Couple Consulting an Enpon

[Schmoozy]

Orange blossom, blackberry, amber mint, and red sandalwood.

Blackberry and sandalwood. Starts off quite berry/fruity and minty. Kinda reminds me of fruity gum. Smell pretty good, and once the sandalwood and amber appear the gum similarity ends and it is all sandalwood and amber with blackberry. Somehow the orange blossom comes across as cinnamon and it gives it a spicy feel.

Overall, a juicy, spicy fruity golden blend. Edited March 5, 2009 by Schmoozy

[Kimbernunk]

Wow do I love this! It's strongly blackberry and sandalwood to begin with, and develops a definite bright orange blossom note as it sits on my skin. I don't notice much amber mint at all - there's something in the background that has a slight minty tinge to it, but that's about it.

 

For all this is quite fruity, there's something really dead sexy about it. I think it has something to do with the way the red sandalwood grounds everything and keeps it from going too bubbly. It stays very sensual.

[catatonic1242]

In the imp: Gosh, this does *not* smell like I'd expected. It's darker, warmer, and there's almost something smoky to it. I smell the mint, but it's not like any mint I'm familiar with -- it smells aged rather than fresh.

 

On, wet: Aged mint and wood. It's... I'm conflicted. Do I love it? Do I hate it? Do I polish my floors with it?

 

On, dry: Minty wood. So, so weird.

[Lirion]

I really didn't get lucky with this scent. Despite the fact that I like all the notes individually.

 

In the imp there is a distinct seaweed smell which I think is the mint going funky with something - I'm not getting any of the warmth i expected from the amber and sandalwood, mostly I'm getting some sort of aquatic note.

 

On my skin, still no warmth, I get a lot of orange blossoms and I assume blackberry, the mint is still doing something odd and bad.

 

And then.... slightly spoiled flowers and cat urine.

 

Epic Fail! And I had such high hopes too! I love mint, and I've never had a mint blend go like this on me. But seriosuly, yuck!

Edited March 11, 2009 by Lirion

[caitilarkin]

Mint and I are NOT FRIENDS, but I had to try this one because the other notes are full of win on me.

 

In the imp: The dreaded mint is in the background--right now this is primarily lovely fruit and resins.

 

Wet on skin: This is what I had hoped Hymn to Proserpine would be on my skin, minus the mint, which is lurking in the distance.

 

Dry on skin: Aaaaand, the mint is doing its trademark medicinal thing, as usual. I just can't get past it to enjoy the rest of the notes.

[simpsonmeredith]

This is the most bizarre BPAL experience. I thought it was kinda crazy when Beth bottled dirt. I don't wear Graveyard Dirt, but I covet my decant because it's just an incredible piece of art. But this one is sorta weird. Beth bottled what my sweat smells like when I don't wear deodorant.

 

In the decant: Umm, that's what my armpits smell like. I must be losing my mind so I have my husband sniff the decant. His face looks puzzled and he smells it again by request. "mmm, that smells like you." Although I've been spending a lot of effort since puberty to cover this up, apparently my husband likes it and we're distracted for awhile.

 

Wet: Hello mint. This isn't sweet sugared peppermint, this is straight mint from the leaves in your momma's garden.

 

Dry: A bit of flower comes out, subtle but the mint is still powerful. There is a stage of blackberry that is quiet nice but then my woodsy BO smell is in the background. Finally, it settles: Blackberry BO with just a touch of mint.

 

I have no idea whether I should get a bottle of this or not. Part of me actually likes it and the other part of me thinks I'm behaving like Mary Katherine Gallagher.

Edited March 11, 2009 by vanillaoakmoxy

[nekogrrl]

Wet on skin: Orange bubblegum. It's very sweet, very.. oh, I know! It smells like one of those orange jelly slices. Not what I was looking for in a perfume.

 

Dry on skin: The blackberry has come to prominence, although it still has that candy-like smell to it. I don't get any sandalwood, or blossom, or anything. The blackberry is also very close to the skin. I have to pretty much put my nose to wrist to smell anything.

 

Verdict: I was hoping for more from this. I'm really disappointed.

[alterosen]

I love the Lab's blackberry note & this one does not disappoint!

 

I get a faint whiff of cherry on first applying this & think that may be the orange blossom asserting itself briefly but then the scent changes to a deep rich blackberry with boozy overtones. No cat pee or other weirdness, but also no detectable mint or sandalwood.

 

I don't mind - it's lovely & sultry. My husband even commented on how much he liked it - big bottle for sure!

[heathercaley]

Mmm!! I love this one!! sweet cool mint with warm amber in the background and a bit o'blackburry to sweetin' in up!!Once it dries down, it's a minty/warm and sweet incense. And its gooooood!!

 

[aquazoo]

It jumps out grassy — that's the mint. I can tell there are some other things there. but it's the mint taking the lead. It's really growing on me.

 

 

[butcherbaby]

god i hate to give beth's hard work a negative review...but then i have to remember that it's my skin chemistry, not her skills that are at fault.

that said, on me, this smells like fruity BO.

i can only guess that it's the amber mint, because it's the "unknown", and none of the other notes are red flaggers for me.

ah well, can't win em all.

