Burial

[fathom]

The Dark Side of Earth: deep, brooding forest scents, including juniper and patchouli. The scent of upturned cemetery loam mingling with floral offerings to the dead.

Well, this scent has made me reconsider my aversion to all patchouli blends! It smells foresty, and dark, and foggy. I really, really like this, and the patchouli and juniper blend so, so well. The patchouli darkens and deepens the scent, adding an earthiness to the blend and evoking upturned earth. Some woody scents smell like cut wood or polished wood or incense; Burial is the scent of living trees in a living forest. The scent of a whole forest. It lasts pretty long on me, and stays pretty true to the scent on application. I didn’t find it particularly masculine, unlike some other reviewers. To me it seems earthy and outdoorsy, a scent for a very independent person of either gender. If you like woody/evergreen scents then you definitely need to try this one.

[olympia301]

Very piney and a bit smokey, I am not sure I am surprised by a bit of loam in the blend. I can't smell any flowers. This must be a winter Scandanavian burial with only evergreen boughs for "flowers". A real somber scent and not one that I would be inclined to wear on my skin, but would make a very nice room scent, or a scent for an enclosed space, like a casket perhaps?

[Nachtwulf]

In the bottle - Very green. Very piney. It seems like that kind of 'acrid' sharp pine I don't like, though. In the bottle, that's about all I can smell.

 

Wet - The acridity goes away in some part, when it hits my skin. It's still very green and woody, even more so than Black Forest.

 

Dry - Still overtly piney and sharp. This, unfortunately, appears to be one of those 'pine-sol' type scents that is the norm for evergreen-based scents on my skin. Jabberwocky doesn't do it, but Burial does. I was hoping that it'd be darker and more earthy, but it really isn't, at least on me.

 

Final evaluation - I think this shall be relegated to my trade pile. It doesn't suck, but there's other scents of the same kindred (Jabberwocky, for one) that work much better on me.

[Little Bird]

When first on, Burial is a very strong pine forest scent. The juniper is sharp and the patchouli lingering and earthy in the background. It starts off with so much throw and strength that I thought this would be a very heavy scent. Surprisingly, after only a couple minutes, this fades away to almost nothing on me.

 

5 minutes later, I'm pressing my nose to my wrist and not smelling much of anything. That pine scent is gone and I don't smell any patchouli. I can almost smell something that reminds me of very light myrrh.

 

Then after about fifteen minutes have passed, Burial gets stronger again. Only now it smells like bug spray . Sharp and unpleasant. This isn't working with my skin chemistry at all... it's still rather faint, but I know this smell and it reminds me of going camping with my mother and her slathering bug spray on all of her children. I don't want a bug spray perfume, so this will be going up for swaps to someone who has better skin chemistry than myself...

[brownbear]

in the imp: dirt with a hint of juniper, but refreshing, a calm scent

 

on my skin: this one started to smell a lot like namaste to me. It smells kind of woody, then the juniper comes out. I keep getting something lemongrassy there. I like it, but I think I like namaste better and I can't help comparing them.

[Northernminx]

Dark, smokey, earthy and rich with a scent of deep rotting pine trees and a touch of patchouli. This was way too dark for my regular tastes but would be great for someone who likes earthy, smokey, evergreen scents.

[carolinachiquita]

This one is very green (its an earthy greeny brown!) It is full of forest scents and it reminds me a little bit of tramp.I think I like this one but not as a main fragrance - but as one that I can wear every now and then. Mmm very different

[herdivineshadow]

This is a tad incensey, but mostly smells on me like... dungeon. Old castle dungeon, with that damp, musty, earthly scent and a touch of green winter forests. It's certainly an interesting scent but I don't think I can really wear it.

[Ankhet]

Burial:

In the bottle: Sharp earth. That's what I smell. Something very sharp, but I also smell earth underneath the sharpness.

Wet: It's morphed into earth right after the rain's fallen. That smell of ozone and earth.

Drydown: Now all I get is the sharp ozone smell, just faded a little.

Conclusion: sell

[Miss Lynx]

Wow - could it be? A floral that actually works on me?

 

OK, I know many people would not call Burial a floral. And indeed, the earthy side of it is very strong -- the dominant notes I'm getting at first seem to be myrrh and patchouli (I get nothing piney at all from it, unlike a lot of people, it seems).

 

But there's also a very strong floral note -- rose, I think. And given how much my skin tends to amp notes like that, this is turning into an almost perfectly balanced floral/earthy blend. I'd originally thought maybe Rakshasa would be the perfect rose scent on me, and on the first try it almost was, but on repeated wearings it seemed like my skin amped the rose more each time, or maybe I just noticed it more. Burial is more like what I wanted Rakshasa to be.

 

Of course, this is only a first try, too, so it may be that it well change on repeated attempts. But so far, so good. It smells like lush damp soil strewn with rose petals -- not the fetid, rotting soil of Zombi, but fertile earth that things could actually grow in. And as it dries down, it settles into a really nice patchouli/rose mix.

