Plunder

[bettybaker]

PLUNDER
The scent of a pirate's bumboat, overflowing with stolen wares: tea leaf, cassia, cinnamon bark, clove, allspice, sandalwood, tobacco, peppercorn, and nutmeg.

I say:

Plunder is sweet cinnamon tea. It's a wee bit strong, and it lasts and lasts. I smell like holiday potpourri, like cinnamon toast and a cup of tea on a cold morning, but not at all buttery or foody. Edited October 7, 2007 by clover

[elphaba]

Plunder is overwhelmingly cinnamony when first applied -- so much so, that I found myself starting to wonder how it was different from any other cinnamon blend. Then, as it dries down (and it doesn't take long... maybe ten minutes), the sandalwood starts to come out and the cinnamon backs away. The scent rounds out into a wafting woody-spicy loveliness. Unfortunately, it's not particularly long-lasting. It was mostly gone in less than four hours for me, but it just may be worth reapplying.

 

I'm looking forward to comparing this to some of my other cinnamony-spicy blends to see how it compares.

[mamoyer]

As some of the will-call reviews have said, Plunder smells just like a spice rack. The spice I predominantly get is cinnamon bark, with maybe slight touches of the other listed notes. It's a very dry scent. For cinnamon fans, this cinnamon is completely different from any other BPAL cinnamon scent I've smelled--where Wrath smells like Big Red gum and Chimera is a sweet cinnamon, Plunder is a dry, almost bitter cinnamon with no sweetness at all. I agree with Betty that it is heavily reminiscent of holiday potpourri and lasts quite long, even after attempts to wash it off (only because I was putting on Temple of Dreams to go to bed!).

 

I thought about getting a bottle of this unsniffed, and I'm glad I didn't simply because I don't think I'd be able to use it all. I'm definitely keeping the imp around to use in my burner or when I feel like smelling sharply like cinnamon--maybe to keep me awake during an exam!

[Analise]

This is the first scent where I've sniffed it out of the (imp) bottle and sighed and wished I'd gotten it in a 5mL.

 

It's that good. I kept getting chai tea off of it.

 

I can't speak to how long it lasts because I was testing it before my shower last night. I'll have to come back later with something more in-depth but so far?

 

Two thumbs way up.

 

EDIT: put it on this morning before work. That was at least three hours ago and it's still there. I keep catching whiffs of it that are positively delightful. Will definitely need a bottle.

Edited October 11, 2007 by Analise

[requieminblack]

Straight out of the bottle this smells like cinnamon brooms. You know, the cinnamon scented brooms/pine cones they sell at Halloween and Christmas time?

 

On the skin I get Cinnamon! (like woah) and yummy spices all mixed in. There is clove and nutmeg in there fer sure but it is blended in so well it just smells like Cinnamon tea to me like someone else mentioned.

 

As it dries I get more of the sandalwood and tobacco coming out giving it somewhat of a smoky texture. I know some people have Sandalwood turn to total wood on them, but this does not. It is more of a wood and chai tea had a baby smell. I applied this about 4 hours ago and it is still going strong on me. The more it fades the more it smells like Chai tea on my skin. I have to say this has to be one of my all time favorite Bpal GC scents ever. It is super spicy and lasts for a long, long time. The scent is gender neurtal and would work on anyone. I love it!

Edited October 15, 2007 by requieminblack

[LauraB]

Chai tea. Exactly like black chai tea (no honey or sweetener) - so much so it is a little unnerving. I have never smelled so much like a drink!

 

Lasted about 4 hours.

[sookster]

straight sniff from bottle is red hot cinnamon, clove and allspice...nothing sweet either...

 

once applied dark tea and nutmeg; a fresh cigar note...interesting!

 

to me this is somewhat of a gourmandy blend and it rounds out beautifully after you

give it some time...ultra unique and very well thought out...if you are looking for

something different give plunder a try...the spiciness is what i love about it most!

