The Feast For The Greatly Revered Ones

[riflmom]

Cacao mixed with ground maize, agave wine, and octli, mixed with herbs and spices native to central Mexico.

I ordered a bottle untried, partly for the novelty, but also because I love the lab's chocolate/cocoa note, and had high hopes that the cacao would be similarly wonderful. I was not disappointed!
The Feast was not nearly as foody as it seems it would be from the individual notes. It's just a happy scent for me!
Memories, memories... growing up in Southern California (right near the Lab, actually!)
Initially, the cacao and spices remind me of Ibarra Mexican Chocolate. And the delicious warm smell of tamales that Bobby Montes' mother made so many years ago. Things you just can't get in Pittsburgh, PA.
The agave wine lends a sweetness, and the herbs a dryness and complexity, that make 'The Feast' truly a feast of the senses -- I can't stop sniffing my wrist. I'm considering a back-up bottle...

note: The oil is very hard to mix - the cacao settled to the bottom and never really combined as much as broke up and floated dark bits throughout the bottle when shaken.

[Lamia]

A real 60's-era hippie's birthday cake: zucchini bread, gluten-free, molasses instead of processed sugar, with extra carob chips.

 

Ahhhh youth....

[crebbsgirl]

Ok, the wet stages of this one on me are just gross. I know, it's harsh to say that, but no other descriptor really fits. Just, gross. The cacao and corn and wine combine into a very disjointed scent. You can smell each component distinctly as they are trying to achieve harmony and it's really disconcerting. Once I toughed it out past the initial five minutes or so, it started to blend together a little better and after about 1/2 an hour it's a sweet earthy blend. Really quite nice, but I don't know if I want to put myself through the wet stages of this again.

[Little Bird]

I amp up spices, so I was happy when so many reviews said this wasn't too spicy, but The Greatly Revered Ones is intensely cinnamony on me. It has some extra heat to it as well, which kinda smells like chili pepper on me. There's a weird something in here that smells sort of gross and off underneath the spice (the maize? agave?) - it's just sickly sweet. Sometimes I think I catch a whiff of a dark chocolate smell in here somewhere, but it's not strong or constant on my skin. All in all, this is just a bit too spicy for me, and the other notes don't seem to be fitting in well.

[Neely]

I bought this un-sniffed full bottle just for the notes. The only one that made me nervous was the wine note, which BPAL's hardly ever works on me. My stupid chem changes it into grape koolaid. But not this time. This is really beautiful on me. The dark chocolate is the first note in the bottle and on my skin. Then it fades into the back ground and I get beautiful spiced wine. The maize is not really a note I can tell from the others, but it rounds out the scent as a whole. I love this so much. I really want a second bottle. I love it in the Summer, but it would be perfect for Autumn too. My friend said it was heavy duty and she thought it was a Fall scent. I love enabling.

[Gin]

The Feast For The Greatly Revered Ones starts out smelling like spiced hot cocoa. Dries down to a sweet, foody scent. It's not really chocolatey... I get more spices, and maybe the maize, and what I'd guess is th agave. It's almost too sweet for me to bear, and I *like* the sweet, foody ones. This is just sweet and foody in a different way.

[caitilarkin]

In the imp: spicy Mexican hot chocolate

 

Wet on skin: The maize note is coming to the forefront, which I thought would be weird but it's really yummy, especially with all spices. Cocoa and maize as a delicious combination...who knew?

 

Dry on skin: The cocoa recedes and the maize/spice combo blends with something sweet (must be the agave wine).

 

I like this best in its early stages--this might be one for my scent locket.

[terrenity]

In the imp: Spicy-sweet cocoa. -salivates- Normally I don't do foody but this is gooood...

 

On: It takes about thirty seconds once this hits my skin to go from total delicious-ness to all cinnamon, all the time. I can literally smell it changing with each sniff. I amp cinnamon like whoa, so I should have known better. It is a pretty nice cinnamon though, as far as they come. It reminds me of Christmas.

 

Later: The cinnamon finally mellows out and I can smell cloves too, with a touch of sweetness. It's also a little dusty, which is making me scratch my head. Giteone thought it smelled like old potpourri.