 

Anyway, thus far, I like it. We'll see if it holds up on repeated wearings.

 

Grade: B+

 

P.S. My 100th review! Yay!

[SeaMonkey]

Juniper and dirt. The patchouli comes out a little, but it stays primarily Juniper. The dirt does soften it and it mellows a little

[WidgetAlley]

Lagniappe from the Lab. I've had bad luck with dirt notes in the past-- Zombi, anyone?-- but for some reason, I have very high hopes for this. I feel like an earth scent tonight.... (I'm also using this to console myself, since Black Phoenix just turned into rose soap on me. *wail*)

 

In the Imp: Juniper, patchouli... sharply green-and-brown. I'm definitely catching some evergreen, here, too-- cypress, perhaps?-- in addition to the juniper. Myrrh, too, maybe? Very smoky and woodsy... I can see the comparisons to bug spray. It doesn't smell bad to me, but it does have the slightly pungent edge a lot of insect repellants do. I'm not catching much dirt or florals or moss, to speak of.

 

Wet: Juniper/cypress, and surprisingly light! Not in terms of mood-- in mood this is a dark wood-- but as in, not too strong, which is good. I'm still not catching any dirt or floral or even patchouli. Hrrrm, I think this is almost too light... I'm having trouble finding it. I do have really dry skin in winter, that's probably part of it. I just put some lotion on my wrists and slathered a bit more on....

 

Dry: Juniper and cypress and a teensy hint of what might be patchouli, and, on the far drydown, a hint of spicy dirt and a very natural, almost slightly sweet floral. This is so deeply foresty in a blue-green kind of way, it's almost aquatic. I love this! I'm definitely keeping my Imp, it will be absolutely superb for the sticky summer months, and while I might not buy a 5mL right away, Burial has definitely inspired me to try some more dark, forest blends.

 

The image this brings to mind is of walking through a wild wood on a grey, winter's day, the last of the snow still under the trees, and entering a stand of tall cypress. In the middle of the glade there is a clear, almost round, mirror-still pool of water, reflecting the gunmetal grey of the sky. Low juniper bushes grow around the edges of the pond and back into the forest; their rough branches have almost obscured the crumbling statues placed throughout the cluster of trees. A few hardy, tiny white flowers have risen through the frozen loam in patches.... the last reminder that where the wilderness now grows was once a garden.

Edited December 17, 2005 by WidgetAlley

[AngellicMystique]

This smells like dark pine woods and dirt on me. The smell is so heavy and intense it smothers me. Very strong.

 

All of the Dark Elements are almost overpowering on me, but I like them. The smells are strong, not through overuse, but the sheer will and strength of the smells.

[magdalene]

in the bottle: juniper.

 

wet on skin: this isn't really a 'dirt' smell to me, by any stretch of the imagination. The juniper basically kicks everything else's ass. Dark pine.

 

dry: juniper and pine don't last very long on my skin, so there wasn't really much of a change as it dried.

[stardreamer]

I get exactly one note from this blend: Pine-Sol. Very sharp, very evergreen (must be the juniper), very much I don't want to smell like this. Doesn't change much over several hours, either. Off to the swap pile it goes!

[Voleuse]

This reminds me of Pine-Sol on first application, an almost searingly sharp evergreen. As it dries, however, it mellows into a nice juniper in fresh earth, and the air around it is cool. After a while, I start to smell resin as well. I can't detect the patchouli at all, which is a bit surprising.

 

To me, this doesn't smell like a dark scent at all. Instead, it's trees on the side of a mountain, prickly and fragrant. It's rich and earthy. I like it.

[pixievix]

In the bottle, this came across as a slightly spicy, very earthy patchouli-balsam fir blend with floral swirls through it. I was into it from the description, more so from sniffing the imp--unfortunately, like isyche, I had it go all pine on me. And woo was it a strong pine. Either it totally wiped out the incense & floral scents, or my skin sucked them up. If it had worked on me the way it did on other people, it'd be a big bottle; I may wait a week or two and give it another shot to see if my chemistry's any kinder to it.

 

Incidentally, I had Burial on one wrist and Nemesis on the other. Together they were witchily orgasmically glorious. Maybe I'll make a habit of blending them.

[sarada]

Burial was one of the very first scents I ever tried, yet for some reason I never reviewed it. My bottle is rather old now but it still smells about the same. When I first got this I was hoping for something like GothRosary's "Graveyard" -- it's different, but fulfills a similar green mossy need in my brain.

 

Actually I remember when I first opened this my overwhelming impression was a sharp rosey smell. Mossy, mouldering wood, damp greenery and a sharp rose. It also reminds me a little of the scent of our old canvas tent after it had been rained on, and was dusty and slightly moldy in the basement. That's kind of a smell that I like though.

