NGG023

[fairnymph]

Deep golden oil. Dusty De Sade-style leather, cedar, a dry sandalwood note, musk and that dusty tumbleweeds note from Sacrifice. Reminds me a LOT of Sacrifice, actually, but with a more sour musk note and a sharper, stronger leather note. If this were a proto for Sacrifice or any sort of cowboy-ish scent, I wouldn't be the least bit surprised. Masculine, for sure! This is another one I need to skin test to analyse further.

[zankoku_zen]

For me, this was smoky, woody and ashy. It sort of reminded me to one of the Rappaccini Garden Blends, Apple of Sodom, minus the fruit. As it dries, I get a hint of leather.

[crebbsgirl]

I've never tried Sacrifice so I can't speak to any similarity here, but this is definitely the same leather from De Sade. This is a masculine and ruddy scent with leather and resins. It's a little dusty and there seems to be a bit of grass or something else green lurking underneath.

[sunshinedaisybliss]

 

NGG023 starts off with a slightly sour fruit tone when it first goes on, but it dries on the skin pretty quickly and that initial sourness warms down nicely. For me, leather is the dominant note here - but it's not a strong or sharp leather at all, it's that same soft tactile kind of leather in Sacrifice. A little dusty and musky - I suspect some very light sandalwood or musk in here. There's also a *slight* hint of sweetness, but it's not vanilla or tonka or anything like that - perhaps it's that fruit that I picked up at the beginning. Dunno.. that one's hard to pick, because it keeps fleeting in and out so I'm not sure whether it's really there at all.

 

I think this was at its best after about 30 minutes on my skin - at that point, the leather was soft and warm, it's like putting your face inside your well-worn leather jacket and having a good huff. What? Oh come on now.. you do that, I know you do

 

After an hour, it has faded quite a lot but the leather is still there - this really is quite nice, but just sooooooo similar to Sacrifice that I have to agree with fairnymph and say that this could well be the proto for that blend. I'm going to send some to a forum buddy who I know has Sacrifice, and see what she thinks!

 

Anyways, all comparisons aside.. NGG023 is really very lovely, and a definite must-try for anyone who enjoys their leather soft and cuddly.

 

[ami226]

Woodsy with a hint of leather. Not bad! Maybe a bit of a dust note as well? Definitely a nice manly blend. Quite understated. I think I am going to try slathering this on the SO and see how it is on him...

[Epiphany]

In the bottle is a very light, faint leathery smell with an offset of some sort of dried grasses or woodiness in the background.

 

Wearing it, for me, is sort of like Sacrifice light (this is a good thing). The leather is softer, more velvety, and the woods are muted (whereas I tend to amp that cedar in Sacrifice), in tone and texture of the leather (on me, anyway, my body tends to play with leather scents) it reminds me a bit of Liz, but with a woods/dried grasses/amber(?) pairing instead of that heady perfume. I am completely in love with this scent--it clings close to the skin, is somewhat understated, and it at once comforting and sexy.

[myth]

Something slightly powdery, a touch perfumey, but also slightly woody-resiny. Maybe. Sandalwood, is that you? … Developing a clean note. This is familiar. I might also smell leather.

 

Ok yeah, def leather, the clean note was that coming on, and it has a bit of that chemical tinge. Still powdery. The light powdery aspect makes it somewhat feminine, or at least, not as masculine as I find most of the dry leather blends like this one is. From the throw this isn't bad, but the leather is a bit chemical and dominates the blend, and I have other leather scents [Crowley, Doc C] that I like much better.

[bheansidhe]

Lots of leather, and the same kind of spice medley as Velvet Bandito. And tobacco. Acrid tobacco smoke, rather than wet tobacco leaf.

 

Very realistic leather drydown. This is actually making me a little queasy; there's a kind of grassy musk in the middle that isn't behaving on me. It's not you, BPAL; it's me. Off to wash.

[Little Bird]

I get a dark, slightly smoky leather from this and what smells like a very dry, dusty, slightly sour amber on my skin. Maybe a little bit of creamy/powdery sandalwood in the drydown as well. It's okay, but I have leather scents that I like a lot more than this one.

[HerbGirl]

I received a frottle of this in my last order (wow, right?!) and have only managed to sniff it in the bottle. It smells like stale cigarette smoke (almost ashtray) in the bottle and, as I just quit smoking in January, it is a major turn off to smell that. I will update this review if I ever have the balls to skin test.

[VioletChaos]

I got this as a frottle in my most recent order (thanks, Puddin!  ) and it's the first bottle of them all that I decided to test out immediately! 

In the bottle, it's very soft, though not like baby powder. Like if orris root had a cousin that was a bit more sweet and slightly earthy. Maybe it's sweetgrass? Despite my years (YEARS! Fifteen, in fact) of wearing / using / testing BPAL, there are still some notes that I can be surprised by. It's one of the things that keeps me coming back! So, if this IS sweetgrass, it's much more milk and less obvious than I would've anticipated.

Wet on my skin, it's warms very quickly. As others mentioned, this scent stays close to the skin, and with this warmth it emanates, I feel like that just doubles down on it being a skin scent. 

Drydown happens a bit more quickly with this scent than with some others, but since my own natural skin chemistry leans toward "spicy", that may account for how quickly this scent acclimated to me and made itself right at home. It's become a warm, spicy, woodsy scent. Very gender neutral, which I'm always in favor of. I get zero leather, which is a relief, as I normally amp that note to the exclusion of all others in any given blend. This is warm and cozy enough that I'd happily wear this all winter so that all my snuggliest sweaters might smell of it for months after. But the spice does lend a deep, sensual sexiness that I'm finding more and more beguiling the longer I scent it on my skin.

Lastly, I will say that, for me at least, there's an...aura, for lack of a better word...to older Lab blends. It shows up in alot of the original Tarot scents, for instance, but elsewhere, too. There's a signature that marks them all as belonging uniquely to the Lab- and this scent is no exception. It's something I deeply appreciate and it adds to the delight I'm experiencing with this scent that much more.

What a treasure!