Thirteen (13): April 2007

[Keslynn]

A base of cocoa absolute and white chocolate with thirteen baneful and beneficial bits: cardamom, fig meat, grains of paradise, rice flower, chamomile, sandalwood, catnip, clove, and a bundle of five blessed blossoms and herbs.

In the bottle, new 13 is chocolate and green herbs. Something smells a little bitter so I'm not sure how this combo is going to work on my skin.

On my skin, the scent is initially all chocolate and warm spices (cardamom/nutmeg). This is delicious gourmet candy. Then the scent morphs and becomes very herbal. At this stage, it goes a little bit soapy but then settles down. This reminds me of the herb canisters I used to have in my kitchen. It's a very soft green herbal, not violently so a la Wolfsbane.

Verdict: Has at least 2 distinct stages - spicy chocolate and herbal. I'm not normally an herbal scent kind of person, but I enjoy this. It's a very unique scent. Glad I have a bottle. Edited August 3, 2007 by Shollin

[fountaingrl]

I'm reviewing the recent 4/07 version, and wow is it different from the very chocolate-y goodness described by many. This one isn't chocolate orange, or even very chocolate at all. When I first put it on, I got really concerned. It is sharp and good, but also sort of stinky. I know this is a very weird way to put it, but the new 13 sort of stinks in a GOOD WAY. It is sharp and dangerous and smells like flowers and a bit of creamy chocolate and underneath it? Poison. Honestly, it smells like a very dangerous plant that draws you in with floral and sweetness but then if you get close you realize that maybe you don't even want to get the sap on you! At that point I was still wavering: do I like it? Is it too toxic-smelling? Do I really want to wear something that makes me feel a little nervous (btw, that is PERFECT for a fri 13th scent, Beth nailed it!).

 

Then it went drydown. And it did the oddest best thing ever. It started to smell like something was smouldering.

 

This smells like herbs and flowers and strange unguents smouldering in a hot iron cauldron on a fire.

 

I am so keeping this. I have a small concern that I had a headache yesterday & I am not sure if the scent contributed, but if it did I am going to see if I can't use it as a room scent. That is saying something because I don't use BPAL that way but this one is so strange, so unique, so aggressive but alluring that I have to have it. (I know this isn't a TAL/ritual oil, but it feels like you could charge it and use it if that is your thing, for real, this one has weird major energy.....anyone else feel that?)

[kitsunenotsuki]

Very Interesting.....

 

In Bottle: I definitely smell the cocoa absolute and the white chocolate. I also smell the cardamom and the catnip.

 

Wet: Well, now I smell the white chocolate heavily with a little fig and some catnip.

 

Dry: I still get the white chocolate, but now I get just a little bit of the cardamom with an under current of catnip.

 

This is a very ineresting scent. There are so many elements, but they blend together very nicely. I recomend this scent to every ecentric.

[DEMONDAHLIA]

I actually ordered 2 bottles of 13 .. one for myself and one for my son ..whos birthday is April 13 and is obsessed with BPAL's chocholate blends .. he has been through 3 (5ml) bottles of Bliss.. Thirteen has a beautiful dark coco top note .. and then blends into a choco/minty herbal .. divine !! People have been talking about their bottles separating .. I had one bottle arrive in a dark almost black bottle .. it was thick and partially seperated ... the second bottle was amber completely blended ..no separation at all .. boths scents smell identical .. so I was wondering if the mail transit may have upset the separated bottle???

[forspecial_plate]

My 13 is clear in the bottle. No layer of cocoa absolute that I can see.

 

13 is like a scent journey. Most of the throw is dry, spicy cocoa. It's when I sniff up close that other notes come out to play. This goes through a few different stages. It starts out, like I said, dry cocoa with spices. Up close I can smell the spices more strongly. After a few minutes, there is a sweet, almost watery tea-like note, which I would guess is the chamomile and/or rice flower combined with the sweetness of fig. Later, the spices, especially clove, are getting stronger. For a while it reminds me of Christmas spices. Also, I think the chamomile and catnip are getting stronger. This is probably the longest 'stage' of the scent. Much later, it's all herbs and flowers. At this point it's just a little.....stale, I guess. My skin just doesn't like the long drying stage of the scent.

