Pontarlier

[whitsunweddings]

The legendary birthplace of the Green Fairy. Swiss ferns, lilac, blackcurrant, Gallic rose and lavender with a dollop of sugar and absinthe.

In the imp: Absinthe, lavender, something green that I take to be the ferns.
Wet: Lavender and absinthe. Oddly reminiscent of mushrooms.
Dry: Licorice and cat pee. Not a fan!

[neuilly]

This is 98% fern on me - the whole time. That's not really a bad thing, and it's a very nice green scent, but for me it's more of an atmosphere scent then one I'd want to smell like personally. There is a softer note in the background which I'm pretty sure is the lilac. Ferns and softness.

[JazzieCazzie]

Almost finished up with the P segment of my alphabetical testing tour of all of my BPAL collection, this tester review brought to you via my own decant from a 5 ML bottle of Pontarlier purchased right around its release.

 

IN THE IMP: A deep fruity purple floral.

 

Dabbed on wrist and in crook of arm.

 

WET: This is like being in the shade of a tree covered with fragrant blossoms, somewhere on a hill, when the weather is warm but not hot. It's a fresh and sweet scent that has so many different notes to it. It reminds me the tiniest bit of my memory of first trying Glasgow, one of the very first BPAL scents I tried when I received an imp of it with my very first order ... (I would not have ordered something with blackberry and heather, and yet it worked for me the way this does). There is even a slightly aquatic note, something that usually does NOT play nicely on me but with Pontarlier they all work.

 

DRYDOWN: It remains a scent that is PERFECT for Wanderlust ... it is evocative of places I've been and places I've never been. It quiets down to a cool purple scent that makes me feel like I'm sitting by a mountain lake. It's a foreign meadow where I want to run barefoot.

 

OVERALL: I guess this review probably doesn't help anyone who is considering trying Pontarlier, LOL, which probably defeats the purpose of a review. But it is so BPAL in how it's just complex and complicated and makes you feel and see and imagine things, rather than just smell like something. Or maybe the Green Fairy is blowing my mind.

 

On a scale of 1-5, a 4.3 or so.

[Magycmyste]

Stash rec.

 

In the imp: Is it weird to describe this as a pleasant sour floral note? Because that's what I'm getting, and I like it. I think it's primarily the rose.

 

Wet on skin: Same as before.

 

Dried down: Ooh, this went to sharp rose place. I was really hoping to get more sugar out of this (and maybe a little of the absinthe), but I'm not getting that at all. There may be a bit of lilac in the background, but that's not softening this up enough for me.

 

Throw: Not a whole, whole lot, which is probably a good thing. I can smell it on my wrists, but I think I would hate being surrounded by a cloud of this scent.

 

Verdict: ** I like the description, but this scent really doesn't work for me. Which is a little surprising, because rose scents usually do pretty well on me, so far. As do sugar scents. Ah well, swap pile.

[MadameGorgon]

Shockingly pretty!!

 

This is a perfect springtime fragrance. Very soft and green in a damp, misty kind of way. Fresh and verdant and just a bit earthy.

 

Aside from the cool, powdery fern, the notes meld together into a harmonious and happy whole and I really can't pick one from another.

 

I do get the occasional whiff of a resinous lavender floating around in the air, but I can't pick it up when I smell my skin.

 

The scent does skew floral which makes it lean toward the feminine side of Unisex. It brings to mind a fresh faced Swede with blonde milkmaid braids and ruddy cheeks.

 

While this isn't my usual scent style, I could see reaching for this during the Winter and early Spring when I'm longing for those first few green buds.

[Veronica]

Interesting. I get mostly blackcurrant, which smells like berries and chocolate gone slightly off and dry, the the floral notes and something purely sweet. This is an almost gourmand floral on me. After a few minutes of drydown, the blackcurrant disappears and this is a clean, green floral. Very fresh smelling.

Edited March 10, 2015 by delighted

[andabri]

Starts off very much black currant, ferns, and absinthe. I can smell each and every one of those things. Sweet and deep with a bit of green. As it dries down the sweetness recedes. The lavender shows up and the rose peeks out. The ferns grow in number. This is very aptly name and described! Just... green and herbal and floral hillside English garden. Very quietly beautiful.