 

Overall: A perfect example of skin-chemistry fail. But I bet this would be delicious on someone else!

[mgrazulis]

I love the way this one smells in the vial...lots of pulque elixir, dried corn, cinnamon and dusty cocoa. Very savory, boozy and sweet. On my skin, it goes to straight up cinnamon and nothing more. One to try in the scent locket...no need for a bottle.

[Indigo78]

First on my skin, this is sweet and bold, with the spiciness giving me a slightly overstated HELLO. That is only for the first 10 minutes or so... and after that the magic starts. It's cocoa and maize competing for the top slot, but giving up and getting cozy at the end of it all. I really love the maize note in this. It is spot on and sweet, like the smell of just-plucked,sweet corn before the sun rises. The only sad thing is that it fades very, very quickly. After two hours I'm left with a whisper of (what I think is) the agave, but that's it.

 

It definitely does justice to it's inspirational concept, and even though its fleeting, I really like it a lot.. Bottle(s), please.

Edited July 29, 2009 by Indig0

[Ajila]

In the bottle - I would have said coffee and ginger, although that doesn't quite tie up with the listed notes

 

Wet on me - There's a lot of cocoa in this; I'm covered in big brown smears. Scentwise it's more herbal

 

Dry on me - Warm, dry herbs and spices that entice and draw you in

 

Overall - Amazingly this blend manages to be refreshing and comforting at the same time. A real winner

[zankoku_zen]

Spicy cocoa. On wet the cocoa is much more prevalent, and it makes me think of cocoa powder, as it does have that powdery feel to it. As it dries, I definitely can smell more of the cinnamon on it.

 

There's something a little more 'caliente' about this blend than el Dia de Reyes. If you want DdR to have much more of a kick, give this a whirl.

[sirensea]

This one reminds me of the smell that the cold season carries in. Warm, rich, like cider and chocolate. There's cocoa, but the ginger note overwhelms it, which is fine by me. It smells like winter... I can't wait to wear it then!

[sunshinedaisybliss]

 

 

Wowsers - this is a skin stainer! The oil in my decant (a surprise frimp from Stargirl - thank you!) is very dark brown, and it's actually left my skin a little sticky.

 

At first I get lovely warm spicey chocolate, like a rich liquer kinda smell. That initial warmth fades pretty quickly and it dries down to a powdery spicey chocolate. A very interesting blend indeed, very sumptuous and feastly (that is *so* a word!).

[voodoocatwoman]

I think we have a winner.

 

The Revered Ones obviously are chocolate freaks- this scent is spicy sweet cocoa both in application and drydown. It lasts forever- I dabbed two spots on my arm at 7:30 this morning and it is still going strong at 3pm.

 

Now I want hot chocolate. It's 95 degrees outside. This imp goes into hiding until the temperature drops at least 25 degrees or I get a walk in freezer.

[tinyvulture]

This is sort of like Centzon Totochtin plus wine and cinnamon. The rich cocoa pairs so beautifully with the fruity, sweet wine and the powdery kick of cinnamon. I’ve never had Mexican hot chocolate, but now I would like to! I’m so glad I got a bottle of this before it went away. I wasn’t sure I needed it because I have bottles of Centzon and El Dia de Reyes, but this scent shines as its own unique creation. Love it.

[yellowbread]

In the bottle, it was very much cacao- almost overwhelmingly so. As soon as it hit my skin, the agave wine and octli came out- again, almost overwhelmingly. As it's drying down, the spices are coming out and the agave is mellowing nicely; it's much rounder and mellower now. It's quite strong on me, as well. One drop goes a looooong way.

[milo]

Wet, this is candied fruit, kind of reminds me of Christmas, with cocoa and a touch of spice. Pretty quickly, the cocoa and fruit are gone, and we're left with single note cinnamon. I love my spice, but I'm wishing the cocoa was more there in the blend. Kind of reminds me of the '13' from Feb, in that the spices amped and the cocoa faded away pretty quickly. I'm betting my skin loves cinnamon, but I wish it didn't love me this much. Ah well.

[HamletsKeeper]

Bottle Sniff Cocoa & cassia, woody, bitter and spicey.

