Faiza, the Black Mamba (2006)

[devilot]

A sensual blend of twisting, exotic, serpentine oils: black amber, caraway, oakmoss, green sandalwood, bergamot, jasmine sambac, gardenia, orange pulp, vanilla, blackberry, black musk, white honey, ti leaf, and ginger.

Bottle: CITRUS! Hehe, I'm definitely smelling the bergamot and orange pulp.

Wet: The yummy citrus changes quickly into a sharp floral. A bit too much for me. Gardenia and jasmine. I'm starting to think I'm not the biggest fan of the lab's jasmine note on me. Oh wait, it's the ginger adding more sharpness. Ick.

Drydown: Pure floral. Powdery, nose-burning floral. Like another reviewer said, it's a lot like cleaning fluid-- at least on my skin it is. I'll probably try it on a less-warm day, but I'm thinking Faiza just won't play nice with my skin chemistry. Bummer since the notes sound awesome.

ETA: The next morning, I could actually smell the violet oh-so-subtly on my wrist! I've never had a BPAL oil last so long on my stupid skin, ever! I love that violet, but why does it take 10+ hours to come out on my skin? Edited April 22, 2009 by devilot

[chimera87]

Faiza broke my heart

 

I got a small decant of this, just enough to try out. In the imp it smelled so dark, green and damp. It smelled of fresh green leaves, a little cut grass, gardenia and light creamy florals, black amber and clusters of ripe blackberries and other fruit. I could have sniffed the imp all day.

 

Once it hit my skin it immediately started to go downhill. The fruit immediately recedes into the background and then completely out of sight. It just disappears. The greens start decreasing dramatically. The creamy florals trade places with an overly perfumy and floral ginger. I'm left with a LOT of ginger, some black amber and what I think is caraway, but not much of it and the slightest hint of something green.

 

This is gorgeous in the imp and I reckon it's gorgeous on a lot of other people...so I recommend trying this, especially if you can get hold of a decant. Sadly, this just didn't work for me. Maybe I'll try it as a room scent in my oil warmer or pass it on to someone else that might have better luck.

Edited May 1, 2009 by chimera87

[ImperatrixMundi]

Faiza is one of the scents I really like but simply fail to describe accurately. It is orange/green and sweet and pulpy but also slightly musky/spicy. See what I mean? FAIL.

But I love Faiza, it is one of the very few scents that have florals and fruity notes and sweet notes all jumbled together but actually work for me. Among the fifteen (!) listed notes are some that are usually troublesome for me or completely overwhelm other blends sometimes (like black amber, oakmoss, honey and blackberry) . But not here, Faiza makes them all behave nicely

This is such a nice change from the heavy musk and incense stuff I tend to gravitate to normally and I'd really love to snatch up a bottle of Faiza some day because I cant use my little decant if I am afraid I will run out.

[rayvn1]

My lord, this is good. I'm so happy I dipped into the Carnaval scents that I was a little leery of because some of them are my new favorites (*cough* Antonino). I was sure that with jasmine, oakmoss and honey that this would be wretched on my skin. But it works! I mostly get the caraway, amber, musk and something slightly peppery. This is very dark, writhing, and sexy. My imp will probably not be enough of this one

[FeatherQwill]

Wet: Warm and sharp and clove-y and a bit soapish

 

Drydown: Cloves and a hint of baby powder; as time passes becomes baby powder and a hint of cloves.

 

 

Overall: Nice clove smell, but I'm not too keen on baby powder. Not a bottle purchase for me.

[Aldercy]

I think I actually smell all of those notes if I concentrate on them (except no vanilla or caraway and the musk does not smell like black musk to me). Mostly, however, it's murky, slippery amber, tart orange juice, honey and ginger. But despite all those gold notes, Faiza is green. Like they've all been filtered through a dark haze of plant material.

 

Very nice. Possible bottle.

[voodoocatwoman]

This is a very powerful scent, not to be worn lightly. It is musk and sandalwood and amber, all rolled up into a bombshell fragrance. I can't see myself wearing this very often, but when I want to be THE woman in the room, Faiza will be the scent I reach for.

[arsenicsauce]

I got this as a frimp with an order- it's definitely not something I'd have chosen myself. Berries, citrus, musk and florals in one blend? My god, disaster. But I love it. This is definitely somewhat floral, but it's a smooth, spicy floral over resins that's so well blended I can't call out one note over the others. Sandalwood gives it some cleanliness, but for once does not take over and make it soapy. I agree that it does seem to have the whiff of clove to it, though since it's not a note I wonder where it comes from. Throw is medium, wear length is long. I'm getting a bottle of this ASAP.

