The High Priest Not To Be Described

[steffanina]

Monastic incense, blood musk, black leather, cypress, pimento, white pepper, and Roman chamomile.

The High Priest Not to Be Described-

In Bottle: Wine and sweet grape and resin and pepper.

Wet: Pepper and honey. Very spicy and kinda yummy!

Dry: A little cloying, with the resinous scent, but not too much so! It lingers and stays spicy and resinous.

Overall: A rich scent, nice! Edited January 1, 2008 by Shollin

[zankoku_zen]

Incensey. This was hot incense, leather and a hint of pepper on me. Very masculine, but I don't think my guy would appreciate this one. There was something almost ominous about this scent.

 

I would think this is a perfect male Halloween scent.

[jwhxtna]

Got this as a frimp. Definitely NOT the type of smell I would go for at all. But I'm happy I got the chance to try out something new!

 

IN THE IMP: Very musky and warm, kinda peppery, and I definitely smell the incense. Kind of a dark smell, which I think comes from the black leather.

 

WET: A lot of incense, and very spicy.

 

DRY: Sweet and spicy, still kinda incensey. Still not my type of scent, but it's kind of nice. I liked it on my guy friend better. Smells kind of masculine to me.

[emshort]

Antiseptic in the bottle: it doesn't smell like something you would wear voluntarily, but like an antidote for festering wounds and unhealthy thinking. The color of the oil is a pale pink, pink for Peculiar.

 

Applied, wet, it goes all manly and cologne-ish. I don't particularly distinguish the chamomile, but I can smell the cypress and pepper and a little of the leather. I like this smell, but it is more masculine than I would ordinarily wear.

 

As it starts to dry, the peppery notes fade and it turns heavily musk and spice, like a male version of Scherezade. Since I find Scherezade incredibly nice, HPNTBD is also incredibly nice and just a little bit less indolent.

[CrazyPretzel]

Leather with soft musk and very slightly spicy herbal notes. At first the pepper was strong and I perceived it as an angry scent, but after about half an hour it's really not so spicy-hot and is in fact oddly comforting. Maybe it's the chamomile. Whatever; I'm surprised by how pleasant it is and will wear it when I need to feel warm and safe.

[slittlecrowrussell]

This has got to be my all-time favorite BPAL scent on a man.... and it works really well on me too! I just adore the incense in this one - sweet but not too sweet... very smoky and mysterious... reminiscent of somewhat dark religious ceremonies... and then there's the raw passion of blood musk and spices interwoven thoughout (I don't really get the cypress or chamomile scents)... with the edgy and controlled sensuality of black leather... in all I reckon its about as close as one can get to sex magick in a bottle.

 

It's not a morpher and the throw lasts on and on and on - the incense note in this one far outlasts incense heavy blends like Lurid Library (which I adored except that it lasted only about an hour on me).

[VioletChaos]

in the imp: musky, sweet, resinous yumminess. there's a slightly foodie after thought, something roasted perhaps. really, really good.

 

wet on skin: yummy spiciness, like cinnamon-roasted hazelnuts. something along those lines.

 

dry down: the cinnamon tones down a bit and a bay comes out on top, the raosted nutty smell *just* in the background.

 

in all: delicious! food-ish without being foodie, musky without being overwhelming. a fine catch- and sext as hell.

 

 

[Leopard403]

I am slowly discovering that the "perfume-y" scent I often get from BPAL blends arises from notes of incense.

I cannot even pick out the other notes here.

This is too strong of a blend for me, but after reading some other reviews here, I may pass it on to my boyfriend to see how it works for him.

[mazikeen]

Wet: Ooooh, nice. Cinnamony and a kitcheny type of spice, without being foody. It's warm, comforting, and enveloping. So far, I love it!

 

Drying: Uh-oh. It feels like it's irritating my skin a little. That can be forgiven-- it feels like it makes my skin red, but nope, it isn't actually red. Hopefully this itchiness will go away soon.

 

Later: Oh good, that didn't last long at all. The leather has emerged-- yum. It's also vaguely herbal? I think? The cinnamon is still there, but has really toned down.

 

This would be a good scent for a guy. No, scratch that, this smells like a yummy guy. This has a good throw-- I get a whiff of myself occasionally. I like that.

 

I love this scent. I'll enjoy the imp, and there may be a bottle in future.

[starwild]

I like quite a few of the notes here, so let's see.

 

Imp: Vaguely spicy but with cooling notes smoothing it out. Leather. Notes I don't recognize...guessing that may be the pimento and/or cypress.

 

Wet: Whoa, this is masculine, like men's cologne. The notes seem very well-blended, giving more of an overall impression than I expected from the imp.

 

Drying: Something dry, dark, warm and dirty. It keeps the spicy edge but isn't overpowered by it.

 

Hmm. I may give it a go, but I think this one has an edge of something that makes it too masculine for me. It's a wonderful, beautiful smell, but I might prefer to use it as a room scent. It'd be great slathered on a guy.

[aestien]

Bottle: the High Priest works at a head shop

Wet: it really does smell like an occult or head shop, a mix of herbs and incense, soap and candles, but not the powdery soap smell, its actually very clean. I’m so surprised there is no patchouli in this.

Dry: I think the clean note must be the chamomile, slightly sweet, I don’t get a lot of leather or musk, the incense is nicely balanced, not too overpowering.

 

This is a surprisingly nice and clean hippy scent. I think I’ll keep it around for those summer street festival days

[olive]

Though the notes listed for Laudanum share no similarities to this, they certainly smell very similar. THPNTBD is a bit spicier than Laudanum and a bit sweeter as well thanks to the incense.

