Troll

[sarada]

They call me Troll;
Gnawer of the Moon,
Giant of the Gale-blasts,
Curse of the rain-hall,
Companion of the Sibyl,
Nightroaming hag,
Swallower of the loaf of heaven.
What is a Troll but that?

A lurching, hateful, bitter scent. This is a gruesome blend of ghastly greens and blacks: vetiver, pine pitch, troll musk, black basil, clove smoke, and scorched cumin.

I've been looking forward to this one. I don't know why, but the thought of a perfume called Troll is the most delightful thing on earth to me. It makes me think of the trolls that turned to stone in the sunlight in "The Hobbit," and how they sit there moss-covered and craggy for all time.

This is truly the scent of black and green. In the Pine Barrens recently, I walked among the trees that had been blackened by fire, yet still grew fresh needles from the cracked bark, and fresh greenery sprang up from the ashes and coal-black wood on the forest floor. This perfectly captures that scent: the new growth of damp green among the brittle and dry burnt wood, and above all the scent of rich earth and fragrant deep pine sap.

There is also a faint hint of spiced smoke -- the scent of cumin seeds roasting in a pan, a whiff of warmth as a single clove is dropped into the mix -- permeates as this dries. If I was walking in the woods (which I might do, in just a bit...) I have a feeling that the early autumn air would lift these scents and enhance them. A deep herbal smokiness throbs just under the crush of pine and earth. Somewhere in the deep dark forest, the trolls are throwing some delicious herbs (and goodness knows what else) into a bubbling pot.

Fans of the Jersey Devil should love this -- it has a similar feel in some respects but without the crunch of berries. It's darker, but still recalls the pines to me. For those worried about musk, I really don't get too much of it from this -- it must be holding the other elements together and adding to the throw and staying power, but it is not an overwhelming element.

A gorgeous, natural dark woods blend of smoke, herbs, pine and earth. I know there are other people like me out there who live for his stuff. Go buy it now! Edited September 16, 2007 by Shollin

[Jilara]

Very definitely troll-ish! There seems to be a bit of the bridge they hide under, as well.

 

Wet, this is almost dusty. Dust and stone and a bite of evergreens. A dank shadow under the footings of a bridge running through the dark woods.

 

Drying down, a bitter backnote comes up. Something scorched. Must be the scorched cumin. I think that the black basil is starting to come up behind the evergreens. It's not a place I'd want to hang around. It's a troll den. Not a good place to be.

 

Dry, it's a little sweeter, though that's not really the quality I'd apply to Troll. Less bitter and scorched, with a hint of musk? Maybe. Bitter musk, black basil and evergreen in your face in front, dust and stone in back. I don't get the clove smoke at all. I was expecting something like clove cigarettes, but I don't get either clove or smoke, unless the smoke is that scorched quality that speaks more to carbonized wood than smokey air, in my experience.

 

Evocative, but I'm not sure I'd wear this. It's aggressive, and not in a comfortable way. But then, it's a troll!

[eleventhousand]

Incredibly stank, but in a truly fascinating way.

I get bitter baking chocolate and curry at first.

Like a Naga bar from Vosages only bitter.

Then it gets all mossy and ferny and foresty.

 

This is a scent of a very bad man that you would like to do very, VERY bad things to you.

 

[slave1]

TROLL

 

In Bottle: Dark spice

 

On Skin: Eek! This is very dark and very spicy. Wow. It’s like a more earthy version of Three Witches and without the sweetness. I can tell right off this does not work on me. It is so thick with vetiver, cloves and smoke… all notes that hate me. The pine is sharp and sour, the vetiver and musk are feral and spooky, and the spices are hot and bitter. The description fits this scent to a T and is very much black and dark green in tone. So scary… and so not friendly. I may have to wash this off sadly. Super strong throw and I’m assuming a long wearlength but not sure since I’m washing it off.

[fizzgig]

Troll smelled very earthy to me. After drydown, the dominate scent was clove and then smoke. I had no evergreen note which is a shame because I love them.