[slittlecrowrussell]

This one hits you like a cinnamon-spice cannonball! Hard to describe cinnamon as not being foody, but in this blend it isn't. Overall there's little sweetness, but lots of spiciness. It's not a real morpher though it does settle down somewhat and when it does, the fragrance reminds me a lot of TAL Dixie Love Perfume, but again, a little less sweet. It's one of those that I'm not too fond of alone, but reckon it would probably be amazing as a layering scent - over say Velvet (can you say luscious Mexican cocoa?), Pumpkin Patch blends, or something else foody or over a floral that's too sweet or light and needs darkening and spicing up. It would probably work well in turning a light summery scent into fall/wintery scent.

[porcelina]

i love that plunder is spicy and cinnamony but not at all foody. it's a very dry scent. pleasant, woody, spicy and warm. after a while the cinnamon settles down and the tobacco and tea lend an earthier sweetness. i love this!

[steffanina]

Plunder-

 

In Bottle: Very cinnamon and clove and something fruity. I'm imagining peach or apricot because that's the fruit I usually expect with cinnamon and clove.

 

Wet: Cinnamon and clove.

 

Dry: I love foody scents but cinnamon and clove in his concentration is just a little cloying to me. Too strongly clove. It might make a nice scent locket for autumn.

 

Overall: Too strongly clove for me.

[hkhm]

imp: cinnamon and clove, this is gonna burn. i'd better apply this someplace less sensitive than my inner arm...

 

wet: this smells just like fresh cinnamon sticks. or those cinnamon pinecones you can get around the holidays. with the peppercorn in there it reminds me of an excellent chai i've had that had a lot of fresh cracked black peppercorns. this smells wonderful!

 

dry: cinnamon, allspice and cloves. this smells like mulling spices minus the dried orange peel pieces.

 

since i applied this to my knee, i did not get burned. i don't know if my chemistry is different on my knee as opposed to my inner arm but i'm just too sensitive to cinnamon oil to risk it anywhere tender. and anyway, i ordered this imp for my husband so i'll pop it onto his imp pile to see what he thinks.

 

(edited for spelling)

Edited October 23, 2007 by hkhm

[euterpe414]

Man, the lab is killing me with all these amazing new GC scents!!

 

Plunder is another stunner; it's an amazing blend of spices and black tea, and to my nose it smells just like chai, but the kind that is homemade and only slightly sweetened (just how I like it!) Cinnamon bark (the kind that is similar to that in Priala) is the most prominent of all the spices, but it does not overpower everything else for me- I can detect the other notes quite well. It lasts for a fair amount of time, but I will definitely need to reapply it throughout the day. That's fine with me, since I can always get more. I think this would layer really well with other scents, too. I'll have to do some experimenting...

 

A fantastic GC scent, and another that I am getting a bottle of ASAP. If you like Bengal and Priala you have to give this one a try!

 

[Finny]

This is wonderful. Spicy Chai. It reminds me of the original Three Witches, only richer.

 

The initial spiciness is very strong, but it settles down to an earthy spicy chai scent. A little hint of sweetness, but not tooth ache sweet. The spices are wonderful, so well blended. It is smooth and spicy in the dry down.

 

I am so glad I bought the 5ml instead of the imp.

[edenssixthday]

Plunder - Spices, spices, spices! When I first apply this, all I smell is cinnamon. Loads and loads of spicy cinnamon. And then my skin starts to feel like it's on fire and it's pretty obvious there's cassia in this, which I start to smell after about 10 minutes when the cinnamon scent recedes a bit. At this point, I can also smell so many of the other notes - tea leaf, clove, tobacco, peppercorn, but what's really stunning is how the dry, woodiness of the sandalwood blends so gorgeously with these other notes. This blend smells so damn good -- woody, spicy, and quite exotic. Unfortunately, the cassia burns my skin horribly so I cannot continue to wear this. In a scent locket, all I smell is that strong cinnamon note and nothing else. If I can figure out another way to experience the fullness of this scent without my skin hurting so much from wearing it, I will certainly do so because it's really damn gorgeous.