 

I would call this a jovial or cheerful scent. In that long middle stage the spices threaten to become too strong. I will have to try this one or two more times to really decide if I want to keep a whole bottle. I do like it! It reminds me a little of Hungry Ghost Moon with a shot of cocoa.

 

Edit....after about a year, this scent has settled down a lot. I get very little chocolate or cocoa. It's mostly subdued herbs and some fruit or tea. In fact, no one note stands out....not even the clove. I still like this and will probably enjoy wearing it from time to time, if I don't end up swapping it.

Edited April 8, 2008 by Forspecial Plate

[glass_cat]

Hrm.... I can't believe I haven't reviewed this yet. I'd honestly been regretting my decision not to jump on the bandwagon and get the last 13 ever since, so I actually planned on getting this one regardless of what the components were. I did hope that it would keep that "chocolatey" base that the others seemed to have though, so I wasn't disappointed there.

 

Either way though, when I read the description, I had no idea whatsoever what to expect. There were so many notes, many of which seemed unusual for a perfume, so I couldn't get a clear olfactory picture in my head s far as my expectations were concerned. I knew it would smell delicious though. BPAL has rarely let me down when my hopes were high. Having tried it now, I can confirm that 13 is incredible... and probably the most unique perfume I've ever worn. It is very chocolatey, but that's hardly all it is. It's also fairly spicy and a touch herbal.... foodie yet also with a few notes in it that make it smell a little cologne-like as well... on me anyway. (For some reason I keep thinking it smells like something Willy Wonka would wear.) It changes somewhat during wear... the chocolate dominant at first, but later receding into the background to let the other notes shine a little. It's also more unisex than I would have thought! My boyfriend could just as easily wear this as I could, so I'm sure we'll be passing this bottle back and forth a lot, because he really liked it. Very intriguing! Easily a favorite.

Edited May 11, 2007 by glass_cat

[naeelah]

In the bottle and wet, this smells exactly like some chocolate rooibos that I have. It's heavenly! Unfortunately, it doesn't smell quite the same when it dries, but it's still nice. I just got my hopes up -- it's a tea I always made to enjoy the fragrance. It's a sweet cocoa with a light herbal tone.

 

On the drydown, the cocoa recedes to the background and the character is predominantly dry herbs. It's hard for me to pick any notes out, but if I gave it a color, it would be sage green. The cocoa becomes very dark on the drydown. It's not at all candy-like. It's pure, bitter chocolate. Once dry, the sweetness of the cocoa (I suppose this must be the white chocolate) returns a little, and the chocolate and herbal notes are better balanced.

 

It has pretty decent throw and pretty decent longevity. After about 4-5 hours it's still noticeable, but only under nose. I consider reapplying every 4 hours to be about average, so I'm satisfied with that aspect.

 

I wasn't sure what to expect from this, but I'm pleased with the results. I was hoping for a chocolatey fragrance that wouldn't be too sweet and candy-like (making it more versatile for me to wear), and that's what it is. It actually reminds me a lot of Carfax Abbey, only with cocoa instead of wood. It's dark, dry, and herbal. Perhaps not something I'll use the whole bottle of, but it's nice.

[LittleGreyKitten]

On me this is 90% bitter sharp herb, 10% dry cocoa. Not really enjoying the effect, unfortunately. I absolutely adore the '06 blend, and like the '05 a lot. But this is a total strikeout on me. Oh well; the monster bait goodness made up for the disappointment in this blend. I put some on my mom, and it morphed into a totally different scent on her after about a half hour; on her the bittersharp herbal thing backed way, way off and it became something pretty and interesting. On me, not so much. I can see this is going to be a very individual thing.

 

2 out of 5; I may give it to my mom. If it smelled on me like it does on her, I'd be all over it.

[bunnymcfoo]

In the Bottle: I can actually smell the chocolate in this before I even open the bottle. Very rich, very much a dark chocolate. I'm hoping that when I put it on I'll get some of the other notes, especially since I adore white chocolate. (Yes, I know, I'm odd.) Once I get the bottle open, I get a ton of herbal notes, which are merging with the chocolate in a kind of weird way.