 

This scent reminds me of Society for Creative Anachronism (SCA) events. You are out in the woods, there is crisp air, a fire is burning and someone throws in some cloves.

[edenssixthday]

Troll – This is predominantly a vetiver and cumin scent on me. I can’t tell you how much I love both of those notes…and apparently, they love me because they smell sooo good on me! This is a strong, bold, dark blend – not something I’d wear to work, but definitely something I’d wear to a club night. The clove is not far behind the vetiver and cumin, and it adds some great kick to the scent. I really like this. I wasn’t sure what to expect with the “troll musk” and pine pitch notes, but it’s really, really dark and sexy! The staying power and throw are both well above average.

[filigree_shadow]

The Lab says it's "A lurching, hateful, bitter scent." But it's not that bad.

 

Vetiver and pine pitch is a great combination, imho. I don't usually like pine pitch all that much, but I like it in this. The spices add to the scent very nicely, and they save it from being a dank musty scent. The pine scent is actually stronger than the vetiver, which is weird for me because usually vetiver is pretty damn strong.

 

I'm not sure I could get away with wearing this as perfume, but I do like it. It would be great as a room scent. I might test it out on the hubby, too.

[euterpe414]

Out of all the new GC's that have been released lately, this one caught my eye the most. I love all of the notes in it, and was extremely excited to try it. On my it's a mixture of all the notes sort of swirling around- I can detect the vetiver, the clove smoke, then the basil, then the cumin, but they never stay put. I love being able to smell all of these different things each time I sniff my wrist. It's very well blended, and has a smoky, foresty feel overall, with a hint of spice. I do agree with sarada that people who like Jersey Devil will like this- I also detected an immediate similarity. Also, people afraid of vetiver should not be in this blend, because it isn't overly prominent or dominating. This is a fantastic blend, and I am so glad I bought a bottle of it!

[Little Bird]

In the imp vial this smells like smoky vetiver and something ashy with a bit of a sharp, menthol laden pine. On me, the combination of notes seems so sharp and smoky that they make my eyes water a bit at first. This has the same pine smell to me as Jersey Devil, but it smells like the forest is on fire. Rather than having Jersey Devil's sweet, almost juicy smoothness, this is smoky and sharp. This does get a bit sweeter on me in the drydown with the clove and cumin, but the sweet spice ends up reminding me of beef jerky, oddly.

 

On me, Troll is like a pine forest in the midst of burning down. It's a smoky, sharp, rather fascinating pine blend. I sniff this and can practically see limbs of pine trees sticky with sap and smoldering flames. This is one of those scents that I appreciate and am glad to have tried, but I could never actually pull off wearing it. Still, I like it.

[maribouquet]

In the imp I smell vetiver and something mossy. Wet, the vetiver is surprisingly soft and kind to me, and the pine pitch is sharply refreshing and plays above everything else. Clove smoke! This reminds me of Death of Autumn (which I didn't like), but I like this. It's so different from what I usually go for. Vetiver? Me?

 

And basil! I've been wanting a basil scent for ages but I was sure this wouldn't work on me because of the vetiver. Oh, I'm thrilled!

 

I'm a girly girl...I wonder if I can get away with wearing this...I will try!

 

ETA: omg, there is the cumin! I love this.

 

ETA2: (3 hrs. later) Hmm, I may have spoken too soon. The dry down is suspiciously pot-like. Must re-test!

Edited November 6, 2007 by maribouquet

[TrailerTrashPrincess]

impsniff: smells familiar, like another BPAL i've tried before, but can't precisely place. at first. then something makes my sinuses both burn-like-fire and clear out.

foresty, musty, green and bitter -- ah! and a bit like Greed, that's what smells familiar.

 

on skin: smells like the woods during a bad storm where a tree has been struck by lightning and is both wet and smoldering.