[gentle-twig]

This starts out very green and bitter. I think it is the ferns (which I am not familiar with) mixing with the black currant, which I blame for turning Bordello a little too bitter on me. However, once this dries down, the bitterness all but disappears and the greenness steps (slightly) aside to let the lilac shine aided oh so subtly by the rose. I find that rose doesn't work well on me as the main note in a blend but can be a great supporting player (see also: Spooky Action at a Distance) and that is certainly the case here. The greenness sticking around almost feels like I layered this scent with The Dormouse, to give a comparison. I'm not sure that I can detect the sugar or the absinthe at all. Lilac and rose both tend to be sweet florals and that is true in this blend, as well. However, this isn't really any sweeter than I would expect it to be and the ferns keep the sweetness from being overwhelming. Absinthe may be a part of the slight bitterness that remains in the background, but it definitely isn't identifiable (not that that would be a bad thing, for me). This isn't really my thing, but I'm glad the lab sent me the frimp and I'll definitely wear it when I need a dash of heady springtime air.

Edited May 5, 2015 by gentle-twig

[d0gbones]

In the imp: Sophisticated ladies' perfume, a sweet floral at the end.

Wet: Soapy Chanel No.5? It's nicer though, softer.

Dry: Wow, completely different. Lilac, first and foremost, backed by a blend of notes that I can't distinguish. It's not very "me", but I can see my mother loving it.

[LizziesLuck]

wet: minty absinthe and soft white florals. Pretty

 

Dry: nose to skin, this is slightly sharp floral with quite a bit of absinthe. The waft, however, is gorgeous lilac. This is really pretty and would be lovely for spring.

[freyasfae]

I think it might be the fern and the lilac that just isn't work for me in this. Usually, lilac goes soupy on me, but wiith other favorite notes of mine, it can usually be overlooked. I think the fern brings out the soupy, acquatic quality that doesn't work for me. Pretty and definitely feels fairy-ish, but not for me.

[Cali]

Interesting! Very green indeed, with the absinthe and fern on the foreground, but also getting big whafts of the lilac and lavender.

Clean, fresh with a bit of garden dirt. Bit of a weird sweet note in there when it's dry; no idea where to place that. It's nice, but not for me.

[joopjoop]

This is pretty! Starts off very green with the ferns and lavender strongest.

 

As it dries down it still smells very fresh, but becomes primarily a lilac and anise scent with just a touch of sugar.

 

I like it a lot, but it fades very fast. After a couple of hours I can hardly detect it.

[lizabelle]

This was pretty much number one on my to-try list for ages because I love the smell of absinthe. I'm not even sure why, but I could bathe in BPAL's version and after trying several other company's versions it just seems to be one of my things. In fact I was so excited about the absinthe note in here that I forgot it was a fougere, which almost always hates me--but somehow this one doesn't.

 

It's much softer than the notes would suggest, both in feeling and in throw. Softly minty with a touch of anise and sugar, as expected, with a green herbal quality (ferns, but quite a bit softer than I'm used to) throughout that pretty much takes over. The lavender and lilac aren't too obvious on my skin but they keep it from being too masculine or green. They're slightly soapy but not overwhelmingly so. The anise and sugar amp on me over time, as they usually do, and I'm left with a sweet green scent that's unlike anything I've smelled before. I actually really like this, considering how far outside of my usual it is.

 

It's a very perfumey blend, and a well-blended one. I have to really think to parse out the notes. There's definitely the feeling of an old village somewhere beautiful out in the countryside to this. I bet it would be lovely on a hot day.

[Lucchesa]

Pontarlier is absolutely lovely on me. It's green, green grass, green foliage, herbal lavender, a hint of one of my favorite florals, lilac, and a breath reminiscent of mint and lime that I think is the absinthe note. I'm not getting rose or blackcurrant, and the absinthe isn't taking it into dark Bohemian nightclub territory; it's more Maria spinning wildly in the glorious Alps singing "the hills are alive..." Sadly, my skin devours this within an hour.

