In His Hands All Thy Cruelties Thrive

[FormerViking]

IN HIS HANDS ALL THY CRUELTIES THRIVE
Thou shalt blind his bright eyes though he wrestle,
Thou shalt chain his light limbs though he strive;
In his lips all thy serpents shall nestle,
In his hands all thy cruelties thrive.
In the daytime thy voice shall go through him,
In his dreams he shall feel thee and ache;
Thou shalt kindle by night and subdue him
Asleep and awake.

Gleaming black vetiver, bay laurel, opoponax, hiba wood, Spanish moss, clove, and leather accord.

My bottle arrived today . I usually don't do reviews of scents until they've had a day or two to settle , but I couldn't wait to try this so here goes . And this will be a short simple review . CLOVE ! And not a whole lot else . At least , not at this time . So , I will be back to see if this changes in the near future . I certainly hope it does , cause this'll be a huge disappointment if it doesn't .
And I'm back to slightly change my opinion . I do now get something more than clove , thank god . I now get some leather and definitely some smoke . Have to agree with others about the clove cigarette match . Maybe not as sweet as those though . I think if I really work my nose on this I might get a slight whiff of the wood and moss . But I may be imagining / wanting it to be there and am just hoping I'm actually getting those .

[Lycanthrope]

A little bit of smoked ham from the wet bottle, which on the skin remains ferocious and prowling. Not pretty at all. The darker notes of vetiver, opoponax and the hiba wood lurk together as a swirl of menacing, gritty deep woodsy tones. The leather is likely a dark, dark leather, and then as it dries down there's the powder sweet sharp of bay and the deep sharp of clove. It smells like what a leather bar should be, mysterious, dark, gritty, with a little smoke and clove cigarettes, and plenty of warm bodies graced in supple well worn leather.

[tziporra]

Tried at Will-Call.

 

This is very much the scent of a clove cigarette on me. Verrrrrrry smoky. Although I'm usually a sucker for smoky scents, this one is just too dry and masculine. It would be deadly on the right man.

[starfish327]

this is an exceptionally rare bpal. this got the 'midnight stamp of approval'-and my bf doesn't like bpal pretty much across the board.

 

it's is definitely in the scent family that people call masculine-on me this is a slightly less sweet/spicy take on the way that cloved cigerrettes used to leave me smelling. if nothing else i do like it for nostalgia reasons. if this had a booze note this is what clubbing used to smell like for me.

[greedygirl]

This one scared me not because it doesn't smell exceptional but the imagery that came to mind as I smelled it.

A dark haired man with dark eyes , he's smoking & the smoke is curling around him and you know he's trouble but your totally drawn to him and keep walking closer till your so close you can smell his cologne & the cigarette scent mixing with the warmth from his body . Your mind is telling you to run but a physical chemistry is drawing you closer..but you know he's full of dark deeds & evil intentions fear is sharp in your heart but you are powerless to move away and not sure you would if you could

 

it was very real to me as I smelled this and I am still a little disturbed by it all. won't be wearing this around bedtime ....

[JazzieCazzie]

Acquired via a decant circle this month (March 2013).

 

IN THE IMP: Actually indescribable. Really a unique scent. Even looking at the notes, I can't single any out but rather am writing down the images the combination evokes ... Food. Soup. Manly men. Bound-books. Sipping gourmet soup in a manly-man's library. And unlike most of the other (albeit few) reviews before this, the note I'm NOT getting is cloves. And honestly, it was the clove note that prompted me to order this.

 

Dab cautiously on one wrist.

 

WET: Still no cloves. Minty ... how odd but I'm getting mint, definitely. Not sure which note is creating that for me. Masculine, very very masculine. Still foody which I assume is the bay leaf since hubby uses that a lot when he cooks. Leather, wood, yes. Like a museum or a library. Or a museum library.

 

DRYDOWN: Well, one thing I can say for sure is that a little bit of this goes a long way. VERY strong and long-lasting legs. My wrist remains smelling like minty smoke and some guy's sinuous lair.

 

OVERALL: I think this would probably kick serious ass on a hot guy. But I'm not a hot guy. I'm not even a hot woman. So it is going into a little box of mostly-unimpable LE goodies headed to a very special forumite tomorrow.

 

On a scale of 1-5, certainly a 3 at least but not a me-3.

[brilliantcat]

Imp: Cloves and what smells like a mix of the leather and vetiver as I'm getting a sort of "greeny-ness".

 

Wet: Clove and leather. This definitely reminds of my clove cigarette and leather jacket days. I'm pretty in love with it so far.

 

Dry: Smoky clove and well-worn leather. Oh yes

[brilliantcat]

Imp: Cloves and what smells like a mix of the leather and vetiver as I'm getting a sort of "greeny-ness".

 

Wet: Clove and leather. This definitely reminds of my clove cigarette and leather jacket days. I'm pretty in love with it so far.

 

Dry: Smoky clove and well-worn leather. Oh yes

[Little Bird]

I feel like I would love this if it had more leather and I could tone down the vetiver and kick out the opoponax entirely. Opoponax always turns way too sweet on my skin, like someone turned a dark resin into a heavy, sugary syrup. The vetiver is very smoky and overpowering on me at first, though it does settle in to let a little more of the masculine spiciness of the bay & clove come through in the drydown. After a while, this starts to turn slightly powder on me (the way bpal's 'dusty clove' notes sometimes go), and I can never really pick out the leather. It's not awful, but probably not something I'll reach for again either.