 

and whoa, baby! the throw on this sucker!

but i wouldn't call it hateful. bitter, maybe. lurching, i can see that.

this isn't something i can see myself ever wearing again, but on the right person i can see it being very interesting, intriguing -- possibly a "signature scent"

is Caltha still around? i think she might like this!

 

i never got any clove, and i'm not sure if there was basil or cumin... the vetiver kindof swallowed a lot of the notes.

end verdict = not for me!

[forspecial_plate]

This wears a bit harsh on me, but I guess that's the idea. It's a bitter, hateful scent after all! I was very attracted to the notes but I'm afraid the clove is just a bit strong. Clove does that to me sometimes (but not every time). Overall this reminds me a bit of Djinn, oddly enough. However, if Djinn is like fire, Troll is like fire that's been doused with rain.

 

Oh and one thing I learned from the Smiling Spider....if the clove is too strong, wait a couple months and try again. I ended up liking that one a lot more after some aging. Hopefully that will happen with Troll, too.

[UploadedLobster]

Oooh, it's smoky!

 

It doesn't change much. On me it's very vetiver-heavy, with that great sharp, spicy, faintly salty woodiness of freshly-crushed cumin seeds. The black musk is there in the background, and the pine pitch is clearly not the sharp pine that goes cleaner-ish on me in other blends: there's something behind the cumin that could possibly be described as creosote-y, and that's probably it. I don't smell the clove or basil in here at all, but I don't miss them a bit.

 

Very occasionally, I get a whiff of something that smells like charred meat! AWESOME! This is so, so trollish and badass. And yet very unisex, which thrills me. Troll women rock right the hell out too, and that's what this scent makes me want to do: rock right the hell out like a troll woman.

 

...I need a board with a nail in it. Now.

 

Lobster Rating

Better than: a board without a nail in it

[mazikeen]

I must say that I love the review above. Don't be scared off by the "meat" comment in it. As a lifelong vegetarian, I didn't feel like I'd just smeared a slab of meat all over me or anything.

 

 

 

Troll is cold and dark, but with an earthy spiciness. It has an airy pine-iness to it, like being outdoor around pine trees on a bitterly cold day, when the wind is like a blast of ice on your skin. Dead leaves and dirty ground. Smoky spices coming from someone's chimney. Not comforting food spices though-- more like Hansel and Gretyl have just pushed the witch into the oven. And then a troll pops out from under a bridge, demanding you answer his riddle before he'll let you pass.

 

It has a very nice throw and lasts quite a while. It tries to lurk, but is unsuccessful-- it's just too big to hide. It doesn't change much over the course of wearing it, which is really nice. Apparently, with a troll, what you see (or in this case, initially smell) is what you get.

 

I can't believe that there are so few reviews for Troll, because it is FANTASTIC. I will be buying a bottle of this at my earliest opportunity. I want to slather this on by the bucketful. This is such an unusual scent, and frankly, it is exactly the sort of odd-but-compelling scent that I come to BPAL to find. Troll is a new all-time favorite for me. I cannot recommend it enough.

Edited January 21, 2008 by mazikeen

[VioletChaos]

in the imp: cypress, very heavy, and a bit of bay behind that. hmmm

 

wet on skin: more of the same. it's reminding me of christmas-themed scratch n sniff books from childhood.

 

dry down: it's settled down and become a christmas potpourri scent.

 

in all: i could see this being great in a diffuser to scent a room. on my body, however, not so much.

[Josh]

This was recommended to me by Forspecial Plate and it does not disappoint. Troll is absolutely fantastic and shares similarities to Djinn but replaces the acrid harshness with an earthy spice (which I'm guessing is the cumin and black basil.) The clove almost has a nutty element to it and gives the scent a very "full bodied" feeling. I really love Troll.

[Miss Lynx]

Wasn't at all sure I'd like this one, but it does have some notes I enjoy, so I thought it was worth a try. And really, it's not too bad -- nowhere near as heavy or bitter as the description makes it sound. When freshly applied, it smells a bit medicinal, but once it settles in for a few minutes it mellows out considerably.