 

Wet Whoa Green & Blacks Mayan Gold Chocolate. Dry with a slightly bitter edge. Quickly morphs into straight cassia bark on me. Not sweet enough to be cinnamon.

 

Drydown Cassia bark on the floor of the amazonian jungle. The cocoa has long since deserted this party and left poor old cassia on it's own, lost and stranded in the wilderness, floating in a puddle of muddy water. Not really complex enough to be a scent. Kind of like the aroma of a hot chocolate, extremely fleeting leaving only this vaguely cinnamon wood.

[black_and_bloom]

Arm-lickingly good, this one.

 

This changes rapidly from bottle to skin. Once applied, I get a nice bloom of cocoa. The spice component is initially dominated by the cinnamon, but then it recedes a bit and behaves, allowing the other spicy parts to step forward. Not really sure what they are, but they are lovely. I really don't notice the wine note at all, and the maize is there in the background, giving this scent a bit of a foody base, but not overwhelming. I'm not a foody fan, but this is delightful.

 

 

[stardreamer]

In the imp and fresh on: Oh-oh, is this going to go burnt-sugar on me?

 

Drydown: That's much better. Whatever it was that was evoking burnt sugar goes away after just a few minutes, and the chocolate note comes up.

 

Long-term: Oh, very nice! Spicy dark chocolate, but the spices stay in the background; there's a bit of sweetness that might be the agave wine. It's a subtler chocolate than Bliss or Candy Butcher. I'm not catching any corn scent, and I don't know what octli is. This is a lot like Tezcatlipoca without the floral notes, which is a plus for me.

 

Bottom line: This is fabulous, a definite keeper. It's not going to be just a summer scent, either, and I may very well decant an imp to replace Tezcatlipoca in my traveling set when that one is used up.

[PeshaRocha]

In the bottle -- ohmygod I want to drink it! Richest food scent, too complex for me to pick out individual notes. Literally made my mouth water at first sniff.

 

Wet -- cocoa, corn, spices, something green and something flowery.

 

Dry -- Somehow the spicy turns flowery on me, not a good thing for someone like me who doesn't like flowery. But the corn and cocoa come through to add enough foodiness, warmth and depth to temper the flowery down to where I can live with it. A very lovely scent actually, but I'd prefer less/no floweriness. I was hoping for tamale in mole sauce but apparently it's being served in a garden. This will be great for layering though, which I love to do--will add either something spicier/sharper or something foodier.

[trinitysite]

Goes on chocolate/cinnamon and stays that way: Mexican hot chocolate, and more Mexican hot chocolate. Which is delicious.

 

I tend to veer away from foody, and there's something - perhaps the maize - that makes me certain that I do not smell like a bake sale. I really, really like this, and wore it every day for a fair chunk of the summer. I've been experimenting with cocoa-y scents recently and this is the only one that is not at all dark.

[othelloperrello]

Guy review:

 

This continues to be one of my favorites, and as I sit here about to sell my backup bottle for hard cash, I find myself having serious second thoughts. It's so good, and what's more I think it's aging and getting better yet.

 

So the obvious first notes are cocoa and cinnamon, and definitely ginger which gives a nice foody overtone to it. It's a given for me that chocolate notes fade quickly, which is sad, but there's lots of nice spice to fill in when that fades off. I think the maize adds to the wholesome baked foodiness as well, and reminds me very much of when I lived in southern mexico.

There's a sourness over it all that seems to be blending a little better the longer the bottle ages, which is great because it plays really nice now instead of poking out. Looking at the notes I see "agave wine and octli" - well, I've never heard of agave wine perse, so I decided to look up "octli" and found that it was pulque! I couldn't believe that was in there! It was one of my favorite things in Mexico and totally unobtainable in the US. Wow. This really captures it too, because it's very fermented and fizzy, which I feel really comes through.

One of the scent categories I collect are mexico scents, and this one really comes through. All in all, I would categorize it as a warm, foody scent with a lot of spice.

 

Who am I kidding? I'm not selling my backup bottle!

[milica]

Interesting and complex, I don't like foody scents at all but this is nice. It reminds me of the spiced cooked wine, with a bit of cocoa that goes away quickly.

 

I love spiced wine in the winter, but I don't think that I will wear this as a perfume. This is something I'd rather drink than wear.