[VetchVesper]

Starts off with a soft brush of powdery anise/ absinthe overlaying something green.  There's a nice depth to it, but it's a bit nose tickling.  Looking at the notes, I realize I'm smelling the lavender in this stage as part of the greenery.  It's dry and herbal.  After it's been on for a few minutes, the lilac begins to emerge, and Pontarlier stays a soft floral on me the rest of it's wear time.  

 

It's an interesting blend where the sum of it's parts create a unique fragrance.  I'd call it a lilac blend with a lavender bite, but I'm guessing, it changes a lot depending on your chemistry.  It's a bit powdery and perfumey, definitely falls into my "fancy floral" category, but I rather enjoy it on occasion.  

Edited January 28, 2019 by VetchVesper
"notes" not "nose" :D

[Brigdh]

In bottle: Astringent green, probably the ferns.

Wet: A handful of wet crushed herbs, bitter and grassy and fresh.

Dry: Rose, with the slightest background hint of sugared anise, over time softening into mostly lilac. It’s a dim, green floral that really gives the impression of a cool, shadowed forest dripping with mist, some place lost in the wilds of Scotland or Ireland. A really impressive sense of place. Medium wear time: 4 or 5 hours. 

[doomsday_disco]

In the decant: Ferns and florals.

 

On me: I'm getting the ferns, rose, lilac, and lavender. It starts off being pretty sharp, but it starts to smooth over after a few minutes, as the lilac overtakes the rose, and there's a bit of the sugar in the background. After a while I get lightly-sugared ferns, lilac, and lavender, with a touch of blackcurrant. The licorice-y absinthe is nowhere to be found on me, surprisingly. The sugar becomes even more noticeable after several hours of wear.

Verdict: This is a nice herbal, sugar-touched lilac scent. I thought that the absinthe would rule this out for me, but I think this is lovely. I'll be hanging on to my imp.  

 

ETA: I bought a BNNU bottle of this, but it is not aged like the scent I got from the imp.  While I appreciated the lack of absinthe from the imp I tried, it is very noticeable on me when I tested it from the bottle. I may end up destashing the bottle and keeping the imp if the anise takes too long to age out of the bottle.  

 

ETA #2: Retested both the imp and the bottle a year later. The absinthe has significantly calmed down in the bottle after a year of aging, but both are primarily fern and lilac scents once the rose calms down. I like it, but I don't love it, so I think I should force myself to part with the bottle and just keep the imp.

Edited June 6, 2021 by doomsday_disco

[roseus]

In the imp I get a very fresh green herbal scent with a bit of dry lavender. On my skin the rose comes out and steals the show. Very sweet pink rose. Soon the lilac comes in as well. Then the green herbalness comes back in to balance. A bit of anise from the absinthe. Fresh herbal floral with a slightly bitter green edge. 

[Llanval]

This starts as sweet, sugared yet fresh greens of the nondescript sort. I think I'm reading the absinthe and that's making this scent a bit more conventional than I usually prefer. A touch classically powdery but not so much that I want to scrub it off. This is green, vivid and sweet. The absinthe is subtle and doesn't lend this scent a blast of alcohol-like sharpness, more like its responsible for the airy quality of this scent. The currant is there dark and berry-like deep in the background.  I don't know if its the rose or the ferns that lend this its powdery quality, but I do enjoy the lushness of this greenery. Can't ping the lilac/lavender directly but they're in here, lending a heady floral quality through the dry down. A drop of bitterness, yes, but not obtrusive.

 

Not the close to nature green scent I go absolutely *feral* over, so not a bottle for me. But still a really lovely experience.

[alyelle]

An imp that's been apparently been hanging out in my aging cabinet since 2014. Highly possible that I bought it, though I have no memory of doing so - that happened with at least three other imps in the same year. If not, a fortunate lab gift; Pontarlier has been on my wishlist for years.

 

In the imp: Fern, rockrose, blackcurrant and absinthe. A very bitter scent that reminds me of some of the woods I ended up with during Chaos Theory VII.

 

Wet: Lilac, rose, and wet ferns, topped by the barest suggestion of blackcurrant.

Dry: This fades very quickly - lifespan is 4-6 hours tops with a mild throw at all times. It stays firmly in the mossy-fern olfactory range, with only a vague hint of lilac top notes to break it up.

 

Stars: ★★★