 

It's an earthy, foresty and slightly spicy scent. The pine, coupled with cloves, actually gives it an almost... dare I say Christmas-y feel? And there's a sweetness and softness to it that help to tone down some of the earthier notes. I suspect that's the musk -- if "troll musk" means dark musk, as I suspect, that would explain it, because that particular note tends to really sweeten up on my skin, thus giving some men's scents a definite gender change.

 

It eventually fades down into a soft, spicy musk, a bit like a lighter version of Umbra, and lasts a reasonably long time. All in all, not bad, though I don't much like the very earliest stage. Probably not a keeper, since I have lots of spicy musks, but still a pleasant surprise.

 

Grade: B

[beachbabealways]

Got an Imp of this today in a swap. Troll is a brother to The Music of Erich Zahn. They both have this pencil shavings thing going on (yuck). It must be the cumin. Wet: It smells of pine but about 10 min after application this smells just like MoEZ.

Not my cuppa tea.

[seamor]

Based on the description, I wasn't even going to try this, but had the imp and decided I should.

 

Guess what? I like it!

 

Wet: It's right on the verge of stinging my skin and eyes, but smells to me so much like a really intense red musk that I just can't resist it. I think I may have a red musk addiction (certainly not suffering from it, though).

 

Dry: There's the occasional whiff of questionable, sort of boggy, musk, but mostly clove and a bit of pine behind it. This is really quite nice. Perhaps I have a troll or two somewhere back in the family tree and am predisposed to "...lurching, hateful, bitter ... ghastly greens and blacks" sorts of scents. Or maybe I'm just olfactorily warped.

 

There is a stage where I smell nothing but scorched cloves, and I find it quite wonderful, even though it makes me sneeze and my eyes are watering a bit. Then Troll settles down to something delicately sweet, with a just hint of clove in the background. What could that be? There's certainly nothing in the notes to make me expect sweetness. Makes me wonder if I somehow got a little Vampire Tears underneath my Troll ... but no, it changes again. Now I find the pine pitch, and a whisper of vetiver. The sweetness is fading. And still I like it. (Just adore vetiver.) Eventually I have a sweetened pine note with a touch of vetiver cycling with that sweet scent (cookies baking? flowers?) and pine in the background.

 

I really, really like this last stage. I would certainly wear this. I'm just not sure I can go through the first stages very often. Too hard on the eyes and nose. Even though I genuinely liked them, too.

 

So, my story for this one is: A troll (a young, probably handsome - but who can tell, exactly, with trolls? - and intensely spicy troll) happened to wander out of the forest one night. Intrigued by the scent of my house, he began to investigate. As an unforeseen side effect of his being so very, very hot and spicy, he accidentally set fire to the house. Everything burned, including several barrels of cloves I had stored inside (which may have been what attracted him in the first place). However, roused by my sneezing from the clove smoke, I was able to escape the conflagration. Once outside, I literally bumped into the young troll, who turned out to be quite friendly, took an immediate liking to me, offered me a cookie, and showed me the way through the nighttime pine forest to Troll Mom's house, where we all now live happily together. Troll Mom bakes. She uses flower flour.

 

Edited March 13, 2008 by celtimor

[vultureguy]

I was frimped this in our recent order and I want to say a big Thank You to the person who did it!

 

I find this to be an amazing blend. It is a nice balance between the clovey-spiceyness, the piney everygreen resins and the vague hint of either myrrh or frankincense. It is sharp wet, sharp like diamond-encrusted troll teeth. As it dries down it smells more like the fresh sapling (s)he's plucked from the ground to pick (her)his teeth with and slides into incensy goodness.

 

It reminds me of Black Forest with a smidge of Lunar Eclipse, but more 'feral' than Black Forest, more spicey and incensy. I'm really curious to see how it ages.

 

I had been thinking of putting a bottle of Black Forest on our next order. I think I'll put Troll on instead.