[alicia_stardust]

PLUNDER

 

This is tea with cinnamon first and foremost, but beyond that I get a creamy sort of nutmeg scent. The background remains a lovely medley of spices, clove, cassia, and a touch of wood. This brings to mind piles of fine-ground spices in fancy tins and bottles that litter a bumboat. I love all of these spices, and they are not "hot" like cinnamon and cassia tend to be. There's also a creaminess that reminds me of tonka and, possibly, this is a tad reminiscent of an aged bottle of Three Witches.

[any_old_actress]

First Sniff: Cinnamon and wood....

 

Wearing it: Cinnamon still, with black tea and wood and cloves.

 

After a couple of hours this scent really mellows and is just beautiful. I really love Bengal and I find this scent is its much calmer, woodier cousin.

[Little Bird]

Plunder definitely has the cinnamon.

 

It's a bold sort of cinnamon too, like red hots candies and big red gum. My skin has a history of amping up cinnamon like mad and I don't really like heavy cinnamon notes. This doesn't ever change much on me either, except that I *think* I might be getting a sharp bite of pepper after a while. Plunder pretty much stays the same from the vial to my skin and over several hours. It makes me smell like hot cinnamon candy, which isn't for me.

 

ETA: For anyone sensitive to spice notes, this definitely makes my skin red and tingly.

Edited October 31, 2007 by Tania

[Brianne]

I LOVE cinnamon, I do NOT like cassia. Cassia always goes crazy on me and just smells too overwhelming (usually killing other notes). I had to chance this one though because of the pirate theme and the hope that the other notes would prevail. Unfortunately, they do not. This is very much a strong cassia scent (a lot of people confuse cinnamon and cassia - but they are distinctly different to me) and it does very much overwhelm the other notes.

 

The unusual part of this is that it goes on very "loud" but dries down to a very close skin scent. I like it much more when I've been wearing it for a while and all the notes are soft and I can even get a little tobacco and it's much woodier also. If you like Bengal, you'll probably like this too - I think the two are very similar in a way.

 

I am on the fence about this myself though. The later stages are very nice, but I'm not sure if I really would use a bottle of this or not. Guess I'll need to wear it more to figure it out.

[TheOneTheyCallLuna]

This is a spice lover's wildest dreams come true! I, indeed, am such a spice lover and have fallen madly in love with this fragrance! Smells like many complex warm spices all intermingling together in an unholy union of scrumptiousness! Doesn't morph much from the imp to the skin aside from the fact that the spices become much hotter and, er, spicier on my skin! Later on, I get a bit of wood and the slightest hint of tobacco in the background. This is pirate heaven, and since the only thing I love more than pirates are cinnamon, sandalwood, and tobacco - this is totally orgasmic on me and I hafta have more Plunder immediately!

 

A+ doesn't even begin to approach my love of this scent!

 

"Ahoy, me lo'e plunder! Arrr, spice haters beware Aye, me parrot concurs!"

 

[Miss Lynx]

I almost bought a bottle of this unsniffed, because it sounded so incredibly good from the description. I love spices, and this one also looks like it has just enough non-spice notes to ground it a little and give it depth, so that it doesn't end up as one-dimensional as Three Witches.

 

But I exercised self-discipline and went for an imp instead. And now that I'm wearing it, I think I might as well have followed my initial impulse. (That's what happened the last time I looked at a new GC scent and thought "Bottle! Now!" too... with Hymn to Proserpine.) This is really, really, really nice. On first contact, the cassia and cinnamon are the strongest notes, and it smells almost candy-sweet, like cinnamon red-hots. But as it settles in a bit, the other notes come out more, especially the sandalwood and tobacco, and give it more richness and depth.

 

It's funny -- tobacco is not something that I'd ever have thought I'd like in a scent. I hate being around people smoking, but surprisingly tobacco has turned up in a number of scents that I like, and doesn't usually smell anything like you'd think it would. But this one is the first one where the tobacco is really identifiable -- there's an element to it that really does smell a lot like high-quality pipe tobacco. But not in a bad way, at all.

