Dark Chocolate and Pepper-Smoked Caramel

[eoifemacbeth]

Dark chocolate and pepper-smoked caramel.

This smells exactly like Miskatonic University on me. Which is tragic, because I really dislike the slightly-burnt-breakfast smell that Misk U (and now Dark Chocolate with Pepper-Smoked Caramel) makes on me. I didn't have very high hopes for it, but I'm sad it went so wrong.

[ephemera]

In the bottle this smells like too-dark chocolate with a slightly burned after-whiff. Immediately after application it had a similar scent on me, but happily as this dried down it got progressively sweeter. The caramel floated lazily up, but was saved from overt sicky sweetness by the pepper. The chocolate was nom-nom-y and my husband liked it quite a bit. All in all, I think I may want to get a bottle of this.

[Ajila]

In the bottle – Caramel, light caramel, not the thick oozing stuff I was expecting and just a touch of pepper

 

Wet on me – Coffee, caramel and something slightly aquatic

 

Dry on me – Quite a dry, salty, almost dusty caramel, which does warm up into something buttery and sweet, but at the same time very dark

 

Overall – I like it, but I was expecting to be blown away by it and I wasn’t

 

[TheOneTheyCallLuna]

First impressions: Hmmm, El Dia de Reyes mixed with Love's Philosophy. Actually, it's been on for a few minutes and that's still what I'm getting. The same dark, sophisticated, spicy chocolate from El Dia de Reyes, tempered with the cream cheese frosting note I am so in love with from Love's Philosophy's wet stage. As it dries, the caramel comes out a little bit more and....

 

ZOMG!! Sweet, smoky, chocolicious spiciness...This is dark and classy! Just how I likes my chocolate fragrances! Though the bottle art is spectacular, I think I could have survived on just a decant of this one...

 

ETA: I take it back, my preciousssss, all of it! I NEED a big bottle of this! NEED, like air and water to survive! I was onto reviewing another blend, and kept getting wafts of the most delicious something-or-other ever in the whole universe, and guess who? Dark Chocolate with Pepper Smoked Caramel wafted up my nostrils screaming, "Don't you ever underestimate me! I'll show you what I'm made of and you'll regret taking me for granted! MARK MY WORDS!!!" So, yes, it's taken a few minutes to get to the orgasmically delicious stage here, but now it's all El Dia de Reyes, plus Love's Philosophy, plus the caramelized brown sugar note of Sugar Skull, with smoke, b*tches! On second thought, I might need ten bottles of this one!!

 

Edited February 25, 2009 by TheOneTheyCallLuna

[thelaurenator]

Mmmmmm. This is my favorite, as I ADORE caramel, pepper, and chocolate. This is a deep, rich caramel with just a hint of pepper and chocolate.

 

Luuuuurve. I smell delicious!

 

EDIT: Ew, it quickly turned into bbq sauce on my skin. NOOOOO!

Edited February 27, 2009 by thelaurenator

[ophidiae]

In the bottle this smells good enough to eat. Once it goes on my skin, there's a whiff of chocolate followed by a brief flash of caramel, and then it goes sharp and acrid. It's the smoke note; on me it smells like burnt plastic. Once it dries, it softens a bit and I can smell the chocolate and caramel again, but there's still that lingering burnt plastic smell mucking things up.

 

Now, there are certain notes that I can't wear when I'm all PMS-y because my body chemistry plays havoc with them. Usually chocolates are good, but that smoke note is just not agreeing with me for whatever reason. I'm going to hang onto the bottle, and try it again when I'm not hormonal, see if that makes a difference. If it does, yay. If not, this goes in the swap pile. :/

[AmandaArcana]

This is so cool! I diddn't mix the dark sludgy up and just applied it as is...started off as spicy chocolate and carmel. When it dried it smelled just like smoke from a summer campfire...I mean JUST like it, with a little chocolate in the background. Smells like making s'mores!!!! Yum!!!! Even when I mixed it up it still smelled like campfire with a little caramel. So friggen' sweet!!!!

[amanderinorange]

Due to my (unfortunate) experiences with the rest of the box of chocolates that I ordered (save for the white choc strawberry) I didn't actually try this one on. Instead I used my guinea pig, er, husband to try it out.

 

In the bottle: very dark and slightly sweet smoke. Strange.

 

On him: Much like Misk U, which on him turned awful. Not a good start, but after a minute or two it turns into a slightly sandalwood(or cedar)-burnt caramel smell. Very nice!

 

Overall: I really like this on him! I think I will end up keeping it to slather on him.

 

I actually got some on me by accident when I linked my arm with his. Surprisingly it smells lovely when layered with The Rose (which is what I had on). I might have to start layering it.

[awesomeoverlord]

Imp: Nondescript chocolate note.

 

Wet: Much of the same, though the caramel does start to peak out a bit more. Very very sweet and chocolatey. Definitely a foody blend at this point.