[Honeygirl]

Bottle: Ugh, vetiver

 

Wet: I could only try a little dab, because it's so strong and so not my type of scent! Very spicy, very masculine and untouchable. It is a bit meaty, but I only get that impression when I thought about it.

 

Drydown: This blend could be sexy on a certain type of person, but not me!

2.5 outta 5

[Brianne]

I was really excited about a troll blend when this came out, but decided to wait on it because of the pine, which tends to not work out for me. My hubby and I love troll stuff (couldn't really tell you why!) and the idea of this really dark, black and green scent sounded great for the idea.

 

When I first put this on, it is like a punch right into my nostrils lol. Very strong, potent, and definitely dark. I get the pine right away, but it's not so.... fresh I suppose, like the pine you get in some of the holiday scents. There is a dark spice behind it, and it ALMOST smells gingery, but I guess that must be the cumin? Vetiver is pretty prominent here too - this is one dark blend!

 

I like the whole vibe overall - very fitting and I think this would probably smell nice on a guy (or maybe as a soap too, I could see myself washing with this but not necessarily wearing it as a perfume). Not something I could personally wear, but I definitely think this is interesting!

[savage_rose]

I love dark, spicy scents. I LOVE cumin. But this blend...smells like really nasty body odor and vomit, and I have never smelled something and felt like throwing up before, but HELLO, this is disgusting. I am seriously nauseous now, and I'm going to post a couple of reviews and go blowtorch my wrist. This beats Fire of Love hands down for worst blend on my skin.

 

YUCK!!!

[trollgirl]

So, geeking out for a second here. I play World of Warcraft (a lot) and my most-played character is a troll hunter (hence the username). The trolls in WoW have tribalistic, voodoo-ey culture and are a wild and war-like bunch. So since I identify so much with my trolls, my first BPAL order had to include imps of Troll, Voodoo and Bloodlust (a troll shaman ability). I really wanted to like Troll so I could say "Yay, I smell like my troll!"

 

In vial: Sniffing the imp I smell something earthy, like damp soil. It's a pleasant smell. I also detect nuttiness, like burnt almonds. Holding the imp further away I get the clove scent wafting towards me. It's very spicy, and it definitely smells burnt.

 

Wet: I've put this scent on me three times over the course of three days, trying to figure it out. I really wanted to like it. The first time, all I smelled was bitter, bitter cloves, cumin and stale sweat and body odor. Ew. So rank. Second time, I put less on, and cumin overpowers everything. It's like I've smeared curry on myself. Bitter spices and body odor again, but no cloves this time. Maybe the Troll doesn't like me. The third time it went on it smelled more like it smelled in the imp. Earthiness, that lovely nuttiness, some cumin, some cloves, and the bitterness is still there, but it isn't an unpleasant sort of bitterness. It just gives it depth, like the bitterness of chocolate.

 

Dry: I'm glad I gave this one a chance the third time I put it on instead of trying to wash it off. After a while, the cumin and cloves seem to calm down. I get more woodsy-ness and pine. And musk! It is definitely earthy and brown. It's a sort of close to the skin scent when it's like this. When its wet it seems to throw cloves and cumin and bitterness all around but once that's gone and I sniff myself I smell really good. I find it a very womanly, earth-mother sort of scent. Emerald green trees and dark brown earth. I went to sleep with it and I woke up and I could still smell a hint of muskiness. Nice.

 

Overall: Troll is very interesting. I really like it after it calms down and just becomes a musky skin scent. I'm not sure what changed the third time I put it on. It just smelled... good. Maybe it was because I put it on at night after a long day and my skin chemistry was different? Maybe the Troll prefers the darkness? Who knows? It's a mystery. I'm still deciding if I want a bottle.

Edited June 6, 2008 by trollgirl

[Maidenhell]

Troll, a frimp from the Lab.

 

I open the imp and sniff it … My sinuses sting and my eyes water! *cough* I can’t make myself put this on. It’s like being punched in the face by a dirty green fist with sharp black fingernails! Holy scorched Hell! Yes, this is a perfect Troll scent.