 

It lends a certain earthiness to the scent, which is nice, and also makes it smell fairly gender-neutral. Unlike Chimera or Bengal, both of which this scent does resemble a bit, this one could work equally well on a man or a woman, once it gets past that initial hyper-sweet stage (which only lasts a couple of minutes).

 

The combined effect of all the notes is to send me into little spasms of happiness every time I catch a whiff of myself. It even bears a certain similarity to my beloved Red Phoenix, a.k.a. Best LE Of All Time. And thankfully, it does not appear to have caused any major skin irritation, which scents with a lot of cinnamon and/or cassia can sometimes do to me. (Note: for those who do encounter that, try diluting it in a neutral carrier oil like jojoba, or maybe something especially skin-soothing like shea butter.)

 

The only down side is that it isn't terribly long-lasting -- within a few hours, it's down to just a faint, warm, aromatic scent that I have to press my nose right to my wrist to smell. But it's plenty nice enough to be worth re-applying as often as needed.

 

Yes, bottle time. I may even have a new candidate for my GC top ten the next time they open the polls for that...

 

Grade: A+

Edited November 7, 2007 by Miss Lynx

[slave1]

PLUNDER

 

In Bottle: Spicy overload

 

On Skin: I smell the clove, cinnamon and cassia above all the other notes. Very very spicy, sweet and stinging. The tobacco darkens the scent and gives it a smoky edge. It’s much darker and brooding compared to Three Witches, the other spiciest scent I know. It’s interesting that this scent is pure spices, but doesn’t feel foody. It is so spicy my eyes start to tear up and my nose heats up just from smelling it. The note that carries the longest and stays the most obvious is the cinnamon bark. I am not a spice fan, so this isn’t a scent for me, and I think it’s a little overwhelming to use as a room scent. Maybe diluted into a room spray, for around the holidays it would go over well. Super strong throw and very long wearlength.

[taramarie]

On me, Plunder is cinnamon tea, with more cinnamon than tea. Unfortunately and predictably, the cinnamon irritates my skin so I had to wash it off. I can easily see this as a room scent.

[AmyAngel]

Plunder to me is very spicy, with just a hint of tea making it not as dry as it could have been. It reminds me just a bit of the spices in Tanin'Iver, though they don't really smell the same. They must have the same cassia note. It's a very warm scent.

 

I slathered this on yesterday, and it started out a spicy tea scent, sweet but not cloying, wafting around. The drydown of this after an hour or two is EXACTLY the same as Devil's Night on me! Sweetness, some spice, and not dry smelling. It lasted almost 9 hours, though I doubt anyone else was smelling it by the end of that time. I need to test them side by side, but to my memory it was exactly the same. I like both Devil's Night and Plunder, though I think I like Devil's Night just a tiny bit better. Unfortunately they both have a note that leaves me feeling unsettled for some reason. I'll keep my imps of both, but probably won't track down a bottle.

[hlrigaud]

I chose this as the most appealing of the new Pirate scents.

 

It's got a nice, spicy, cinnamon-y scent and I love cinnamon, but you know that old U2 song, "I still haven't found what I'm looking for"?

 

Yah. I like this, and at the same time, it makes me want something- more. It's close, but I realized what I really want for that great chai scent is April '06 13. I know, I know, 13 has chocolate and this doesn't, but it's what I want this to be. I'll save this imp; I think it will age nicely, but I'm also off to find a bottle of 13.

 

HL

[stasha]

I don't like cinnamon and if Ventriloquist Dummy is any indication, I HATE wood.

 

SO WHY DO I LOVE THIS?! Although my family is landlocked something about this scent is unbelievably comforting. It reminds me of the holidays with spicy drinks and pies. This came in a lot that I bought off ebay and I NEVER would have tried this which would have been a damn shame.

 

More people seriously need to smell this.