Dark Chocolate and Pepper-Smoked Caramel

[jupiternf]

Dark chocolate and pepper-smoked caramel.

Disclaimer: I have a terrible head cold, but I have been waiting for reviews for the box of chocolates myself and thought any review in a storm, eh?

In the bottle: Out of my embarrasingly large order, this is the one bottle that made me swoon when I opened it for the first time. Deep dark chocolate- not dusty cocoa, and a sexy caramel that makes my tiddly wink.

On my skin: Great throw- stonger than the white chocolate blends. I cannot get over how unbelievably rich the dark chocolate is. It reminds me a bit of Gula bath oil. Definitely a cousin to Arrival at the Sabbath and Homage to the Devil with the caramel. In time the pepper smoked aspect lends a woody aspect to the blend, and this is just. so. hot. The least straight-up foody blend in the box in terms of complexity, but stil so very very coated in molten chocolate.

Verdict: We are talking 90% cacao here. With smoked orgasms. Put it on your man or woman, and proceed to get your daily antioxidants.

[Mordath]

Deep chocolate, rich caramel, and a subtle smoky scent that works with the first two and transforms it into something delightfully complex and sexy - this is incredible, I need another bottle. Or twelve.

[Malista]

Somewhat plasticy chocolate (I'm sorry it's this note, and not the cocoa note the lab uses; this one always goes wrong on me), heavy burnt sugar, then a quick morph into artificial smoke flavoring, where it pretty much stays. Oh, no, I tell a lie; the plastic comes back strongly to mix with the smoke. Very unfortunate chemical interractions going on here. I'm hoping everyone else has better luck.

[myth]

:love!:

 

LOVELOVELOVE.

 

Did I mention I love this?

 

I'm hard pressed to write a useful review for it though, because it doesn't smell like any of the notes to me. Somehow they all roll up into something that is more than the sum of its parts. The chocolate is indeed a dark one... I don't smell any creaminess or milkiness or plastic. But I also don't smell the dark dry cocoa that I got from Gelt. The caramel is not foody. I know that makes no sense. But if I didn't now what was in this blend I'm not sure I could ID the notes, even as simple as they are.

 

I dunno... it's just dark and slightly sweet [Arrival at Sabbath is the best comparison I've seen and I agree with that, it has the sweetness you get from AaS in which the caramel adds sweetness without being sugary or foody] and a bit smoky but not in a "smoke" way. Nothing here seems like I'd expect, but somehow the end result is total love. This is extremely sexy and just a bit understated. It's the perfect marriage of foody + dark + sexy = amazing not-foody deliciousness.

 

I wish I could write a better review that would somehow convey what this scent is really like. If you're at all on the fence about it though you should really try it, because it might not be what you're expecting.

 

And oh yeah, I love it!

[FandF]

I love this scent.

 

It smells a lot like Kahlua or a coffee based liquor scent...similar to egg nog latte and the like (when it is WET). There is a definite smoke element that comes out of it as it dries down that is different than a regular coffee house scent. But overall it's chocolate and spices and sexy and really the best of the Box imo.

[sunshinedaisybliss]

When my bottle arrived, the bottom half of the oil was all thick and dark - I immediately thought of Boomslang, with its thick chocolate sludge, and I knew this was going to be a bit special. After gently rolling it to mix up the sludge, my first whiff from the open bottle made me go "unnnnngh" - lovely buttery, spicy, slightly boozy chocolate.

 

On my skin, this reminds me of Butter Rum Cookie - if you switched the rum for kahlua, I reckon you'd get something like this. I got a very slight tingle on my skin at first - almost hot, which I guess is the pepper, but that quickly passed. Now I have this gorgeous spicy warm buttery caramel chocolate thing going on - I feel like I should be roasting chestnuts over an open fire with a very fine Scotch whiskey in a crystal tumbler by my side.

 

I'm finding this has a big throw, and it's still very strong on my skin after an hour, so I don't think this is one to slather.. just a drop or two in your warmest crevices should do the trick. Do I want to smell like this all the time? Hmm.. not sure, probably not. Will I keep it? Mayyyyyyybeeeeee....