 

Dry: Wow...what a difference. My skin eats chocolate for breakfast, so that part disappears pretty quickly. What I'm left with is an awesome smokey, spicy caramel. The foodiness has definitely lightened up a bit.

 

Verdic: I probably won't need a bottle of this, but I'm glad I got the decant to try.

 

ETA: Never friggin' mind...this is the first one that had elicited anything more impressive than a noncommittal, "yeah, that's nice" from my manperson. Also, a couple of hours and it's the BEST spicy caramel incense! Might need a bottle after all...

Edited March 3, 2009 by awesomeoverlord

[Gwydion]

In bottle: The chocolate note balances the caramel well with the pepper giving an interesting edge. Wet: The pepper really comes out on the skin. It’s pleasantly unusual. Dry: Fades rather fast, though the mix stays pretty steady

[djsiberia]

wet/in imp: dark cocoa, caramel and pepper

 

on: dark cocoa, sweet caramel and smokey cloves.

 

i'm amping the smokiness hardcore. carmale makes a sickly sweet appearance....it reminds me of the caramel in red lantern which i got sick of mid-bottle. i'm amping what i assume is clove? either way it's seriously delicious. cocoa is there...just not as strong as the smoke...slightly spicy too.

 

maybe a bottle...if only i could decide if i was going to get sick of the caramel scent.

 

 

[angelicruin]

Sniffing the bottle, it's mainly caramel to me.

 

Wet on the skin, it's still mostly caramel, but I can definitely the smell the smoky note (for those who do not like smoky notes though, it's not unpleasant.)

 

This reminds me of melting caramel over a stove and that point where it's just about to begin to burn, but hasn't yet. Does that make sense?

 

I'm really not getting much chocolate with this. My skin amped caramel to the exclusion of all the other notes. I still love it though.

[dreadpiraterustypants2]

expectation-

spicy smokey cocoa, caramel adding warmth-

imp-

mmm-yummy. almost boozy in its richness. certainly a cocoa coated caramel!

wet-

yum, the same! (what I had wanted from Gelt really.)

quite a lovely foody blend, not a plastic-y note to it!

a possibly ideal cocoa scent, doesn't seem to much more complex than that. waiting on the pepper/smoke-

(tiny bit later) ah, yes-the smokey quality is here.

coffee whiffs?

drydown-

mmm-caramel goodness!

verdict-

does remind me of Misk. U. It's got that boozy warm coffee chocolate goin' on.

One of my fav chocolate's so far~

[femmefatale]

I loved this one and then I remembered why. Is smells much like Gluttony does once it's dried down. I guess my skin amps the chocolate and caramel.

I'll keep my decant, but probably won't get a bottle since I can just get a bottle of Gluttony once my imps run out.

[marared]

Ohhhh man this is yum. It's pretty heavy on the caramel when it's fresh out of the bottle, but the pepper very quickly tames the sweetness and keeps it from turning foody. The caramel comes back into play ten or fifteen minutes into the drydown, but it's just walking-past-the-chocolate-shop sweet rather than diabetic-coma-inducing sweet. I don't get the booze that some other people are smelling (thankfully!) but it does have a bit of a gourmand-coffee aroma to it. Not much throw, although the bottle is still a bit cold from the mail truck, and that may change when it settles.

 

I wonder how this would layer with Boomslang? Hmmm...

 

Further edit to note that after a couple hours, it dries to pretty much straight-up pepper.

 

Even further edit: nope, doesn't work on me in the end, and I think the culprit must actually be the *caramel*, due to a nearly identical drydown with Gluttony - kinda burnt and ashy. It was so good to start, but I can't keep it.

Edited April 11, 2009 by marared

[AlarmAgent]

In Bottle - Just chocolate so far, dark chocolate definitely, but I don't get any caramel or pepper.

 

Wet on Skin, First Applied - Mm, deep, dark chocolate, with pepper. This smells a lot like a kind of cookie I made (I might've even gotten the recipe from this forum somewhere!) that was bitter-or-semisweet chocolate with a little black pepper added to the dough. They tasted delicious, and smelled really great.

 

Dry, on Skin - Alright, yes. This is absolutely the top. Totally just perfect; not at all too foody, it is exotic/perfume-y enough that people probably won't immediately think "oh, chocolate candy with...pepper?" but it is undeniably chocolate/cocoa influenced. Just to sniff it without any knowledge of the name, or what the notes are supposed to be, someone might sniff a few times and realize chocolate--but it is not immediate. More of a bittersweet cocoa scent, and I love it so much. The caramel doesn't make itself known, but from what I can tell my chemistry just drowns caramel away, anyway. I do get a salty, very mild peppery scent mingling with that gorgeous bitter chocolate though--that gets stronger as the day goes on. Salted caramel, with very dark chocolate--but you aren't going to smell like smeared fancy chocolates all over your wrists and neck, necessarily. More gourmand or chocolate-inspired than it is foody. This lasts awhile, too, much longer than the other chocolate box scents I've tried. The throw is moderate, but I've yet to slather (trying to save my decant until I get my bottle--which may end up being multiple, anyway). One of my favorite BPALs yet. I definitely get the coffee vibe, too. Just perfect. Aging, I can't even think of yet. I'm sure it will only get better. If you like chocolate or cocoa-based scents at all, you really ought to try this before it goes away. It is very different than the average sweet, candyish chocolate scent. It is as dark and exotic as cocoa can be.

