The Knave of Hearts

[Ishtar]

<div class="bpal" style="background-color:transparent; border: 1px dotted #000033; color: #000099; padding: 5px; width: 90%; align:center;margin:0 auto 0 auto">Crushed roses and blackcurrant tarts.</div>

 

I was very much looking forward to trying this as I love rose and blackcurrent... alas, all I got from the Knave of Hearts was burnt caramel. Really, really burnt. As I have never been a fan of smoky scents, this will be heading straight to the Swap pile.

 

I have absolutely no idea how my skin managed to turned rose and blackcurrent into burnt sugar, but there you have it!

 

 

ETA:

 

We're now a couple years after my initial review, and I have just received another imp of The Knave of Hearts in my latest order. I decided to test it again (because I am fearless ) and oh miracle! I get roses! I get currants! I get... giant, monster tarts!

 

It's still way too sweet to be wearable - and that's saying a lot since I love sweet scents - but at least it's nowhere near as laughably bad as it was during my first attempt. I think I even get a glimpse of what it must be like on the lucky people for whom it works.

 

Still, off to the swap box it goes, and it will keep doing so until the tarts learn to behave!

Edited November 24, 2009 by Ishtar

[hackess]

I'm going to come back and add a proper review, but I have to say: this is almost exactly Crumpet Rebellion. Any of you who didn't get to try CR, try this. It's black juicy currants and buttery crusts. CR is slightly spicier, like it contains cinnamon, and KnoH has just the softest waft of roses, especially during drydown.

 

Huh, I'm halfway to a review anyway!

 

ETA: Okay, yesterday it was all currants and tastiness. Today it's all roses. WTF?

Edited June 28, 2007 by hackess

[The_Merf]

In the imp: Woah, foody-ness. I get the Lab's buttery/foody note here almost exclusively. There's maybe a slight hint of blackcurrant.

 

Wet: This is nowhere near as strong as Grog or Red Lantern (thank God), but it is definitely a buttery type of pastry. I'm still not getting even a hint of the berry.

 

Drydown and wear: I find this one of the most wearable foody scents (along with Eat Me), as the buttery crust does eventually balance out with the rose note, which does not emerge on my skin until I've had the perfume on for some time. Alas, in the second stage of the drydown, the buttery/caramel note starts to go stale on my skin, as it is wont to do. I'm going to have to swap this one.

[akabob]

This one has a weird evocative quality to it. For those of you lucky enough to live near the Apple Farm in San Luis Obispo, go stand in the gift shop lobby early in the morning when they're making pastry. Take in a deep breath. That smell, of spice, syrupy dark berry swirling with nutmeg and flour and the smell of the potpourri (crushed roses) in the gift shop is exactly what this perfume FEELS like to me. It is the weirdest sensation being transplanted right back to one of my favorite places.

 

As a smell itself, the scent is really warm and comforting but in no way sexy to me. It has all the makings of a warm evening under a blanket - the roses are warm, spicy roses...the black currant is a thick, spicy mass of syrupy goodness that floats on top of the roses like a floater, and the pastry of the tart is a nice top note that provides an initial weight to the oil that eventually fades and lets the rose and currant mingle with spice. It is a really nice cozy scent.

[TrinitySydney]

Argh...I'm so disappointed in this one I reeeeeeally wanted to love.

 

In the bottle I smell cloyingly sweet maple syrup, and apparently it's not just me, as when I opened it in the front seat of the car (I can't even wait to get home to open my BPAL boxes), my daughter who was in the backseat said "Mommy! I smell maple pancakes!". Heh.

 

Not good. I don't mind foody, but I don't want to smell THAT foody.

 

SO I put it on anyway and a few minutes later, the horrid maple smell is gone and there is a slightly detectable rose. However, I don't get to enjoy it because it is OVERWHELMED by BUTTER. The blackberry is as weak as the rose unfortunately. I smell like I've been slaving away making a pancake breakfast and the smell is all over me. I feel sticky and dirty and I think I need to take a shower.

 

My skin is a royal pain in the butt, because I know this scent could be just gorgeous if it weren't for the fact that I tend to amp up butter and syrup smells. Gah.

 

Rose and blackberry sound like a genius combination. Sadly, the butter pastry part ruins this for me. Not BPAL's fault of course....just bad chemistry between me and this particular oil.

[steffanina]

The Knave of Hearts-

 

In Bottle: Buttery pastry, a hint of cinnamon! Delicious!

 

Wet: Just a hint of rose on top of the pastry. It reminds me of rosewater jelly in pastry crust.

 

Dry: Rose has a tendency to go sour on me, but the buttery pastry scent of this tempers it, makes it undeniably interesting! I'm going to return to this one more than once, I'm sure!

 

Overall: I really like!