 

My final thought.. this does to chocolate what El Dia de Reyes did to coffee.

Edited February 5, 2009 by sunshinedaisybliss

[Heavenlyrabbit]

This is the most outstanding of all the Chocolate Box blends.

 

More complex than the 5 other confections and one might say the most, perfume-y.

 

That said, it's also the one I would recommend for men. It's got a robust character.

 

I know perfectly well this smells like chocolate but still don't think foodie!

 

IMO, this will be in high demand when it becomes discontinued. Worth a try.

[lushlovely]

I wasn't looking forward to this particular chocolate as much as some of the others, mainly because I was a little fearful of the pepper note, but I knew I still had to try it.

 

In the bottle: Smells very rich and caramelly. Reminds me slightly of Red Lantern.

First applied: Smells even more like Red Lantern.

Drydown: All I can smell is a less boozy version of Red Lantern.

 

This is kind of a complex scent for me, mainly because of the Red Lantern association I get from it. I had a love/hate relationship with Red Lantern because I loved the caramel note but hated the booziness of it and finally ended up swapping it away. I like this but it's not my favorite and I won't need to hunt down more of it.

[Dark Alice]

I finally got to try this at WC last night. It was so light on me.....the pepper is there and so is the caramel...but for some reason...my skin ate this up! So in the end it dried down to light caramel. I so wanted this one to work.

Edited February 10, 2009 by Dark Alice

[lostluckkitten]

This blend is very thick and syrupy (smelling and looking). The pepper kicks you right in the face at first application, but chills out on the drydown. This is a gourmet syrup on a gourmet dessert in a very fancy-pants restaurant.

 

I can wear caramel scents without getting the dreaded burnt sugar, so this is wonderful on me, although it borders on too sweet. This is a standout, but you have to really like sweet, sticky, chocolatey caramel with a little complexity to it.

[scarletgenesis]

rawwwrrrrr! In the bottle, this is VERY caramel, smaller amounts of dark chocolate and a tiny bit of pepper. But I was happy to see that on my skin everything reversed. The pepper is promanent with the dark chocolate secondary. The caramel is really in the background, which is great, b/c it stops it from getting too sweet.

 

Lovely, sexy and warm...Like dark brown satin sheets under a velvet comforter.

[Little Bird]

In the bottle, this is half full of the thick, sludgy, cocoa absolute type of oil that's in Boomslang (it smells nothing like Boomslang). I can smell the chocolate, the pepper, and the caramel. My boy hated it and said it smelled like really strong coffee.

 

I don't think that I'm liking bpal's pepper note. I had the same problem with Ghulheim, where the pepper smelled like spiced breakfast sausage on my skin. Odd, smoked, spiced meat. This isn't as awful as Ghulheim, though. The caramel adds a nice, smooth sweetness, and there's a pleasant bit of smokiness to the caramel. I don't smell any chocolate at all, even though the chocolate oil left my skin stained a light brown, lol. My boy said it smelled like burnt coffee and caramels.

 

This only lasts about an hour on my skin, and I'm not too fond of it. This does have my all time favorite bpal label, though <3. I love the artwork on the box of chocolates scents.

[MisterShrapnel]

Ooh la la. Fancy-pants chocolate, the one I've been looking forward to the most. I see cocoa absolute floating in my decant! Definitely very dark, smoky and almost "burnt"; reminds me of Centzon Totochtin without (with less?) vetiver actually. I love it. Underneath is gooey and sweet caramel mingling in with the smoke. It pleases my sweet tooth like only a foody blend can, but I have yet to find it at all cloying! It might be the most wearable of the whole Box for my tastes. Bottle, yes? Two bottles? ...Maybe!

[Ravenclaw79]

In the imp: Chocolate, TRUE chocolate (not cocoa), and caramel, with a hint of spice.

 

Wet: Chocolate and pepper. You wouldn't think this would work, but it really does.

 

Drying: Indian food? My brain keeps interjecting "Indian food!" as I sniff. It's pretty tasty-smelling, that's for sure.

[windbourne]

Holy heckuva kick, Batman...