 

 

Wet: Herbs and chocolate sliding around behind it, hovering over it, wrapping around it. Like cocoa almost, one that's been infused with herbs. I know, it sounds a little weird, but I'm loving this a whole lot. I'm getting a ton of cardamom (which my skin thinks is the best! thing! ever! and amps like there's no tomorrow) and there's those herbs, slightly bitter, cutting through the sweetness of the chocolate.

 

Dry: Grown up chocolate. I'm not actually sure how I feel about this one, but right now I'm leaning more towards loving it than anything else. My wrist smells like cardamom infused chocolate, and I keep wanting to lick it. >.<

[Lycanthrope]

In the vial - spicy, warm, gingery chocolate. Mmm.

 

On me... sadly... this turns into apple rinds and dry, dusty cocoa. There is an overall clovey spiciness and less 'depth' or 'cream' to this one than the prior incarnation of 13 I have...

[GoldenRubee]

I purchased two bottles of 13 just from reading the ingrediants-I knew it was sure to be delightful! When I first opened the bottle, it smelled more like white chocolate to me than milk or dark chocolate and I did smell the cocoa absolute in it. It was sharp at first but when the spices began to blend in with the chocolate and herbs, that's when it really began to make a statement. This is one that just keeps getting better the longer you wear it. I'm certainly glad I did purchase two when I had the chance.

[shadesong]

In bottle: Mostly cocoa, like Wulric, but then I get a mild, deep fruit beneath it - the fig meat.

 

On me: Cycles from pure cocoa through rice flower... I get a tiny bit of clove. This is a serious morpher. Ah, there's the cardamom! This gets spicy!

 

It continues to evolve throughout the day, but overall - delicious spicy chocolate.

[oedipa]

I was hoping this would be similar to the previous incarnation of 13 that I own (October 06) - that on me is an amazing blend of chocolate and vanilla (not like ice cream) that's just the right kind of foody. Alas, it was not to be!

 

I too had a top layer of coco, so I shook the bottle like a happy little bartender. From wet to drydown to 2 hours later this version of 13 was strongly, almost nauseatingly, herbal, with a sort of bitter chocolate undertone. The chocolate smell reminded me of what happens when you have a really old Hershey's bar, how it's all dry and crumbly and not very tasty at all.

 

Bummer! I'll have to toss this one on the swap pile.

[Little Bird]

It's weird how everyone seems to have a different amount of cocoa in their bottles. My bottle has little brown smears on the sides and then stuck to the bottom, like the cocoa ran down the sides and is now plastered to the bottom. Plus, my bottle isn't even full up to the shoulders. If I shake it up, a few solid looking bits of cocoa float up, but they don't seem to blend with the rest of the clear oil.

 

In the bottle this smells like heavily spiced cocoa. Cardamom and clove with a hint of hot chocolate. On my skin, the spices take over. This actually reminds me slightly of Treat #2. The spice is dry and perfumey on my skin, and something in this is rather sharp on me.

 

Sharp, perfumey, dry spice.

 

ETA: And my boy doesn't like this one either. He sniffed my wrist, made a face, and said, "Sharp. Wash it off." Which is fine, because it is giving me a bit of a headache anyhow. Sad. I loved the first two Thirteen blends.

Edited May 17, 2007 by Blood onmy hands

[DifferentDances]

Mine was another bottle that had a separated black mass at the bottom, and streaks on the side. It's very cloudy, but that's all right. Rolling it is fun.

 

Wet on the skin: dark chocolate with herbs.

 

Drydown: Spicy cloved chocolate.

 

Dry: Herby cloves with just a hint of sweetness.

 

This is what I imagine a dangerous, sexy man would wear on his collarbone for sniffies. Pity I don't have any hot, dangerous men to test this on!

[bulletslc]

I'm a 13 junkie, yes I AM!!!

 

I have a big bottle of white label (Brach's chocolate orange sticks with a floral chaser), one and one-half bottle (its a half bottle because I just HAD to enable a few folk!) of orange label 10/06(chocolate, floral fantasticness!!!), and now a bottle of purple label 4/07.

 

The new 13 is as different from the other 13s as they are from each other....and yet similiar in that it retains the base notes of chocolate and orange.

