodsy about this blend. just tobacco and foody caramel. i think this one’s worth the higher price for the 5ml.

[mmcfa2]

wow! This started out SWEET. I actually turned and put it in the GO box... But then...

 

warm woods, sexy woods, damp with oil not water. resin soaked wood, soft smooth warm wood. Just gah, LOVELY!! Nothing like the dry wood of say.. . cathedral. This is warm and quite inviting and requires absolutely no scent associations to enjoy it. I think the initial sweetness is tobacco perhaps? Anyway wood, spice and resin lovers, grab this one because it is absolutely dead on deliciously sexy

[Em-]

Like Shellie back in the first review for this, I get a sweet, juicy scent from this, with a wash of musky incense. I have no idea where the ripe juice is coming from - almost a fruity honey sort of scent, but with the woody, incense, this is just absolutely gorgeous. A big bottle for sure.

[Shollin]

First sniff: This scent seems to have a big personality. It’s rich, warm and enveloping – sweet fruity resins.

 

Wearing: Warm and deep and spicy.

[filigree_shadow]

When this was wet I thought it was a little too masculine for me. It smelled kind of cologne-y. When it's dry, the woods and tobacco combine to make a dry, almost sweet scent, and the pepper gives it a little spark.

 

Although I do like the scent, this is the type of scent my husband wears a lot (he likes woods and tobacco scents), so I can't really think of it as anything but masculine.

 

Also, quite a few of the Salon blends have been soft and rather faint on my skin. Although they last a long time, they stick close. Carceri d'Invenzione broadcasts. It's not faint at all.

[Trish]

In the bottle: *swoons* Soft sweet woody incense with a touch of pepper. Heaven in a bottle!!!! In fact it's so heavenly I'm almost scared to put it on my skin!

 

Wet: Sweet, dry, woody incense. But it's soft incense, not sharp at all. The pepper is just lending a touch of spice without being overbearing in the slightest. There's a smokey quality to it too which I adore.

 

Drydown: Ooh it's getting more woody now as the redwood warms up. There's the frankincense too yay. And now the blonde tobacco is really emerging. It's not a note I've had much experience of (unlike the others in this which are all favourites) but I do like it. Sweet, dry, somewhat smokey soft spicy incense. Actually it's getting a musky quality on my skin too.

 

Dry: The tobacco has backed off a little and the sandalwood has emerged (yay!). In fact this is now closer to the bottle scent than it has been at any other time, but minus the pepper and less sweet. Oh joy of joys!!!! Wonderfully gorgeous soft smooth sweet dry woody incense with just a dash of musky smokiness. This is not your average scent oh no. Ok, no Bpal is your average scent but this is even less so. It smells very expensive.

 

Needless to say I ADORE this. It doesn't have a lot of throw which I normally prefer, but I don't care. Love love love this. And as a bonus my partner really likes it too yay.

 

 

Edited to crosspost from from another thread:

I was at work the other day and three of us were talking when one suddenly stopped what she was saying and said "who's wearing perfume? It's lovely!". Cari said it wasn't her so I stuck out my wrist for Kim to sniff and she immediately exclaimed "that's it!". It was Carceri d'Invenzione. Later when I went to lunch one of the girls at the sandwich place commented to the girl who was serving me that she could smell incense or perfume and it was distracting her because she liked it. Never said it was me though. This was 4 hours after I'd put it on and she was at least 5 metres from me, and I though Carceri had hardly any throw at all! Guess I was wrong!

Edited June 8, 2007 by Trishek

[Brianne]

In the vial:

resinous and slightly sweet

 

On me:

Goes on beautifully of sandalwood and something...perfumey. Hard to describe because it does not smell like any of the notes listed. It's kind of sweet, a little floral. Then the wood kicks in and...well it smells like wood with perfume. The tobacco and frankincense are just sort of hanging out in the background and being resinous and slightly sweet - this is a very incensey blend. But hard to describe. I'm still getting that slight floral (or perhaps...fruity?) note that I can't pinpoint.

 

Final note:

Hard to review, but it's a very lovely scent - deep, resinous, slightly sweet. I think it's maybe a little too deep for me to wear often, but I'll definitely hold on to the imp (thanks Clover!!)

[hipslike___cinderella]

For whatever reason, I had a hard time reviewing Caceri d'Invenzione. Now that I'm here and reading other reviews, I see I didn't comprehend the blend much like some people.

 

Initially this makes me think of Kathmandu, minus the saffron and lotus (even though I think the redwood adds some kind of saffron-esque quality). Redwood and sandalwood are definitely dominant. Frankincense gives off the incense feel, of course. Pretty solid, relatively loud (at first), and pretty simple. This opens up as so very, very spicy on my skin... and very RED. Like, glowing red. I picture immaculate, polished wooden incense boxes. Even with a hint of tobacco smoke. I don't exactally match the Salon art to the scent. The print appears cold, stony, and dusty. This oil screams nothing but WOOD to me. Pipes and fireplaces, ancient libraries.

I did a modest bit of research in hopes of understanding, and found of that Carceri d'Invenzione is a series of prints translated as "Imaginary Prisons". The other prints look even more labyrinth-like than this plate. I can't fit the art with the scent!

 

Well anyhow, this hangup aside, this is a decent glowing red woods scent, but on me I guess it falls sort of flat, plus it's a fast fader. Not the shimmering complexity I'm looking for in Salon blends. It seems like other people love it, though!