The Phantom Calliope

[dawna]

Ghostly, glowing, sweet and dark: black cherry, patchouli, cassis, cardamom and verbena.

 

In the vial: Cherry!!! That is all I smell, cherry cherry and more cherry.. oh yum

On the skin: Cherry and cardamom and something slightly citrusy (I'm guessing the verbena). This is gorgeous!

On Drydown: There is the patchouli, its a very smokey patchouli scent, mixed very nicely with the gorgeous cherry. The cardamom is definitely there.. Its like spicy cherries with patchouli. This is absolutely everything I thought it would be. Thank goodness the CDs will be around for a while, I will eventually want to get a bottle of this I think.

[nightbird]

in the bottle - cherries!

 

on my skin - more cherries, but with something deep and spicy coming out as well.

 

mmm... very nice. puts me in an autumny mood!

after a few minutes I can hardly smell anything, though - very weird.

[astridclaire]

I was hoping to get some cardamom out of this one because there are so few BPAL blends that showcase it well, but all I got was screaming red hots! No cardamom, no cherry even, just red hots candies

[Meg]

In the bottle: Obnoxious almond and spicy patchouli.

 

Wet: The almond soon fades to give way to patchouli and cardamom, it becomes very dark and woody with a fruity undertone.

 

Drydown: The verbena comes out, and then the cardamom comes back with a kick, and I smell... like curry. I smell a bit of cherry underneath, from time to time, and patchouli is clearly the woody base. After a long while, I do get a hint of berry, somewhere in there.

 

Overall: At first all I smelled was almond, but this is definitely in the woody/spicy category rather than the foodies. It's sharp, sweet but still rather shrill, a lot about the cardamom, verbena and patchouli. Not my kind of blend, and I'm very disappointed that the cassis never made a proper appearance.

[The_Merf]

In the bottle: This is not as cherry as other cherry scents (Kabuki, etc.) and I can also smell the cassia and cardamon.

 

Wet: Excellent! My worry with this scent was that the cherry would be overwhelming and the blend would be less complex on my skin. However, that is certainly not the case. There is a strong "spicy/cinnamon" component to this as well. However, about five minutes after application, the cherry really starts to dominate.

 

Drydown and wear: Thankfully, the domination does not last, and the oil settles in the blend between cherry and cassia/cardamon/patchouli (this is another one like Geek, where the patchouli does interesting things). In fact, the spicy side of the scent lasts longest.

 

This may be the first real hit of the CD series for me!

[luxuria]

I love cherry and I love spice, so initially, this was a match made in heaven (or hell, as the case may be.) Indeed, the cherry, cardamom, and cassis are perfect, but this is also a much darker scent than I'd anticipated. The patchouli doesn't completely overtake the other notes at first, but it's the main component of the drydown, and the verbena also adds a touch of sharpness. Simply describing it as "spicy cherries" sounds too festive--it has some bark (literally) and bite.

[Emma2403]

In the bottle: cherry and something sharp close to cinnamon.

 

On my skin: more and more cherries with something like citrus behind.

 

After a couple of hours: it gets woody (maybe it's the cardamom, I have no idea). The cherry stays very strong though.

 

Verdict: I'm not a cherry-fan but when the cherry fades away (after something like two hours), it lets the most beautiful smell I've ever encountered. I can't really identify what it is, but it's heavenly. BOTTLE!

Edited October 24, 2006 by Emma2403

[Aredhel]

Rating (on skin): 2/5

Summarised in a few words/smilie: Liquorice?

 

In the imp: Patchouli, cardamom, and just a whif of black cherry.

 

On skin, wet: There's the cherry! Spiced cherry, patchouli and lemon. What an odd combination.

 

On skin, dry: Now, this is odd. Dry, it smells like... cherry cough syrup and black liquorice. Both, at the same time. It's an odd smell, and I'm surprised: I've never gotten the "cough syrup" result from the Lab's cherry note(s). I imagine it's the addition of the verbena, cardamom, and patchouli. As time goes on, the scent leans closer towards the 'liquorice' end of the spectrum, further from the 'cherry cough syrup' side. I'm not sure if that's a good or bad thing.

 

Conclusion/Notes: Definitely not for me. I'm not entirely surprised: verbena and patchouli rarely work in any blend for me, let alone together.

Edited October 16, 2006 by Aredhel

[tempestteapot]

In the bottle: it was a very strong and almost over powering scent. It's one to make you go 'phew'

 

Wet: I don't smell the cherrys, I get rubbing alchol on wood. Almost a varnish scent.

 

Dry: Even dry I don't smell the cherrys. I've just got an overpowering woodshop smell.

 

I don't think this is going to be something I'm going to buy again.

 

Edit: 24 hours later I notice that where I put this scent on my skin there's a slightly sore spot and the skin is lighter. Weird.

