Velvet Dogs Playing Poker

[voodoocatwoman]

Smooth wood, sweet pipe smoke, tonka, and Irish coffee.

My first impression after applying a bit to my wrist? Dog. It smells like dog. Drydown thankfully gets rid of the dog smell and in its place is something that reminds me of an old candy called Bit o Honey. I don't get coffee.

Not unpleasant but not what I want to smell like either.

[filigree_shadow]

Nummy. I'm pretty sure I can smell all four of the listed notes for this scent. Probably the most prominent one on my skin is the wood note, but it's not the sort of scent that you sniff and think "That smells like wood." Yeah, it has a woody tone, but it doesn't smell like a stick of wood. The coffee and pipe smoke are really good in it.

 

My husband tried it on when I got the decant a long time ago, and it got the raised-eyebrows "Ooooo!" reaction from him. So now he has a bottle of it. It's too masculine for me, but it smells GREAT on him. He loves scents like Misk U, and this one has a similar feel.

[annanwater]

Oh my god I love this scent. I didn't do a bottle sniff test, but on my skin it's all wood and pipe tobacco notes (no coffee, which I consider a good thing). I think this is one I'll be reaching for on a regular basis (but I'll try to ration it to the best of my self-control's ability).

 

[Geminirubyshoes]

I'm pretty sure that if Hugh Hefner ever ventured into the world of Black Phoenix, he would wear this. That's all I think of when I first put this on.

The combo of all these notes is very snuggly and comforting, this reminds me of my dad and that makes me love it alot. I have no regrets about buying this and will keep it forever.

[missTallulah]

To my nose this is the perfect combination of the notes listed. The sweet pipe smokes rises first and the smooth wood curls around it. It's sweetened just enough by the coffee. I just love the way the notes are quite distinct yet perfectly in harmony. This is different but better than I imagined.

Joy!

[strahlend]

If I could slather myself in this from head to toe and roll around in sniffing myself all day that is exactly what I would do.

I can't remember the last time I felt this excited about a blend. Which is not to say that there aren't a whole bunch that really ring my bell... but this one... this one makes me feel like if it were a person I would declare my unending love and run away with it in the night. But what does it smell like? It smells mostly like wood and coffee... but that just doesn't even begin to cover it. This is the wood like an old room filled with heavy wood furniture when all the walls were real wood panels. It makes me think of dark wood, like mahogany - but I'm not really sure. There's a smokiness too, like in this room there have been many pipes of expensive and fragrant tobacco have been smoked. There's a rich sweetness and a hint of booziness that deepen and intensify the atmospheric feel. This is a room I never want to leave... it's dreamy and serious and inspirational and comforting and super sexy - all at once. I'm on a mission to hoard as much of this as I possibly can, starting right this minute.

Edited May 7, 2010 by strahlend

[Venneh]

In the decant, I'm getting wood, smoke, tonka, and a hint of the Irish coffee. On my skin, wood, tonka, smoke, and a bit of coffee, and fading quick.

[Delirium1009]

In bottle/imp: I smell alcoholic coffee and a finish of tonka. Very creamy but a little bit too alcoholic for me.

 

Immediately on skin: This smells like nutty, rubbery and alcoholic coffee. The nuttiness is the wood, I think. This is very fragrant, rich, and warm with a touch of spice.

 

After a little while: This smells much the same as when I first put it on: nutty, alcoholic, rubbery coffee. It’s an interesting scent, but a bit powdery on me.

 

Overall Impressions: I was hoping for a scent close to Pinched With Four Aces, but this blend falls a bit short. Still nice, an alcoholic coffee scent with just a touch of annoying rubber and powder. I wish it worked a bit better on me.

[Penance]

Origin:

 

5mL from MotherKat.

 

Preconceived notions:

 

There was a time not so long ago that any scent with coffee in it was an instant "no" for me. I wouldn't even try them (unless they came my was lagniappe and even then it was iffy). But lately I've been finding that coffee scents can work and work well on me and I'm much more open-minded about trying them as long as the other notes are ones that work for me. But I'm still a little nervous about Velvet Dogs Playing Poker. I think my hesitation is as much about the tonka as it is the coffee. Tonka's had the potential to go very wrong on me lately for reasons I don't understand, so I get a little gun-shy around it. But Velvet Dogs sounds good in spite of the potential for disaster and I'm looking forward to trying it in spite of my reservations.