 

Now, after sniffing many many other things, I can definitely recognize the sharp bite of juniper in there. Not so sure if those are roses or some other flower but it's predominantly a sharp green scent, anchored in place by an earthy base. The powdery scent that floats over top...I don't know what that is. It reminds me a little of nail polish remover.

 

It isn't quite like Zombi though it might sound like it. Zombi is much more of a strong dirt and pungent rose scent. The rosiness is a little less overpowering in this and the dirt is subdued by the damp mossy greenery. I wound up keeping this bottle and not keeping Zombi, because this one doesn't give me a rose headache and doesn't stick to my clothing or hair for a week afterward!

[Mary Mayhem]

I'm trying really hard not to read other reviews while testing out these scents. Seems to affect my observation. (:

 

In Bottle: Dark and sharp.

 

On skin - Wet: I smell a bit what I identify as balsam, and definitely some juniper. As it dries, the juniper comes out moreso.

 

On skin - Dry: Dark evergreen. I don't get much patchuli, it's trying to find it's way up, but it's held back.

 

Drying more: It's ok on me, it's very green. The juniper beats up the patchuli, but I catch hints of it now and again.

 

An hour later: The more it dries, the more the patchuli comes forward and the juniper behaves itself. I'd say this is true to it's description. (of course, your interpretation of the description may vary. ) It's dark, it's sharp, it's earth and green and it's dreary all at once -- and not a even a little sweet.

 

This would be so nice on a walk during fall afternoon/evening, you can even smell a bit of smoke in there!

 

ETA: Just a bit later: O, there's that strong patchuli! And did I mention staying power.

Edited January 17, 2006 by Mary Mayhem

[Caltha]

Burial

Burial starts with a blast of citrus. I also detect something woody/piney and something clean and fresch like lavender or lilac. It's a dark scent, and it dries to herbally bitter but warm and not unpleasant. The lilac or whatever flower it is stays and keeps it from becoming generic masculine. I like it, it's original and interesting.

[voodoobaby]

Burial is GREEN. Very green. The juniper is the main scent, and the only thing I smell in the initial phases. A little later I get a whiff of flowers, but it's still mainly juniper. I don't get the dirt or the patchouli, sadly, which is what interested me about the blend. It's not unpleasant, but maybe a bit too sharp for my tastes. I will try it again and see if my opinion changes.

[Prolixity]

In the bottle: Dirt, juniper, pine, very woody and earthy. There's that dust scent I recognize from Black Annis, but it's not accompanied by stone in this one.

Wet on skin: Freshly crushed juniper and dirt. Not strong, really, somehow.

Dry on skin: Juniper, dirt, patchouli. Not dirty, but very dirt-y. This is a very earthy, loamy, foresty kind of scent.

Over time: Juniper and patchouli. The dusty note is fading down; this is sharp and thick. A little scary. The husband doesn't like it.

Overall: I'm not sure. I was really looking forward to this one, but it's not quite what I expected out of it. No flowers in this for me, only heavy thick woody scents. The description "the dark side of earth" is very fitting. I'd prefer an earthy scent without this kind of sharp heaviness to it. 2.5/5

 

Burial strikes me as a very androgynous kind of scent, and while ordinarily I'm a big fan of that, there's something that repels me about it here. It's quite genderless to me, in a bizarrely unsettling way.

[fiddledragon]

Scent in bottle: Juniper, flowers, and dirt. Actual dark rich soil. Mmmmm...

 

Scent on me:

Wet--the soil scent fades to the background and the juniper and patchouli come out more. This is entish musk. I like it.

Dry--Fades to a faint mix of juniper, cypress, patchouli, and soil. As it dries further the sharpness of the juniper recedes and leaves a sort of almost warmth. This is darker than what I'd hoped Hamadryad would be, but it's the forest smell I was hoping to capture. It's the smell of deep forest where the light barely reaches the floor through dense leaves. Oh, happiness! :-)

[Aredhel]

Rating (on skin): 0/5

Summarised in a word or two: Pine-fresh dirt.

 

In the imp: Pine and juniper!

 

On skin, wet: Oddly enough, not terribly earthy. I get nothing but pine and juniper. Kind of reminds me of Black Forest, but I think I prefer BF.

 

On skin, dry: And there's the dirt/loam. Yick. BPAL's dirt/earth/loam notes have yet to work on me at all. The pine's become kind of fake and plastic on me now, and the whole thing kind of smells like one of those pine tree-shaped air fresheners stopped into the ground.

 

Conclusion: Definitely not my kind of thing. I think I might have liked it enough, though probably not enough to get a bottle, if the loam would have stayed at bay.

[loves_requiem]

I was really hoping for more Earthy tones...but I got a kind of menthol/pinesol combo...I dont think juniper likes me. I can wear patchouli just fine...ill figure it out.

 

Maybe I should see if i can get my hands on Graveyard Dirt or try Thanatopsis.

Edited February 17, 2006 by Love's Requiem