[eloiseattheplaza]

In bottle: This was the first BPAL I decided to try when my goodie-bag of imps arrived. For some reason, despite all the descriptions and reviews, it hit me like a cosh when I first sniffed: it really does smell like a blackcurrant tart! Not reminiscent of, or a perfumer’s interpretation of, but literally a blackcurrant tart in a bottle. Who knew?

 

Wet: Flour and spices predominate, as if I’m standing in the kitchen baking and getting whiffs of ingredients around as the first batch of tarts browns up in the oven. Five minutes later someone opens the window and the roses make an appearance. Seriously, this is delicious!

 

Dry: The roses have disappeared, and the pastry scent is somewhat more powdery (floury?). It’s not at all unpleasant, but the berry and rose notes are certainly diminished. I love the foodiness of it, though, and the spicy, festive, homelike aura.

 

I will keep and love the Knave of Hearts. Here’s hoping that the other Mad Tea Party oils are as beautiful.

[Meg]

In the bottle: Lemony butter note, and rose. Weird.

 

Wet on skin: sweet buttery crust with spice, and still rose and cooked berries - the way the get sticky and thick.

 

Drydown: Curry. Very very spicy notes, now, not cinnamon but perhaps very dry ginger or cardamom. This definitely smells like a curry-like spice, and it's overpowered everything. I barely smell anything through it. Rose does end up piercing through after a long while, but it's seriously muffled by the spice.

 

Overall: Seriously, whichever spice is in this blend, it amps like CRAZY on me, and becomes the Curry of Doom. Any fruit, any cake, any rose is completely wiped away and the only note I get is this spice. It's a pity, because when wet, it smelled rather yummy. Oh well.

[evilbee]

This started and continued way too foody with lots of butter and cookies. HOURS later it became ultra-faded black currant with some sweetness. I was hoping for black currant and rose, but alas I amped the "tarts" to the extreme. Definitely not for me, and swapped.

[olympia301]

Beautifully rose and butter pastry wring in this scent, with the whiff of black currents slightly hard in the background to give the creamy/buttery part something to play off. Mmmm. I smelled this at a local meet and sniff and I think I am going to need a bucket full of it. Knave of Hearts is a winner in my book.

Edited July 21, 2007 by olympia301

[joojifish]

In the imp: buttery pastry, berries, and roses. Surprise surprise.

 

On my skin: at first I could still detect the fruit pastry, but the rose became more prominent. Then I started to smell like an Indian restaurant! (Neptunienne's Curry of Doom, indeed.) Savory and spicy, but absolutely not a fragrance I want wafting around me. Even my boyfriend asked me when I got in the car, "Do you smell Indian food?"

[Ajila]

In the bottle – Sweet buttery caramel

 

Wet on me – Sharp berries backed with a hint of rose, which is itself backed by a pastry sort of smell

 

Dry on me – Warm and spiced with a slightly acidic sharpness. It’s like a spiced black current compote

 

Overall – I like it, but for some reason I can’t see myself wearing it, may be I’ll try it again in autumn/winter

[taramarie]

In the imp and wet on my skin, The Knave of Hearts smells like a pastry. As it dries, a rose starts to come through as well. Dry, the pastry scent is gone and tart fruit has joined the rose. Unfortunately for me, something in this irritates my skin a bit, but not really enough to make me wash it off. The scent is pleasant enough, but not really what I'm looking for.

[grifyn_whiffs]

I'm always on the lookout for the perfect fruity florals, and will swap/buy blends that have a fair representation of each almost without thinking about it.

 

In the imp, this is so sweet, too sweet. My first impression is: Rose candies. Little rose-shaped novelty candies, with maybe the tiniest bit of rose essential oil in them to make them fragrant as you eat them. Initially, it's a bit much. But, thankfully, the cloying sweetness fades and lets a bright, fresh whiff of blackcurrants emerge. Just beyond that, I can smell the flaky pastry and sugar of the tart note.

 

As it dries, the perfect blending is obvious so that I cannot singularly pick out the rose, or the blackcurrant… it’s flawless. I’m not getting that soapy edge that a big rose note can sometimes have (though, I don’t run into it often with BPAL) and I'm not getting an overbearingly foody note from the blackcurrant tarts. Just a perfect, sweet floral, with a fruity depth.

 

There’s not a lot of sillage on this one, and that’s making me sad -- I like sharing for a brief moment as I walk by! Also, it doesn’t stay put. I put it on 20 minutes ago, and now I get only the faintest whiff of it with my nose practically on my wrist. ::sighs:: Why does my skin eat so many scents? Stupid skin. It’s so lovely, and I really wanted it to stick around.

 

This doesn’t really mean I won’t buy a 5ml, of course. Just that putting it in my hair and slathering away will not help my 5ml last long.