 

First sniff:

 

Dusty wood, coffee and smoke. This is going to sound like an insult, but it's not, I swear. Velvet Dogs makes me think of the VFW hall my grandpa spent all his free time in when I was little. It always smelled like smoke, coffee and old wood with an overlay of dust. And as strange as it must sound, it's not a bad scent at all. This is a nostalgic scent for me in the bottle, although I'm sure that not everyone would find it appealing.

 

Wet on skin:

 

Harsh, smoky coffee (slightly scorched smelling, like it's been in the pot too long), dusty wood and smoke. It's very similar to the bottle scent, but just a little more rough around the edges. I genuinely like this, although I can definitely see my husband turning his nose up at it. That's par for the course with the scents I like, though, generally. We have very different tastes in scent.

 

Dry down:

 

Velvet Dogs smooths out quite nicely as it dries down. The scorched, stale coffee smell is gone, the smoke has sweetened considerably and I'm left with a nice, sweet pipe smoke (a combination of tonka and the sweet, smooth scent of burning pipe tobacco), coffee and wood scent. It's still slightly dusty, but nowhere near as much as when it's wet. I don't get the Irish part of the Irish coffee in this. I don't smell Bailey's and I don't smell whiskey (which rules out both types) and instead I just get regular coffee. It's a fairly masculine scent, but definitely not unwearable for a woman (obviously, since I'm wearing and enjoying it).

 

The bottom line:

 

I really like this! Another coffee scent winner. I think I may be a convert.

 

In the hierarchy of my newly-discovered favorite BPAL coffee scents, Velvet Dogs Playing Poker ranks below The Arabian Dance and Misk U v3 and above Misk U. It's fairly different than any of them, though, thanks to the addition of the wood and pipe smoke. Definitely a keeper, although I'm fairly sure that it's not going to be a scent that everyone around me enjoys. That's business as usual with my preferred scents, though.

[malibusunny]

first impression: wood and chocolate, a little musty. Stays exactly this after half hour. Now, after a few hours, its coffee in a headshop, sort of misk u.

[calivianya]

I had some apprehensions about this scent since the Lab's Irish coffee note does not work on my skin sometimes, but I couldn't help myself when I saw an opportunity to swap. I'm really glad I did. At first sniff, the Irish coffee note threatens to dominate and sweeten this blend to the point of being nauseating, like it does in Miskatonic University. However, the woods and tobacco bring it under control so that on the drydown, this is a sweetened coffee/tobacco/woods blend. This is exactly what I hoped Miskatonic University would smell like on me, and I am very pleased to have a bottle.

[fufu_berry]

In the imp: Drugstore perfume aisle. Oh crap, is tonka going to do the same thing that evil, evil vanilla does and make everything cloying and generic?

 

On wet: Baby powder. Damn damn damn.

 

Drydown: A little bit of sweet smoke, but still mostly baby powder.

 

Later: The woods are coming out a little bit, and I get a teensy bit of coffee, but it's still cloyingly sweet. I'll give this one more chance, but I don't think this is the coffee blend of my dreams. :/

[BuxomM]

sweet pipe tobacco, and smooth wood/tonka. It's smooth and not as harsh or strong as it seems like it would be. It fades fast and I get no irish coffee.

Edited May 7, 2013 by BuxomM

[Ajila]

In the bottle - A chocolatey cologne smell

 

Wet on me - A cologney tobacco scent with an underlying sweetness

 

Dry on me - A soft hazy vanilla like/but not vanilla sweetness

 

Overall - I don't really know why, but this doesn't really grab me

[Lucchesa]

I adore the name, but Velvet Dogs Playing Poker is one more disappointment in my search for a perfect pipe tobacco scent. I seem to be anosmic to the Lab's pipe tobacco note; I don't perceive it here at all, though there does seem to be perhaps a little cigarette smoke. The wood is the strongest note on me, then a little tonka, strong black coffee - not getting any booze or creaminess. Not particularly sweet on me. I don't think this decant is a keeper. Not a fave.