[lmaunu]

My husband has been wearing a frimp of this I got from the lab in one of my recent orders, and all I can say is . . . yum! On his skin, the pepper tends to dominate, along with the herbal musk smells that others have described. The incense notes are there, but are subtle, and it feels like a clean, yet spicy scent. It's sexy and has great throw! I love it on him!

Edited February 27, 2008 by BookGirl

[tinyvulture]

when i first apply this it’s minty/medicinal and spicy, like cinnamon mouthwash. i’m surprised there’s no cinnamon listed in the description! i guess the white pepper and spicy pimento are what i’m smelling. the herbal chamomile is vaguely noticeable. soon it warms up and i'm inhaling all that lovely blood musk. it’s sweeter now, too – gorgeous incense resins. i’m still not smelling any leather, but there’s so much else going on that i don’t miss it. a mysterious blend, indescribable indeed – like a rare incense you’ve never tried before, yet you still recognize and feel comforted by the scent.

[voodoocatwoman]

In the imp: cinnamon and spice (mmmm...)

 

Wet: the cinnamon calms a bit and incense is coming to the foreground.

 

Dry: It's a delicious incense and musk.

 

I LOVE this scent, I just wish it was a bit stronger- it has faded way too quickly.

[septima_pica]

I swapped for this and then reread the notes and said "Blood musk? Uh-oh...!" Luckily, this turned out to not be one of the ones that hates me, I guess. The leather's the main thing going on here, along with the incense, and cypress plays the same role it does in Nemesis, that of a grounding, green woody sharpness. The musk is a faint powderiness in the background. For some reason I get the feeling that this would smell a lot better if I was sweating.

Definitely worth keeping a hold of this one. I may edit this later once I wear it on its own.

 

Edit: Well, I was sweating today AND wearing it on its own, and it makes the musk go WHOOSH for the first hour or so. This was disappointing. However, after that it got much nicer. Something almost citrusy hiding in there behind the leather; I suppose it might be partly the white pepper. Very nice, if not a total wow, but I'll probably hold onto the imp. Maybe even get another one after it's gone. Never going to wear this one enough to warrant buying a bottle of it, though.

Edited June 19, 2008 by septima_pica

[hkhm]

imp: leather and chamomile and pepper and musk. this is such a yes.

 

wet: this is peppery-sweet leather and musk on my skin. another of the rare leather scents i can wear, the incense is so nice in the background.

 

dry: much more incensey once dry, sweet peppery musk and very light leather. off to add this one to my to-buy general catalog bottle list.

[ImperatrixMundi]

A naughty scent

First I thought I smelled tobacco but then I read the noted and saw it is leather. My skin eats leather notes on a regular basis, the incense and pimento are the strongest notes on me but there is more depht and the camomille can be picked up in the foreground. Very smoothly blended though, all the rest of the notes dont stick out. Very warm and dry, colour: red-brown

 

Very nice, my boyfriend likes to wear it too and I really enjoy a spicy incense blend without cinnamon in it.

[Sushi-n-Sake]

In imp: Dark, smoldering spices

Wet: A rush of spice layered over dragon's blood, and a hint of cassia

Dry: Ritualistic incense grounded in musk and leather

 

Verdict: This kind of scent is right up my alley. I wish it were a bit stronger, but it might not have the somber, secretive vibe it has if it were. A winner!

[Lamia]

WOW! WOWIE WOWIE WOW is this yummy! Makes me think of an old leather chair in the library of a wealthy family, where generations of men have smoked spicy tobacco in their pipes. There's a background sweet note (the chamomile) that supports the leather, musk, and incense.

 

Ended up purchasing a 5ml of this one YUM!

[Diva Urd]

Loved the name, had to try it!

 

In the vial: a whole lotta pepper (five exclamation marks!) with musk underneath.

 

On me: Wet, the pepper really spikes and emits a very sharp, almost vicious stinging scent, barely grounded by the musk and maybe a hint of leather. This is what I was expecting from the High Priest!

 

On drydown, the chamomile shows up and softens the scent quite a bit, mingling with the musk. The sharpness of the pepper vanishes relatively quickly after complete drydown, the hint of leather sadly follows suit.

 

The scent lasts only about 2-3 hours tops on me... not bad, but also not superb. It does a bit better on cloth, though - might wear it on those instead of directly on skin to get a bit more mileage out of it!

 

Overall, this is nice, but right now, I am still on the fence of whether I want more of it - there are still so many other scents I want bigger bottles of...

[Epiphany]

This is a very dark and disturbed scent--The musk + leather + incense illicit the feeling of something deeply dark and unnatural, though all of them blend beautifully together. The cypress is present, though not at the forefront as pine-type woods frequently tend to be--And the inclusion of the chamomile...something that is usually so soothing for me, makes this blend even more unnerving. If I didn't find the combination of components somewhat upsetting (and were the musk not quite so prominent) I would probably really enjoy this.

[galahad]

In The Bottle

A coolish scent from the imp - cypress, leather

 

On Application

The pimento and pepper at the forefront makes for a spicey scent which catches at the back of the throat. Nice!

 

Dry Down

A brief stage of leather and musk amping up and then this starts to smell like quite strong cinnamon. This gets really dry and almost woody-spicey as it dries down, smelling more like a wooden chest that has been storing spice then the spices themselves. Love it

 

Rating (0-5)

4.5

[GingerGunlock]

In the imp and wet, this blend is almost pure "incense" to me. As it dries, I get a weird scent that might be the pimento (I really have no idea how pimento smells), and then in the actual drydown, it turns into a smooth, lovely musky, incensy leather, which I really really like. After that, though? Poof! The scent grows very faint, and I really have to get close to my skin to smell it at all. Better for those days when you want minimal throw, I suppose.

[taramarie]

On me, The High Priest Not To Be Described is just cinnamon (which I don't think is listed) and incense. It's an interesting combination, but not me. Someone else can have this.