 

Edit: My dad got a whiff of this and described it as a really "classic" perfume; I agree, it's very familiar somehow but without that smells-like-a-grandma sense to it, and I've been wearing it most often when I'm dressing up vintage.

Edited November 3, 2009 by arsenicsauce

[benthic]

Faiza is a blend I'm horrible at trying to describe, and it's one of the only blends I've ever tried where I can not pick out a single note and no one note dominates. I don't know if it's just because there are so many (although that wasn't an issue when I tried 13) or if it's just that well-blended, but my skin doesn't amp anything at all except for the whole package, and a fantastic package it is! It's green and resiny and floral and musky and woody all at once, yet it doesn't come off as jumbled or discordant. It just works very, very well. This scent is strong and has a lot of staying power. Applying it one night, I accidentally dripped a few extra drops onto my skin from the applicator I was using, and believe me . . . I could tell, and so could my family. I will never make the mistake of slathering this again. My skin eats up BPAL--very little lasts on me all night--but Faiza has staying power, and a little goes a long way! I'm glad for that, because my bottle should last me a good long time, and I know I'll be using a lot of it.

[kawaiiferreto]

 

When this is wet it smells like it's going to be overwhelming floral dooms, but dry this stuff is AMAZING. Slightly fruity, slightly spicy, slightly floral, slightly herbal, complex, and perfectly blended. It's a nice, well-balanced, floral-ish oriental. Even my iffy notes in this play well on me (jasmine, black musk, amber, and ginger.)

[DeltaCat]

Wet this smells of baby powder on my skin. As I check the label I'm trying to figure out what could cause this, but there are so many different scents in Faiza it is hard to pick out just one. On dry down the powder subsides and strong florals come out. I'm smelling mostly gardenia. On further dry down, 20 mins approx. the citrus is here! A slight orange-ness comes into my nose. The final sniff was a powder, gardenia, orange musk. Not bad....it is a possible bottle.

[Shollin]

First sniff: Tea and fruit and soft spices and yay.

 

Wearing: This is just beyond gorgeous. Tea, honey, fruit, fresh green happiness. So much love.

[Tess]

In the bottle - This is such a complicated scent. With each inhale I'm picking up more of the notes, blended together in a very wet fashion. The base is very much green sandalwood and oakmoss, but there is the lovely tea and vanilla and citrus notes floating through it. I'm completely intrigued.

 

Wet - Mmm, the spice notes come out.

 

Drying - Jasmine has made its sneaky way to the front, the jerk. It is drowning out quite a bit of the complexity of this as it is getting amped up. If I smell long and hard, I can get the wonderful play of the ginger, orange and vanilla, but it takes a hard inhale to get past the floral blast. So very annoyed with jasmine right now.

 

Dry (3 hours) - I keep thinking that I should like this, but then I get a whiff from my wrist and it's just.... very nice. It's feminine without being overpowering, a common theme during the drydown of oakmoss scents for me. The sandalwood is no longer green, but much drier and the vanilla honey is quite nice. I'm not getting any citrus, but it's very nice and musky now.

 

Overall - I actually find myself really liking this. It is far more complex than I'm used to liking, but once the jasmine gets to stomp around and hissy fit, it gets tired out and leaves me alone. I'm not sure how people call it masculine, since it is completely feminine on me without being being incredibly floral or sweet, which is quite nice.

[diBenjamin94108]

This is a complex scent. It reminds me of (not smells like, but reminds me of) 1000 by Jean Patou. Dry and sophisticated and chic. This is greener; a dark green.

 

It's got a surface of lime or something sharp like that on top, in the bottle. And maybe a woody scent underneath.

 

When put it on my skin, the sharp top note mellows and blends with the other elements and it becomes richer and more like a luxurious perfume, a perfume that is, maybe, an acquired taste. Not sweet or girly at all, maybe a little bit tough or worldly. (I do not smell gardenia or berry in it at all.)

 

I also do not get a sense of 'slithering' which I think sounds unpleasant. Faiza smells urban (rather than natural), sophisticated (in its complexity), and serious (rather than pretty). Not voluptuous, but dry yet rich.