NEXT!

Edited March 25, 2009 by butcherbaby

[catattack]

Imp: Yum, sweet fruit

Wet: Sweet/sour fruit. Like sour cherries. Could be the blackberry. Something is medicinal in the background...could be orange blossom as sometimes it can be super bitter on me.

Drydown: Stays sour. The sweetness is gone. This is smelling very artificial and not nice. Bummer. The notes sounded so good...

[bheansidhe]

The concept is beautiful, but I had no hopes for this scent based on my skin's reaction to blackberry notes.

 

Straight off, when I uncap the vial and sniff, I smell sharp armpit sweat - that's the blackberry. Blackberry doesn't like to be bottled up, and it lets you know about it. After a few seconds it backs off and I catch a bit of the orange blossom, and a touch of mint, but it's not foody.

 

On my skin, it's again ruined by blackberry, which turns to dusty cat pee. After about thirty minutes I can catch the amber as a delicious warm middle note, but I only get it if I try hard. "Amber mint" is a strange but lovely concept, but on me the layers stay sharply divided; they never blend.

 

For the right person, this will be an amazing and unique scent.

[rayvn1]

Not bad since orange blossom loves my skin, but not the amazing oil on me I thought it would be A bit sharp and smelling of alchohol at first, then settles to a faint minty-fresh with orange smell.

[milo]

OK, so I've heard comparisons of Makanaitis to Hellion. I haven't tried Makhanaitis yet, but this one is pretty close in FEEL to Hellion, in fact I may even like it better. They don't actually smell the same, but I get a fruity, spicy incense from Couples, even though there is no incense listed. Couples to me has the same vibe, but different fruit and incense, which may be the combination of the sandalwood, mint and orange blossom. I didn't think this would work on me, so I didn't get a bottle with my Lupers. I just received my decant today, and now I'm wishing I sprung for at least one bottle, damn.

[Miss Lynx]

Oh, this is nice! I suppose I shouldn't be surprised given that it's got a few of my favourite notes in it (orange blossom, blackberry and amber), but the mint kind of worried me. And "amber mint" just sounded odd -- I wasn't sure if there was a comma missing in there or what.

 

But the notes seem to combine really nicely, mint and all. Something about it smells a little reminiscent of some other BPAL scent that I can't identify, but on the whole it's quite a neat and interesting blend. There's a strong fruity element, of course (particulary given that orange blossom smells more like fruit than flowers on me), but also a slightly intoxicating incensey aspect to it, and a sharp herbal kick that isn't quite distinguishable as mint, but that's probably what it comes from. The result is sweet and a little bit boozy, and has a bit of the same hard-to-define quirkiness to it that some of the Mad Tea Party scents do. Its eventual drydown after a few hours is a soft amber-sandalwood skin scent.

 

On the whole, I'd say this is my favourite of the Shunga scents this year. Not necessarily a huge overall favourite, since it takes a lot to enter my top ten these days, but certainly a keeper.

 

Grade: B+/A-

[magikalbrownies]

why is it that me and amber are like BFF's!

 

but on the skin i smell the orange blossom when its on my skin and it gives it a sweeter kick but i love this.

 

its classic. something i can wear to events and its just fantastic. definately a keeper.

 

 

 

[Jilara]

 

Wow, this one is strange, but I LIKE it!

 

In the bottle, all I can smell is rue. Yes, rue, the herb. There is a long-unavailable perfume called Christian Aujourd that has a rue undernote, and it was one of my favorites, so you might note that I like that bitter herbal undernote. But I was so afraid it would be all about rue.

 

Wet, it's all about rue and green grassy sorts of things, but with a background honeyed sweetness, that must be the orange blossom. As it dries, the sandalwood joins the party, and really amps up. The whole drydown is the rue and sandalwood jostling each other, striving for dominance, with orange blossom lurking in the background.

 

But then, as it gets very dry, the rue skulks off the the background and fruity blackberry comes up in a crescendo, with strong backing from the orange blossom. The sandalwood, no longer having to fight hand-to-hand with the rue, decides to harmonize with the blackberry fruitiness. Dry, this is just utterly gorgeous, and it's something I can see for everyday wear, not just when I'm feeling sexy.

 

Another winner from the Shunga series! Woo-hoo!

[zee]

When the Shungas were released this year, I was so new to BPAL that I was still poking around the GC, with absolutely no idea of what notes worked on me. A couple of months later and the Shungas were about to come down - I had to make quick decisions of which to buy unsniffed and which to get hold of in a last minute decant circle.

 

Had I known at the time how gorgeous this scent truly is, I would have ordered multiple bottles. As it is, I went for a decant, and now I'm regretting it. Couple Consulting an Enpon is one of those rare scents that actually made me go "WOW" when I sniffed my wrist. It's not much of a morpher on me from the wet stage, through the drydown and into the dry stage - I smell the blackberry as a deep and rather sexy note, with the sandalwood and orange blossom blending beautifully and making this so much more than just another berry scent. I have to really sniff hard to detect the amber, but it's there in the background, lending a deep golden glow to the scent. No mint that I can detect, which is a relief, in all honesty.