Edited October 19, 2006 by Tempest Teapot

[cranberry]

In the imp, this smells like cherries (or almonds), patchouli and spice.

 

On the skin, the is cherries (or almonds), spice and a touch of patchouli to darken and ground the scent. This is really a lovely scent and I never would have thought that I’d like it based on the notes alone, or even at first sniff in the imp. No, this is an oil that needs the skin to fully bloom and develop. As it wears, it becomes a fruity spice – with the spices dominating. This does have the cardamom scent from Alone, which I love, but Alone makes me turn red. I’m not getting that here, which is wonderful.

 

In short, I really like this scent and think it would smell amazing in a burner. Of course I don’t know how volatized Phantom Calliope would be on the lungs. Airborne cassis and cardamom are not something I want to try, but it sure would smell good. But for me, hmm, do I need to get myself a bottle of this?

 

Spice lovers, give this a try.

(edited for minor spelling infractions)

Edited October 20, 2006 by cranberry

[Galatea]

In the Imp: Sweet dark, slightly spicy cherries. Just the barest hint of earthy patchouli.

 

Wet: Whoa! Cherries drenched in cardamom! The spicey cardamom is really, really prominent.

The only thing keeping the cherries and cassis from being overwhelmingly sweet is the little background of patchouli. Such great balance!

 

Dry: Oh noes! The cardamom is making my skin react a little, red splotchy areas on the inside of my elbows (were I generally test all new perfumes). I really do like the spicy scent of this blend, but I guess I will have to go a bit easier with it next time unless I want to just push through this red itchiness. After about fourty-five minutes or so the redness is mostly gone.

In the dry phase the patchouli moves it up a notch and the cherry takes it down some. I never really get a sense of the verbena being around.

 

Throw: Really crazy big throw. All spice and cherries and then all spice and patchouli.

 

Overall: I do like this, excepting the redness created by the cardamom of course. It could be a bit overwhelming with the spice on some days though. The only thing that might make this blend better is to decrease the amount of cardamom by a bit.

 

Rating: ++

[PilotKitten]

Hrm... what an intriguing scent. The black cherry is very reminiscent of Kyoto and Neo-Tokyo. Perhaps it's just because of my scent associations with those two scents but this is giving over an almost anise-like vibe to it. God I hope not, I hate anise. It has to just be my imagination. < crosses fingers >

[zombiegrrl]

Yep, the first two scents listed are black cherry and patchouli. They really do mean that. When I first opened the imp that is pretty much *all* I smelled. And when I first put it on. Which made me go, "Uh oh." After a bit (like an hour) it settled down into a nice patchouli with.....something --- it could have been cardamom. I see from Answers.com that cassis is a type of currant. That explains the almost lethal mega-cherry at the beginning. Do I actually like it? I...don't...know.

[steffanina]

The Phantom Calliope-

 

In Bottle: Ooh, cherries. And cinnamon. Smells like a baking cherry crisp!

 

Wet: Cherries and cinnamon potpourri.

 

Dry: This stayed true until the end! A gentle cherry-cinnamon-hint-of-floral blend, and quite pleasant.

 

Overall: I like.

[Natch]

in the bottle: warm, spicy, cinammon cherry. Cinammon flavored honey sticks, exactly -straight out of my childhood

 

wet: deeper, more cinammon, less cherry.

 

dry: I didn't make it there because this blend irritated my skin. I put it in my hair instead and the wet scent stayed true.

 

overall impression: This scent would have ranked higher with me if it hadn't irritated my skin, but I still really liked it. It stayed pretty true all of the way through, only fading a little. It is delicious, warm, and spicey, and feels very apropriate for yule-tide to me, which is nice because of the absence of foody scents in the yule update this year. I will keep my imp, but probably not get more only because it irritated my skin

 

link tweak --Shollin

[supremegoddessofall]

My initial thoughts after putting it on were "I think I would love this if it weren't for the verbena. It's very spicy, but the citrus of the verbena creeps into it in a way that is making my nose wrinkle. Not getting the cherry at all." However, as it dried, it got more and more spicy and cherry, and it's growing on me a lot.

[everanything]

Bottle: MMMM cherry and cassis, which my nose wants to be like a reddish blackberry. A touch of spice from the patchouli.

 

Wet: Something a bit spicy comes out, I guess that's the cardamom? Good on top of the cassis, makes me think of a spiced berry drink somehow.

 

Dry: SCREAMING LEMON VERBENA DEATH. Truly, that is all I am getting anymore. The cherry wants to be there, but the verbena turns it into cough drops.

 

Two hours later: Powdered lemon drink, like Tang, only grosser. Sigh. It started off so beautifully, too.

 

 

:puts in on the swap shelf:

 

ADDED May 21:

 

In the imp, this was a happy smoky cinnamon cherry. Reminded me of a hot tea-ish drink I used to love.

