Torment

[Imptress]

<span style='color:blue'>From Sin & Salvation:

 

Visceral in the extreme. An aesthetic exercise in vice. The ominous scent of vetiver with a swirl of bay and gardenia.

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Wooooo... spicy!! Definitely has a STRONG bay kick, which I happen to like. It's so spicy I could swear I smell clove in there, even though it's not one of the listed notes. The vetiver adds depth to the bay (or maybe it's the other way around?). On initial wear I don't pick up the gardenia... maybe after dry-down.

 

Mr. Imp loves bay (just used up the last of his Burt's Bees Bay Rum Skin Balm) so I talked him into trying this... yum!! On him I can actually pick up the gardenia. It also has more of a woody note on him than on me. Chemistry is a funny thing!

 

eta: After several hours it's softer but still a very clean, herbal scent... too masculine for me to wear by itself, I think, though it might be alright layered with something else. Mr. Imp liked it but complained it made him itch Guess I'll try it in the oil warmer next... should be nice!

[byrdie]

This is the first Black Phoenix scent I've ever tried, a freebie included in with an order full of earthy scents. It is very, very complex. It's hard to know how to describe it, short of just starting at the beginning.

 

wet ~ I swear that I smelled cinnamon and a deep, exotic floral when I started.

 

drying ~ It dried to a warm spice with a very like musk scent, which mingled well with my own body heat and made it seem as though the scent itself was alive and caressing my nose. I find this both strange and worrisome, as I've never had this reaction to a scent before.

 

dry ~ I began to wonder if there was any resin in it. It smelled almost clean, and reminded me of some Aromatherapy of Rome candles I still have squirreled away. At this point, I was thinking that it'd be a good scent for a rainy day.

 

afterthoughts ~ After it'd snuggled down farther into my skin, though, I got less enthusiastic about it. It now smells very powdery, and somehow old -- not like the oil was off, but as if the scent on my skin had developed a considerable personality and worldview while I wasn't looking.

 

summary ~ I don't think I'll get this one again. My nose is confused.

Edited February 17, 2004 by byrdie

[jj_j]

For those of you who like dark, earthy smells, Torment might be a good one to try. The vetivert - which, when used in fragrances, can get very strong very fast - is remarkably moderate when given a few minutes to settle in.

 

Combined with a hint of sharpness from the bay, this is abyssmal - and I mean that in the sense of the troughs of the ocean. I have a feeling that if you could bring up a handful of mud from the depths of the abyss and bury your nose in it, it would have this other-worldly earthen scent to it, spiked with rumblings from the center of the earth.

 

While I'm not a big fan of heavy or earthen scents, this one would be one of the few I'd wear.

[Shollin]

First sniff: Torment is sharply, darkly, aggressively incensey, with a lighter aura around the edges that’s almost minty – it makes my nose cold in the same way mint does.

 

Wearing: Sharp, sweet, spicy, incensey, sigh. Not my thing.

[VelvetSky]

Beth gave me this as a freebie. I love her deep, resiny scents and Torment is in that category.

 

This is an extremely powerful blend, one of the strongest I've tested so far. The vetiver is uncompromising and strong. If you don't like vetiver, Torment will not work for you. The bay is actually quite subtle on my skin, and the gardenia lends a floral sweetness.

 

Visceral is an excellent definition for this fragrance. Very primal.

[velvet]

as soon as i put this on my nose turned up

i love resin scents but this is not one of them.

 

it still it very beautiful, it morphs from a sharp piercing tot a mellow depression

it is so strong and unsettling it must go up for swap

[closedacct]

Yum.

 

I think this would be great layered with Ace of Pentacles.

 

I think I will make my husband try this one!

 

Do I smell something...Brimstoney about this?

 

ETA: It has to be the vetiver. It makes it a little too masculine for me....maybe.

 

I try so hard to love every scent!!

Edited November 19, 2004 by ewalk

[surf-tormented]

When I first put Torment on, I thought I was going to have a Darknes hairspray flashback (see my review of Darkness) but it didn't stay very hairspray-ish for long. The bay has come out to play and it is wonderful. It reminds me a little of Snake Oil without the sweet stuff and vanilla. Very dark Snake Oil or a lighter Saturnalia.

 

I'd buy a bottle of it but it is discontinued.

[Splendid Molerat]

I have this imp courtesy Madame Nyx.

 

I got a powerful visual off this one -- Torment smells like Carolinian forest, mid-June. Little sunlight gets through the canopy, there are dead trees and moldering leaves, and all kinds of pale green shade plants. Beautiful, but...

 

The mosquito whine makes the whole ear vibrate, sweat trickles down the back, burrs stick to socks. It's the torment of the school's annual nature hike.

 

::shudder::

 

This will have its uses.

[LupaWulf]

Very STRONG and allmost punky...

 

I smell smoke and something green, not quite pine, but harder green. Mostly the smoke comes out. It seems sort of hot and thick. A very humid summer day.

 

The end of the day after a hot summer paintball tourney. Peeling off the gear in the woods, sweating, bugs and exhaustion. Then the overcomeing the exhaustion and realizing how hot guys look when they're tired and sweaty and have a goofy grin after winning a game. Oh yeah. Sexual undertones on this one.

 

Interesting scent. Not my fave, but interesting none the less.

[sarada]

There's vetiver, and then there's vetivert. Vetiver, to me, is very creamy and smooth, almost chocolatey, and one of my favorite smells. It's my understanding that in BPAL nomencalture, vetivert is slightly different. I've noticed that in fragrances that spell it that way, there is a very strong, bitter, almost animalistic note that I am not as fond of as I am of the smooth and radiant vetiver.