 

In the bottle and on wet this smells just like that tea/tang mix that my mother made when I was growing up!!! Very spicy (the cardamom and clove) and the orange......very , very yummy and nostalgic for me.

 

Drying down this gets sweeter and sweeter with the chocolate note coming out. Still spicy and herby....A hint of the catnip....if that is what that elusive minty note is.....my cats are unimpressed, but I'm in love with this scent!

And the fig comes out more and more on the dry down....yummy!

 

Oh, and as there is commentary on the consistency of oil....mine is clear with flecks of cocoa absolute in it.

 

This is most likely another fall/winter scent for me.....with the nostalgic factor of it smelling almost exactly like that tea!!!

Edited May 20, 2007 by Bulletslc

[Nisaba]

Woah, this scent is

 

I get cocoa on first whiff. Now I've tried Bliss and Velvet, and frankly while the chocolate scent in them is lovely and true, I don't want to smell like chocolate. I am not a foody scent person. I tried 13 the first time round, and that was too chocolate-foody for me. I haven't tried the second because it sounded as foody as the first. I was drawn in by the spices and catnip in this one though.

 

And wow, I'm so glad I was. This is just luscious. The cocoa is rich and deep. It was so compelling that I dabbed a bit from the cap on my left wrist while still at work - generally a no-no as I only wear the lightest of known perfumes to work, and I always save trying any new ones on my skin until I get home and can give them the time and attention they deserve. But with 13, I just couldn't wait.

 

So, yes, deep cocoa, Then the spices appear, and some smokiness, all anchored by that chocolate base.

 

Interesting to read about the different oil consistencies. Mine is pale, almost clear, quite thin, and no trace of dark chocolate at all. I can certainly smell it though!

 

My boyfriend's not such a big fan though; his eloquent reaction to my wrist was, "gacky!" to him though!

 

My only sadness is that it fades really quickly. Once I got home I practically bathed in the stuff, and two hours on it's vanished from my wrists completely, leaving only the barest trace of something herbal and maybe the occasional hint of cocoa. The stuff I put on my collarbone and cleavage isn't wafting up at me at all.

 

I bet this one will age beautifully however. I'm regretting not getting a second bottle.

[Mamacat]

I was positive that 13 would work on me. Just positive. The notes all sounded right.

 

In the bottle: Yes! I knew it would be perfect! Chocolate and clovey with just a hint of green! Nice!

 

On my skin: Within seconds of hitting my skin the clove amps up with some dusty floral joining in. Not so nice.

 

I'll never understand my skin chemistry. I wish it smelled on me the way it promises it will it the bottle.

 

 

I've already found it a good home.

[blu°]

Thirteen isn't as bad as I first thought upon sniffing the bottle. From sniffing the bottle mouth it just smelled a little harsh, almost acrid, VERY herbally with a strong dusky chocolate underneath all.

 

But once on skin, it behaved quite nicely.

At first it's all chocolate (and a little herbal). Next there's the fig meat, fruity and sweet and rich. Still with the herbal part in the background.

I then seem to smell a bit of clove, and later on a base of sandalwood... The rest is all more or less undecipherable to me.

 

The chocolate-iness stays until end of the wearlength. It changes during dry down, though, and together with the wood and something else seems almost like a kind of musk against end of wearlength.

 

I, too, can confirm, that there's something almost cologne-y way in the background. Some kind of aquatic, maybe from the five herbs and blossoms. Might be the minty catnip, too. I never smelled catnip on its own, so I can't be sure.

 

I also get the orange vibe so many reviewers have described. One of the blends that cover the may green - orange range of colour in my mind.

 

I had my friend sniff it last night, and she commented that it smelled nice, but might be more appropriate a scent during the colder months. She said it smelled kind of christmas-y to her.

 

I'll definitely wear this during summer, but I can see how it might be even nicer in the winter.

 

Wearing 13 I had the impression of it being a real "gambling" scent. I pictured the description for TAL's Lady Luck all the time... "a blend for risk takers, gamblers and scoundrels" if I remember correctly. It felt very unsteady, very change-able, like an extremely sensitive balance of luck vs. bad luck, that might swing to the one or to the other side just as easily.

 

I have a strong feeling that 13 is a blend that I'll only wear on days when I feel confident to be able to take a little risk and chaos.