 

As I sit here sniffing my wrist til I'm dizzy trying to describe it, it is morphing to a slightly sweeter smell but still far from sweet.

 

This is a going-out-at-night scent (and not the the corner pub to watch the game). It's for creating an aura of mystery.

[Gold Dust Kitten]

First sniff from the bottle, this smells like nothing. I dabbed some on my forearm. Still, nothing. I took a shower, then went back to re-test. When I opened the bottle I got a faint whiff of pretty gardenia, but it disappeared. I applied the oil again to both forearms, and a little on the crease of my elbow. I smelled something green and sweet, perhaps the oakmoss and green sandalwood. A few minutes later I smelled fresh orange, like when you peel an orange and get the spray on your skin. Minutes later I smell blackberry, then vanilla (this is when I'm reminded of Lady Una with the blackberry-vanilla-ti leaf combo), then a luscious amber and bergamot.

 

This oil is beautifully blended and I'm amazed at how each note emerges in a whisper. Unfortunately it doesn't have a huge throw, but it's absolutely gorgeous anyway.

 

ETA: I just tried this again after several months of aging and it's developed into a deep, shimmering green musk. It's so lovely! It has also developed a nicer throw than it did while it was fresh.

Edited December 4, 2010 by mxtine

[JasminDreams2010]

This is positively slinky. I feel mysterious and confident wearing this. It is a difficult scent to describe, very complex and to me, none of the notes stand out. I love Jasmine but to me this is not a jasmine blend. If you have ever tried Bvlgari's Jasmin Noir, this is actually somewhat similar, though to me neither are strongly Jasmine based. I was somewhat worried about the oakmoss at it tends to turn medicinal on me, but on my skin, it's a dark, slinky amber with some hints of fruit and very faint florals. I agree with other users that describe this as somewhat gender neutral or masculine. I tend to stay away from those, but this one works, I think it could be either masculine or feminine depending on the wearer. If scents have a color, this is definitely green. Good for sexy night wear, don't think I'd wear it to the office. Quite possibly my 3rd favorite BPAL ever.. second to Delight and the newly released Antheia though I wouldn't compare this to those at all, apples and oranges.

[JLH]

This was the very first bottle I ever ordered totally unsniffed. I was so afraid, but now that it's arrived, I am so glad I took the risk!

 

This scent is incredibly hard to describe. The many notes blend together to create a lovely green scent that isn't too fruity, too woody, or too floral. I'm actually have trouble picking out notes in this. This reminds me of a green sandalwood perfume made by Fresh that I once owned; it has the same tangy, woody greenness to it.

 

I think that I can pick out the amber, green sandalwood, and musk in the background. The fruits and the ginger seem pretty prominent to me. As it dries it gets a bit more soapy, but also softer and a bit spicy (maybe that's the carraway?). All in all, this is a lovely, complex scent that is both unusual and sophisticatedly sexy.

 

ETA: The more I wear this, the more I love it. It has a great, juicy cirus scent when wet, and as it dries it becomes almost smokey. UNF.

Edited June 20, 2011 by JLH

[invisible iris]

Having tested Faiza multiple times, I am feeling a bit dismayed. This is the most confusing BPAL I have tried to date.

 

In the vial, I get sharp green orange with a heady mix of florals in the background. Freshly applied, I still get sharp orange, there is a strong black amber presence, I detect caraway, honey sweetens things a bit, and I get a sandalwood that really does smell green. Deep green and mysterious.

 

Dry is when Faiza really messes with me. Sometimes, Faiza smells ingriguing, incredibly complex, dark and vegetal, and really sophisticated. All the notes swirl around in this deep vortex of indistinguishability. The complexity makes this probably too sophisticated for me to wear on a daily basis, but I still like it. Other times, the scent is beautiful, but either the black amber or black musk (I'm guessing?) overpowers my nose and gives me a headache. The worst was last night, though, when some note or other went funky and I smelled like dank BO. Yucko.

 

So I guess the verdict is, Faiza is too temperamental in the way she interacts with my sinuses and my skin chemistries. And she is so full of different notes that I have no clue what's causing the problem.. unless it's the complexity itself, just being overwhelming. It makes me sad, because when she's good, she's very good. Sorry Faiza, at this point our relationship is too inconsistent for me to spring for a bottle.

[lookingglass]

This is brilliant.