 

Wet, the verbena completely destroyed that. I'm not sure exactly what the cardamom smells like, but it went into this lemony cherry medicine smell for quite some time.

 

Even an hour later, when it should've been dry, it stayed that way.

 

Even now, there's a nice lingering cinnamon, but it still has citrus. Sigh. This was my first try with anything verbena, and I think I can rule it out for my skin.

[edenssixthday]

The Phantom Calliope - When I first apply this, it smells like sweet bubble gum and spice with a bit of a sharp kick from the verbena. It's totally a carnival scent and it seems like such a perfect addition to the Carnaval Diabolique blends; however, within a few minutes, I noticed my arms were itching like mad, and when I looked down at them, my arms were red and swollen. Then I looked at my neck, where I'd applied the oil, and my neck had huge red welts on it, which soon started to burn like the dickens. I don't usually react this way to cassia (and I hadn't showered/exercised in 10 hours, so my skin wasn't warmed-up) so I was really surprised by the negative reaction my skin had to this blend. As the scent of the blend started to fade about 20-30 minutes later, that's when the redness, burning, and itching also disappeared. 30 minutes after that, the scent had dissipated completely. It's a lovely scent while it lasts, but it doesn't last long and the burning, agonizing pain it inflicts on my skin makes it just not worth it. Off to the swaps it goes!

[sophia_helix]

This was really delicious, thick cherry when it went on, not fake-fruit smelling but like sweet, syrupy maraschinos. Then the cardamom and cassis came up, rich and spicy with a backnote of patchouli, and I swooned with the yum.

 

Alas, that was followed by two bad things: a weird, rubbery smell like a balloon, and skin irritation. I'm pretty sure it's the caradmom, since Alone did the same thing to me (albeit in greater degree; my skin isn't flaming red this time).

 

I might try to power on through, though, because this is just the sort of sweet, spicy, resinous, rich-red scent that I love best. The rubbery scent only comes up when I stick my nose close to the skin, and hey, what's a little skin irritation in the pursuit of smelling good?

Edited November 5, 2006 by sophia_helix

[Aevalin]

Well I knew my run with the CD had to hit a snag eventually. My arch nemesis cherry. even worse for me it was black cherry.

 

I absolutely do not like the smell of cherry anything. If it's in there it is guaranteed that's it the only thing I will smell - even if it's combined with other notes I love. And this was the case. I opened Phantom Calliope and knew I wasn't going to be keeping it. I couldn't even manage to test it on my skin.

 

That said - if someone loves cherry, they're going to adore this, because it reminds me of a cherry that's totally ripe - almost too ripe if that makes sense. And it's real cherry smell too - not this candied up cherry or pie filling cherry - it's true black cherry. I hope the recipient of it in my swap loves it more than I did

[ChupaChup]

The Phantom Calliope also reminds me a little bit of Shub-Niggurath, a cherry version of it. I think it's the combination of the cherry and verbena notes with the sharpness of the cardamom and the sexy undernote of patchouli that does it, reminiscent of Shub's citrus/ginger/sexy basenotes. But somehow it all doesn't work too well in The Phantom Calliope, it ends up smelling a little dirty and is far too weak to make much of a statement after about 15 minutes.

[Naamah_Darling]

Cherry and gingery cardamom open this dark tune. Patchouli, too, like a steady, low drone.

 

And, my! On my skin it's boldly Cherry Coke for a minute, before the cardamom forces itself between the patchouli and cherry. This is still cola-like, all the moreso for the cassis (currant liqueur). It's sweet and potent, dark, effervescent, and very warm. Low notes on a hot breeze, indeed.

 

This gets more patchouli and cardamom as it ages, a spicy, lively combination that is nevertheless quite shadowy. The sweetness backs off a bit, and then I can really smell the depth in this scent. Nice. Not overwhelming, but nice.

[moon_lemming]

In the imp, I smell something that reminds me of new carpet, and black cherry candles. On my skin, the new carpet smell goes away quickly, and black cherry rushes up to the front. There's something unpleasant in the mix, though. It might be the patchouli? Or the cardamom. I'm not sure which.

 

As it dries, it picks up a suggestion of Red Hots that never quite goes away.

 

My skin plus Phantom Calliope equals strangeness. Seems fitting, but it's not something I'd wear.

[Ahania]

This turned ultra-cinnamon on me. My nose isn't great, but I have no trouble telling between cardamom (which I love) and cinnamon (which I don't), so this was odd. After it calmed down a little, it turned into cinnamon with lemon. Not a keeper for me.

[Ajila]

In the bottle - Sweet almond/cherry

 

Wet on me - Something dark and citrusy backed by that fluffy almond/cherry note

 

Dry on me - At first an odd chemical smell, then that mixed up scent of a Lush shop and finally a faint woodsy cherry with a hint of bubblegum

 

Overall - In the end this was a weaker version of The Red Queen and I think I'll stick to the GC blend.