Edited May 22, 2007 by blu°

[harmonyfb]

In the imp, it was kind of a complicated cocoa smell. When I first dabbed it on, the chocolate was at the top, and started to sour up (like with the Candy Butcher, oy)....but then, it just disappeared. The entire blend morphed into a very sharp, pungent herbal scent that I really Did. Not. Like.

 

It smelled so familiar...I'm sure I have the plant that's the top-note in my garden. However, it was not good as a personal scent. Really glad I gave it a miss this time.

[jade_starlight]

This is definitely not what I was expecting. The chocolate is a rather faint cocoa scent that sort of lingers in the background under something else that is more heavily herby and dry. Then it just sort of fades completely away. Sadly this just doesn't work on my skin.

[Miss Lynx]

Very interesting the variety of reactions this one is getting -- it's hard to believe we're all smelling the same oil! I think part of it may be the way that cocoa absolute is so thick and tends to glob up into little balls instead of mixing with other oils, so if the Lab mixed this one up in a big batch, I'm thinking people may have gotten wildly varying amounts of cocoa absolute in theirs. For the record, my bottle is totally clear, with no trace of the cocoa absolute , and smells not unlike the white chocolate/orange combo of the first 13.

 

But on, it really blossoms, and becomes wildly complex. It literally smells different with each sniff, even just within the first few minutes. On the whole, though, what I get from it is very different than the dark-and-dry a lot of people seem to be getting. On me, this is possibly the sweetest, and in particular, most heavily floral of the three 13s. I keep thinking, smelling it, that I should recognize some of the floral notes, since they seem to be the kind of flowers that are not completely evil on my skin, but they slip away before I can pin them down. And they often seem to be slightly mutated versions of themselves -- at one point I'm sure there's rose in it, but it's not like a regular rose scent; more like some Indian dessert flavored with rosewater. At another point, I think there's jasmine, but it's more like jasmine tea than jasmine perfume.

 

Elsewhere in it, I am sure there is orange, which according to the description there is not, and then about two minutes later I am equally sure that it's not orange, it's mango, or some other tropical fruit. That element in it reminds me of Kuang Shi. It's also got a sweet watery freshness to it that's very springlike, and puts me in mind a bit of Yerevan. And there's a soft underlying incensiness that keeps it from being too over-the-top sweet.

 

Overall, I do wish I'd gotten some of that cocoa absolute in mine, since I love that note so much in Boomslang, but it's lovely even without it. I haven't disliked a 13 yet, and this one definitely holds up to the standard the others set. I don't know yet how I'd rank the three in comparison to each other -- with the first two, it really seemed to depend on my mood, and I'm guessing it will this time too. But still... I'd call this a definite winner.

 

Grade: A

[QueenFae]

When I first sniffed this in the bottle, it smelled like straight up chocolate. On my skin, it actually gets very very spicy and warm. The clove and the chocolate combine to form almost a cinnamon choco effect. Very unique!! This is kind of neat, a cool twist on a chocolate blend.

 

This is quite different from the other 13 blends, but I think the original one is still my favorite. This version, though, is certainly the strongest and has the most throw. Nice!!

[spicyelenore]

mmm! This smells really good. It smells like cocoa and orange. Like those chocolate oranges people get at xmas? Or an orange Milano cookie. (Only not that sweet.) As it dries on me the cocoa and spices come more to the forefront and the orange recedes a bit. Dry, the cocoa fades and leaves a hint of spices and orange. I love it. A keeper.

[lushlovely]

First whiff from the bottle: Chocolate and.....campho-phenique?? Or maybe that's just hte herbs way of greeting me. I must admit I'm worried.

On my skin: A little better because I'm getting a bit more chocolate absolute and fruit

Drydown: Definitely better than the first whiff. It is really quite spicy and the chocolate is starting to turn a bit cat-pee on me, or maybe that's the 'catnip'. I'm definitely getting lots of clove and cardamom, but no fig meat for me.

 

Finally it balances down to a spicy chocolate, but at times I do get whiffs of old potpourri. I can't decide if I will keep my bottle or not because something in it is a bit too sour for me. Add me to the list of those who prefer the original 13.

Edited August 3, 2007 by Shollin