[alliekat13]

Smells like pure butterscotch, or caramel. Wierd, buttery, overpoweringly sweet. Not really something I would like to smell like.

[zankoku_zen]

In the imp: Buttery

 

On Skin: Buttery and berry like. It's like a fruit tart.

 

On Drydown: Berries (not too sweet) and roses. Weird combo on my skin.

 

Verdict: This is an odd line of foody and floral. From a scent interpretation, this really captures the Knave of Hearts. It's just not something I love.

[alicia_stardust]

Knave of Hearts starts out all foody to me. It's like a crumbly pastry with layers of currants and deep red fruits. After a while, though, it becomes less foody. The rose warms up and then competes with the tartness and dessert-like quality. This is great for foody scent lovers and it's a stunning little interpretation of the Knave of Hearts from the story.

[mspixieears]

Immediately I get the blackcurrant then the rose comes in beautifully but it is first and foremost a foody, fruity fragrance. It is absolutely mouthwatering and reminds me a lot of rosewater. The rose really is like freshly crushed rose petals mixed with a cakey vanilla and tart, crisp, acidic blackcurrants. It’s very zesty – there may even be a touch of lemon? There also may be a hint of spice. Fifteen to twenty minutes later, my skin amps up the rose and it stops being as foody as it began. The foodiness is still in the background, however, when my wrists are closely sniffed. Aside from Black Rose this would have to be one of the nicest rose blends I’ve tried. It dries down to remind me of All Souls and to a lesser extent Jolasveinar. Might need a bottle, not sure yet!

[Victory]

As the Knave of Heart wears, it's almost exactly like eating a blackcurrant tart. In the vial, the butteriness is really strong, just like you might smell the buttery pastry of the tart first. On the skin it's all the pastry, flight, buttery, flaky, melt in your mouth and perfect, then as it begins to dry I can almost smell the blackcurrant. It's like when the sun is behind the clouds and you can see the rays bending around the cloud but not the sun itself- the currant hides just for a moment but you know it's there. Then as the mental fork slides a little deeper into the pastry, the blackcurrant bursts out and spills its juices and fragrance into the air. The currant and pastry are now swirling in the air. Underneath the tart are rose petals that release their scent when the fork hits them- today I can't smell the roses but I've smelled them before on previous wearings. This is an amazing olfactory rendition of eating a blackcurrant tart.

[grrrlennyl]

at first: a hint of roses, but then sweet, thick, buttery, currant-y tarts.

on: wow...sooooo foody. this is all tart crust and thick, jelly-coated fruit on me.

1 hour later: still foody. very sweet and heavy.

8 hours later: pastry crust.

overall: no roses to this for me. i'm not sure how i feel about this one; i don't think it's really "me".

[Lunaratu]

Ok this is very foody—so very foody it’s in fact making me hungry smelling it. It really does smell like baking tarts which is extremely yummy smelling but I don’t know if I need to make myself hungry 24/7 smelling this on me. However, this is certainly that scent to waft that enticing just baked smell if I ever decide to sell an apartment. yummy but not me.

Rating: 4/5

[LyndaM]

On me, this smelled of sweet, very buttery cake batter, then light and fruity roses. Not one that I will wear often, but perfect for a spring day, or when you just want something pretty and playful.

[Gwydion]

On first application: Very foody. It does smell rather like tart. The fruit is present, but not as strong. The rose adds a faint floral edge. Give it a few minutes and there will be CURRENTS! Luckily, it evens out in ten to fifteen minutes. If you are not big on roses, don't be intimidated. They only add a smooth sweet edge to the tart scent. It is making me sooo hungry. It lingers. Boy does it linger. I admit, i like kill devil better, but it's nice enough.

Supplemental review. My roomate smelled in on me and made a sound like "blaaaargh!" I'm guessing that's a no.

[ravenfeathers]

in the bottle caramel! bzuh? caramel? *looks at ingredients again* i don't give a crap what that says up there in the description, i smell caramel. it's not the usual butterscotchy BPAL caramel smell, but warmer and less sharp.

wet on skin there's a very, very, very slight floral here, but it's mostly caramel still.

dry on skin sweet, smooth, buttery caramel. i only ever get the teeniest, tiniest whiff of rose in this and it's quite a green rose. mostly it's crumbs and sugar.

[inurbanus]

In the imp, this is warm, sweet butter with a hint of rose. When I first applied it, it smelled like roses with a creamy background. It was completely delicious, and because of the awesomeness of the lab's rose blends, I've stopped fearing anything with that flower. Unfortunately, the cream went away and the blend become more muted and musty -- it kind of smelled like coffee, which I didn't really enjoy. It was a big shame, since this started out so nice.

 

3/5