[catatonic1242]

Backstory: Because I work out-of-state Monday-Thursday, I sent my girlfriend to the Dirty South Will-Call with a list of things that I wanted to try if they had them in stock. This was there, but she sniffed it, decreed that she didn't like it in the bottle, and brought me home White Chocolate and Strawberries instead. I did finally get my hands on it when I bought the last bottle at the Roswell Whole Foods.

 

In the bottle: Spicy caramel with a subtle note of chocolate in the very back. Mostly caramel, though.

 

On, wet: Lovely and spicy, with just a hint of something that makes me think, "clean." I don't know what that is.

 

On, dry: Caramel and dark chocolate, so sweet as to be almost cloying but not quite. It's very nice, although four hours later, my skin has soaked it all up and I can only smell it if I hold my nose directly to my wrist.

 

[pacifick]

Bottle; chocolate, a little caramel and pepper. Yum! Dry...smoke. I smell like a fire. ):

[tartchef]

As a (former) pastry chef, I had to try this, if only because the combination of notes in real life are unbelievably tasty... but, of course, it is a disaster on my skin. Not as huge a disaster as I'd expected - the black pepper definitely cuts through the worst of the Gluttony-esque choco-caramel sludge, putting a little smoky, hot kick to things.

 

But really, I end up smelling like I melted a bunch of MilkyWays in a pan on the stove, let them burn a little, smeared the scorched mess on my hand & ground a little pepper on top.

 

When, oh when will I learn?

[damiel42]

Mmm.

 

In the bottle, this smells a little odd. I wasn't so sure about it - very little chocolate smell, with the weird sweet caramel taking the lead.

 

Then... Oh, my. It's the caramel of Gluttony, the not-so-cloying one, with the smoky, deep spiciness that I get from the L'Autunno bath oil. Maybe I didn't mix it enough, but the chocolate is very subtle. And I LOVE it.

 

I told myself that this would be the last order. *sigh* Must get more of this.

 

Get it if you like the L'Autunno bath oil.

[simpsonmeredith]

This reminds me of Red Lantern so much that I had to do a wrist by wrist comparison.

 

On me, Red Lantern is sweeter and boozy caramel when it dries down. Pepper-Smoked Caramel is a darker, slightly-burnt caramel with heavy bonfire smoke. LOVE IT.

 

If you enjoyed Red Lantern, this really is worth a try. Personally, this is much sexier than RL. There is a lot of comparison to Gluttony in the reviews but that isn't the case on me. Despite being chocolate and caramel, the sweetness is definitely in the background but it's not a main player note-wise.

[UploadedLobster]

When I wear this, I am a confection. But not just any confection.

 

I am a superhero confection, with a secret identity. Like all superhero secret identities, it doesn't take long to ditch and get to the fun stuff.

 

The chocolate gets whipped off almost immediately to reveal--PEPPER! Dun dun da dunnnnn! And pepper saves the day from what might otherwise be a too-sweet, too-caramel scent. People cheer! There's a splash page with Thirteen flying away, waving to the joyous crowd! Next issue: it has to fight Troll!

 

 

Lobster Rating

better than: those issues where all the good guys are mind-controlled and fight each other while the bad guys eat popcorn

[sirensea]

Dark Chocolate and Pepper Smoked Caramel

 

In the bottle: I didn't even have the imp completely open before I said, very loudly, "Oh, wow, that smells just like chocolate." It's a strong, bitter cocoa scent. If you like your chocolate tall, dark and brooding, this is the perfume for you.

 

On my skin: This was a sniffie, and just enough for me to try it on, but I decided against it. I love the smell of chocolate, and I don't want to waste this just yet. I'll wait for a special occasion to dab on the bit left on the bottle.

 

This is an expensive LE to try and get a bottle of, but I wouldn't say no to some full imps of it.

[schackjj]

Burnt coffee? Why am I getting burnt coffee?! And more to the point, why would I want to smell like Eau de Who Left the Mr. Coffee On All Night?

[diamondstars]

Hmm..I had high hopes for this as I love anything smokey usually, but sadly it's not for me I don't think.

 

It smells just like Miskatonic University, which didn't work for me either.

 

I'm going to try it once more before I swap/sell just to make sure 100%.