 

Torment is, wow, STRONG. Overwhelmingly so. It is very bitter and herbal, which I attribute to the bay. It makes me think of medicinal herbs...or of a cauldron brewing in a little hut. Sometimes scents that are thing strong dry down into the vetiver smell that I love (Malediction does that, for example), but this becomes more sharp and spiky and herbal and kind of wild and scary!

 

Not detecting any gardenia in this, just very strong, herbal bay and very deep, bitter, strong vetivert. I'm trying to try all of the discontinued fragrances that I can that I missed out on though so I'm glad I got to sample it! I can't see myself wearing it out though, I had to wash it off and put on something with a lot of grapefruit in it to neutralize it.

[k00kaburra]

In bottle: Whoa - quite spicy. The bay and vetiver are quite potent. No creamy gardenia do I yet find.

 

On me: This is a very deep scent. It speaks of age, of ancient buildings with creaking wood beams, deep dark earth in the depths of forest. Again, the gardenia hasn't made an appearance, but the bay and vetiver are quite strong.

[OriginalWacky]

Bottle (Imp): Mmm, dark, and a little spicy.

 

Just On: Dark, spicy, the tiniest hint of sweet.

 

An hour or two later: Spicy darkness.

 

Around 6 hours: Dark spiciness.

 

12 hours: It's gone away.

 

Overall: I can't tell what's in this, but I kinda like it.

 

After reading other reviews: I didn't get much gardenia apparently, but it was still nice.

[coulrophobe]

In the imp: Whoa, that's vetiver, all right. And I can smell the bay a little.

 

On: It's so strong, I only dabbed a little on my finger - and I'd assumed it would be awful on me, as vetiver is rarely my friend, but it's not bad at all. It's a very unusual smell - the dark, oily smell of vetiver grounds it, but the main note I'm smelling is the astringent-pepper smell of bay (nostalgic for me, as my parents have a bay tree in their front yard). The gardenia sweetens up the blend, but doesn't turn it overly flowery or cloying.

 

Ultimately, I don't think it's a blend that suits my personality, but it's an interesting scent and I can stop sniffing.

[grrrlennyl]

at first: vetiver. eww.

on: this smells like cola. and vetiver.

1.5 hours later: vetiver with a hint of something else.

2 hours later: all vetiver.

overall: not surprisingly, this scent doesn't work on me.

[Chouchen]

I got a tarted imp of this, and had no idea of the notes in it when I slapped it on my wrist.

 

I still have no idea of what's in here because all I can think of is tiger balm. Fresh on and for the first half hour or so this just smells like tiger balm to me. Herby, pungent and medicinal. It just reminds me of having a cold and my mother applying copious amounts of tiger balm to my head and torso at bedtime.

[edenssixthday]

Torment smells like sneakers stuffed with gardenias. Somehow the vetiver and bay combine to give me a really strong “cross trainer” scent and the gardenia doesn’t blend with it as much as stand next to it, balancing out the sneaker scent with it’s heady, heavy floral scent. Needless to say, this is not a fragrance I would want to wear – not even when I’m exercising. It’s thoroughly unpleasant, and not my cup of tea. It can be hard to find, so I’m glad I got to try it, but it will get passed along fairly quickly. The throw is light to moderate, and the staying power seems to be about 3-4 hours until it fades.

[Little Bird]

Vetiver/t is one of those notes that can be amazing on my skin or just amazingly awful. Torment is a strong, earthy vetiver that is rather dark and overwhelming on me for the first fifteen minutes. Then the spicy-herbal bay kicks in and I like this a little more. After an hour, this is still strongly earthy vetiver, but it's starting to go powdery on me.

 

I never smell any of the gardenia that is supposed to be in this one. It's dark, earthy, slightly herbal, and a tad spicy... with a drydown of strong baby powder. Torment is not a good scent for me.

[filigree_shadow]

The curse of the discontinueds-you-cannot-have still haunts me; I like Torment a lot.

 

My skin apparently adores vetiver and goes to great lengths to prove to me how wonderful vetiver is every time I wear it. Also I believe vetiver is one of those notes that improves with age. On my skin Torment smells earthy, dark, brooding, and ominous. As it dries down it begins to smell warmer and more inviting. And I can't smell any gardenia at all, which is good.

 

It's maybe a little too heavy for me to wear here in the middle of July when it's 90 degrees outside, but this would be awesome in October.

[supremegoddessofall]

Lots of bay and a touch of gardenia. The vetiver is souring it somehow. Very herbal. It's a nice scent, but I don't think it works for me as a perfume.

[alicia_stardust]

This came as a frimp of all things, and it was so much fun to test it out. It was gone before I ever made my first BPAL order.

 

Wet, I smell earth with a bite to it.

 

Dry, I get instant vetiver but there's a soft edge in there. I can't tell what it is at first, but after a short while I discover that there's a hint of heady gardenia in there. The bay is a nice twist to it.

 

Overall this seems to be somewhat sinister and surly, but at the same time there's a tiny sparkle of gardenia in there to lend a sweet spot.

[zankoku_zen]

I got a drop or two from a very generous forumite. They know they are! SENK YOU!

 

Erm... this is pretty much vetiver on me wet - smoky (no bacon though) and kinda dirty. As it dries its pretty much BAY leaf. Dirty bay leaf. You know, the bay leaf that you pick up from the damp, forest floor.

 

That's what it smells like.