 

I always thought I'd like a green scent with oakmoss but I neh-ver really have. Green scents tend to smell like the bottom of my Grandma's purse, or a tincture of some kind- not mysterious, sexy, or a good fit for my skin. I never got that leathery feel people always talk about in green scents. I've wanted to. I think it's a wonderfully romantic notion, and leather as a note rarely works for me as I find it too tangy. I have often imagined Mina's green leather gloves in Bram Stoker's Dracula and want to smell like that. Wah! I want green leather!

 

Faiza, however, is my ticket. I guess I needed a little fruit, ti, and honey in with the mix. This is NOT, however, a frilly, girly, fruity, flowery blend by any means. I'm not like, "hey there, orange and blackberry! Whatcha been up to?!" like easily identifiable tarts. The white florals, too, are understated and are merely creamy and indolic, blending seamlessly with the honey and musk. OMG . The leathery note seems to come from the oakmoss and musk. It's smooth, melty, sleek and murkey green with an understated sweet smoothness. The topnotes give just enough lift to make the darker notes shimmer. The drydown is amazing and I can't describe it well enough...it reminds me of how Fae dries down in feel: the musk gets all... faceted...shining light and dark, sharp and creamy all at the same time...it's subtle but ungodly beautiful. She's quiet, slinky, complex, and sexy. I'll be getting a bottle when the Carnival gets back in town, for SURE.

Edited August 9, 2011 by lookingglass

[porcelina]

this is much greener than i was expecting! i think i thought faiza would be darker, more resinous, like snake charmer or something… but it's quite different. faiza is a dark, spicy green floral for people who normally don't like florals. the black musk, honey and amber keep it from going into CRAZY EXOTIC BOUQUET mode and the greenery here is dark and intense, more like a jungle than a rose garden. i wonder how this will age?

[OctoberGwen]

Oh my God!

 

A gorgeous, slinky, sensuous, grownup scent. Faiza is deep greenish-black perfection.

 

I can't even describe this, except to say that it is unique and shimmering-dark, interesting and mysterious.

 

In my cleavage the oakmoss is prominent; in the crook of my left arm I get a greenish caraway/musk; my right crook is vaguely floral and my wrists are vanilla musky.

 

I need a bottle of this when the Carnaval returns.

Edited August 1, 2013 by OctoberGwen

[brilliantcat]

In the bottle: Sandalwood, musk, possibly the ti leaf. It smells green and fresh.

 

Immediately after application: Green and musky. I can't really pick out specific notes.

 

Warming up: Herbally and musky with touches of the oakmoss.

 

Fading: Moss and musk.

 

Faded: Average throw, long wear.

 

Overall: Not for me. The moss ended up taking over and while I like it, I don't really like SN moss.

 

Rating: 2/5.

[milica]

In the bottle, this is very much green, fresh, kind of herbal, not something that I would consider wearing as a perfume.

 

But on the skin this turns into the kind of scent that draws attention, every time I wear it, it gets noticed and gets me compliments. It starts out as a more floral scent, but it quickly settles into a good mix of everything listed, and it becomes hard to single out any specific notes in this complex, mostly musky, kind of sweet na spicy, kind of floral and kind of not so obviously fruity fantastic perfume. So I guess Faiza plays very well with my skin.

 

And I really like wearing it when I'm all dressed up and going out. Dark and powerful, with a feminine side to it.

Edited November 2, 2012 by milica

[patina]

(Note: can't believe I haven't reviewed this yet. My bottle is from '09.)

 

Lots of jungle leaves and florals, dark, slinky, animalistic (must be the honey, jasmine and blackberry), sweet and juicy with a dry finish from the sandalwood.

Basically what everyone else said. On certain chemistries I could see this turning too sour. It almost does that with me, but even though I don't normally do well with citrus, the orange pulp behaves.

 

I consider this a summer scent.

[quantquill]

I got a 2009 bottle of Faiza in June 2024, gave it a wear test on Aug 8, 2024. Objectively, Faiza is a lovely scent.  My skin amps jasmine and gardenia, which I thought wouldn't be a problem with so many other notes. Unfortunately, it's a duo-note blend on me. 

 

Faiza has excellent longevity. Usually my dry skin gobbles up everything fast, but after an hour of heavy florals, I slathered on Sugar Me Sweet's Marshmallow Musk to tone it down. The delicate sugary musk tamed the florals, but I had hoped to experience the blackberry, vanilla, citrus, musk, honey, amber, bergamot, ti leaf, in addition to the Jasmine-Gardenia Show.