 

This one I have such mixed feelings on. The initial wave of sweet salty caramel covered in dark chocolate please me completely, but the pepper burn that comes out as it dries makes me vaguely disgruntled. The chocolate -does- come back after a while, but it's much fainter. If this stayed true to the first wave, I would need multiple bottles. As it is, I might get one. And scent locket it.

 

It is, for what it's worth, the first caramel scent that I've tried that didn't go ragingly bitter after a few minutes. It's much smoother and mellower than most. It's also not -exactly- foody. It's pretty sweet, but the sweetness is much calmed by the pepper and rendered almost masculine in tone. This is one I think I might try putting on a boy sometime, possibly layered with something with leather in.

[jillybean]

I was nervous about anything with pepper as it just seems like a weird combo but I know it can definitely work.

 

Caramel turns wonky on me 9x out of 10 and this is just what happened with this one. In the bottle, it reminds me of Eggnog Latte. It's very nice but just doesn't work on my skin.

[Iceblink]

BBQ sauce?

Seriously--this smells like sweet, smoky spicy sauce to me. I don't get a chocolate or caramel vibe from it at all. It IS delicious though with great throw...quite tasty!

[savage_rose]

This was the winner sniffing it at WC...it's gorgeous in the imp, too. And on, I thought, "Whoa, lovely." And then it dried, and it smells disgusting...it smells like someone burned the crap out of some chocolates and it's all scorch marks and burned sugar. I'm SO disappointed.

[Persephone76]

I had such high hopes for this one, as most of the chocolate scents are just too foody for me. It smells *fabulous* when first applied--just as I had hoped, a smoky, complex chocolate.

 

Unfortunately it dries down to a quite boozy caramel and maple syrup smell that makes me a lil queasy. Sigh. Too bad.

[milo]

I'll start off by saying that I took a risk just even ordering an imp of this, caramel is always a note of death, and smoke is iffy as well. I do love pepper and chocolate, so it did intrigue me, and you never know what is going to amp on you. Wet, there is a delicious boozy note, did I mention that I love boozy? This fades within a few minutes and we're left with caramelly smoke, with a bit of chocolate thrown in. Not a nice smoke, not a nice caramel. My own fault, I should have known, glad it's just an imp. I'll pass this off to someone who will appreciate it more than I do.

[zankoku_zen]

On wet, this was straight up caramel. As it dried, I got more of the chocolate and the pepper. On the drydown, I can definitely smell the pepper and the sweetness of the caramel with a faint dusting of bitter chocolate/cacao.

 

Caramel can be too heavy and sweet on me, and this is no exception... but I do have to admit it smells really $()#@*%@# good.

 

...

 

I'm hungry now!

[Schmoozy]

 

This is definitely an interesting combination. It's sweet, salty and smoky all at the same time. I can barely detect dark chocolate in the blend, and was half expecting to see a darker oil like Dk. Chocolate and cherry. My decant has thick blobs or oil through out, just like boomslang. While I get whiffs of dk. chocolate every now and again, the smoky caramel and pepper are confusing me.

I am going to have to try this again before I fully commit to a bottle. I just can't decide whether or not I truly love it, like other chocolate box blends.

[IronMollyBlack]

Straight off it's spicy-peppery chocolate, with some creamy caramel. I do get a bit of a boozy note. The pepper burns off quickly for me, leaving a boozy-sweet caramel, with just a hint of dark chocolate. Every once in a while I get a subtle whiff of smokiness from the pepper.

 

It smells good, but it's not my favorite of the BPAL chocolate scents I own. I think the imp with do.

 

[lilirose]

On me, this unfortunately smelled like a touch of chocolate dripped into an ashtray. The smoke was unpleasant and way too strong, and honestly more "stale tobacco" rather than pepper. It's one of the few BPALs I've had to wash off, though I gave it a couple of hours in hopes it would morph.

 

I'm really sad, too, because it was the one of the Chocolate Box that I was absolutely sure I would love.

[meatcake]

I'm not exactly sure how I feel about this one. I was really looking forward to it, but its actual smell is somewhat unexpected. It has more of a caramel coffee scent than a dark chocolate caramel scent, which is nice, but it'll have to grow on me, I think. I should probably wait for the bottle to age a few months.