 

I'm going to have to get me a bottle of this from somewhere. I've been huffing my wrist all day, and really, this is going straight up into my favourite blends.

[Eemia]

Oh I know I should have tread with caution here since my chemistry messes with amber sometimes. But the blackberry called to me, and lately I've been loving mint too.

 

I kept attempting to wear this and every time I did it smelled so sour on me. Not the tart and fruity type of sour, more like unwashed skin. I've had that same sour effect from certain resins. So I'm not sure exactly what is flaring up here. Maybe it is the amber after all. I can't smell any other notes or get any other impression from this. I'm so disappointed because the notes looked amazing.

[PurringPulsar]

Couple Consulting an Enpon

 

In the imp: cherry? I have no idea why, but I smell black cherry, not blackberry, in here.

Wet on skin: cherries and almonds! And patchouli? I smell things in here that aren’t even listed!

Dry: ok, now it smells a bit more like blackberry. I still smell cherry and almond, but not as much. I also now smell the sandalwood, and it’s a very dry, gritty wood, not as subtle and smooth as usual. I can smell the freshness of mint and a touch of bright orange blossom, but overall this is a dark blackberry which seems to have something patchouli-ish to it. no cat pee to this blackberry!

After a while: this does something very weird. It doesn’t turn to cat pee, thankfully, but it smells strange and very plastic on me…it smells like doll heads? Like doll heads with a hint of orange blossom and berry. Almost like blackberry scented dolls? It also smells a little medicinal too, like some kind of antiseptic. This is not working on me at all.

Verdict: this really didn’t work. I wasn’t expecting to as usually blackberry scents turn bad on me. however this didn’t do the usual trick of turning to cat pee, but it turned to plastic, which I really didn’t expect. It smells surprisingly deep and dark at first, not in a blackberry way, but in a patchouli-fied way! I also smelt cherry in here which was just as strange. No amber, no sandalwood, very little orange blossom and mint, and blackberry pretending to be something else…and then it turns plastic and medicine. My skin chem made this fail.

Emoticon rating:

Is it a keeper? Nope.

If you like this, try: The Oblation, Lysander, Lady Una, Blood Garden

[gypsyjolie]

Wet: dark fruit and dragonsblood resin. WTF? I hate dragonsblood resin, and I'm getting that fakey-plastic cherry scent/pseduo-almond that I get from dragonsblood. Perhaps "red sandalwood" is dragonsblood and sandalwood?

 

dry: I'm not getting much blackberry from this at all, which is a pity. I get a lovely rich sandalwood and amber, and the mint plays prettily in the background. The blackberry is a sort of generic dark fruitiness to the blend, but could be plum or raisin if I hadn't read the scent notes. I still swear there is dragonsblood in this, but it's fading down.

 

20 minutes later: ah! Blackberry, my lovely! amber & sandalwood are gorgeous in the back. Very red-gold and sunset-ish and sophisticated. This may be my "dressed up" scent. It's more classic perfume scented, and mature... though quite sexy and warm and engaging. (I still smell some dragonsblood "fake cherry"scent in this, plus the oil is very very DB red, or maybe I am hallucinating.)

 

ETA: This has become my favorite BPAL after a bit of aging. The blackberry comes out earlier and the red musk is smoother than it was ( I blame it for the plastic-y dragonsblood-esque smell I mentioned above), and the sandalwood... yum! This lasts about five hours on me, though it doesn't have a ton of throw. So sexy! The DH loves it too.

Edited September 29, 2009 by gypsyjolie

[crebbsgirl]

This was just foul on my skin. I'm not entirely sure what happened here because in the vial this was wonderful. I could smell the blackberry and the orange blossom was beautiful. The minute this hit my skin, it was all burning plastic. I tried to wait it out, but it didn't get better.

Edited May 26, 2009 by crebbsgirl

[lupidog]

I was gifted a decant of this by a generous BPALer, and was quite curious to try it. It was not one that I would have selected for myself based on the notes (I don't dislike any of them overtly, but none jump out at me), but that often is where the best surprises come from!

 

Unfortunately, the second this was on, it smelled badly of some kind of pee/body odor. This one note, high and keening, lifting itself from the others - which all smelled fabulous under the top layer of funk. It was sad. I kept hoping that shrill top note would fade, but it stayed quite dominant. I've been trying to figure out which one it was so I can avoid it in the future, or at least have an awareness of the potential for rankness. Was it the mint? The orange blossom? The blackberry? I just don't know. I'm not super well versed in sandalwood, but I've tried enough blends with it to know it isn't this pee smelling thing.

 

Alas! I wish my skin didn't amp mystery note, or this would be quite beautiful. If your chemistry is different, you may find a unique and elegant blend with good throw and lasting power.

[voodoocatwoman]

Pretty! Wasn't sure what to expect with the combination but it dries down to a sultry and sexy fragrance.