[milo]

Lots of smoky vetiver at first with some spice. Dries to a masculine vetiver with a bay rum like vibe to it. This is quite nice, though I would never wear this, it would probably smell quite nice on the right guy.

[Reedsong]

Unnecessary TMI introduction: I just wrote a story that quoted this verse at the beginning, so BPAL had my money the moment this scent went live. It's about a half-and-half mixture of "yum" and "blech" in terms of notes, so let's see how this goes.

 

In the bottle: Is it possible to pickle resin? This smells like what I would get if I burned incense in the kitchen while eating a plate full of pickles, which sounds awful but is oddly charming. I like pickles! I like incense! Time to try it on!

 

On my skin: Oh, hey, it's that much-missed brown leather note! It's the same raw leather from Loviatar, the one that smells like chewed-up cowboy boots. Alas, there are no pickles. But there is leather....and spice...and resin...

 

Five minutes later, nose glued to hand: The leather is combining with the spices and the resin, and now there's a delicious dry clove. Wow, this is smooth...

 

Ten minutes later, nose still glued to hand: Dammit, fragrance! I have to work! I need to get things done! I cannot keep huffing my hand! But this is rich, opulent yet subtle, and there's...yes, there it is, some debauchery in there. Everything that everyone else wrote, about dangerous appeal and darkness, is absolutely true.

 

Fifteen minutes later: Attention, world: I will marry the person who smells like this, and we will never leave the bedroom.

 

Half-hour later: It's fading fast! Nooooo! It's BPAL doom: the perfect LE fragrance without staying power! Why did I not buy eighty thousand bottles of this whyyyyyy?!?!?!

 

tl;dr review: A dry, smoky clove with hints of sweet resin, comfortable leather, and musky sexy win. It's an intimate skin scent with almost no throw, and I think it would work for a wearer of any gender or sexual identity, provided one is prepared to wear it with a certain smoldering refinement. In fact, it's so magnificent that I was tempted to write a scathing review of it, so that I could buy it all up after convincing everyone else it sucked. In His Hands All Thy Cruelties Thrive is perfect for the verse, my favourite of the Lady of Pain update, and probably the best new BPAL I've tried in years.

Edited April 12, 2013 by Reedsong

[zankoku_zen]

Smoky clove and leather. Smoky dry clove, hints of wood and leather.

 

Manly, manly sexy clove.

 

LOVE.

[Quillifer]

I adore this, although it's not something I would wear often. I wore it this evening, determined to go out (indoor) climbing but dog-tired before I even left the house. It made me grin like a mad thing.

 

This is the opposite of pretty, of little girl, or even dressed-up, man-pleasing womanliness. But it's also very warm, rich, deep, - com-forting in the sense of promoting strength, but not in a zooming around energetic way, more in a sitting back in a chair, smoking a cigar, head back, feet up on a table.

 

Notes - vetiver most of all, my glorious best friend. Less green and grassy here than sometimes. Clove; laurel much later; I don't know what hiba wood smells like. A sweetness - I'm guessing opoponax.

 

I think you need a homburg hat to wear this Must get one...

Edited May 23, 2013 by Quillifer

[vthesiren]

Ack, I was hyping this up so much in my mind, but even during drydown... vetiver. Vetiver vetiver vetiver. I don't really mind vetiver (I like Saturnalia and Brimstone!), but this is smoky, bitter, and completely overwhelming. Where are the clove and leather I was so excited about? D: I'll come back to this in a few weeks and try again, but for now, I has a sad.

 

eta: An hour and a half later, I can sort of get a whiff of leather if I sniff indirectly. Still no clove to be found. I'll throw this on a family member later and see what happens.

Edited June 5, 2013 by vthesiren

[mymymai]

ITB: Oh, strong leather and vetiver with a complex sweetness from the hiba wood and the opoponax makes this an alluring and slightly dangerous scent.

 

Wet: There's a bit more hiba wood, clove, and opoponax here, but the vetiver and leather are still delicately sexy underneath the sweet resinous-ness of the top notes.

 

Dry: The opononax and clove take center stage, followed by the hiba wood, very light leather, and faint laurel. IT's absolutely gorgeous - dark, brooding, comforting, yet sweet.

[QueenofKings]

I have an imp of this and I want a bottle.

 

In the imp: strange chemical pickled salad.

 

 

Wet: Leather and vetiver and smoke. The opoponax smells sweet.

 

 

As it dries: And now I can smell the clove coming forth. Clove cigarette smell, but much softer. Like a clove cigarette whisper. And all smoke and leather underneath that.

 

Finally, I can smell the wood coming out, but still softly under the clove, smoke and leather.

 

I can imagine the man who smells like this. Where is he and how can I draw him hither?

[patina]

I was afraid to try this because of the bay leaf note. I thought it might turn out to smell like Old Spice. While it has a bit of a male cologne vibe, I'm happy to report that this is far more tolerable to me.

 

First of all, there's vetiver. I like some vetiver scents that smell burnt, like Maladiction, but they're usually too simple and harsh and I get tired of them after a while. It helps that the opoponax sweetens and smooths this a bit. This scent is strong and I'd expected it to be, but it's not as heavy as I'd feared. Probably because leather doesn't stick around long on my skin. Initially the bay leaves are a bit like pickles, but the effect isn't offensive and doesn't last that long anyway.

 

After some wear the clove becomes more prominent. I love The Hellgate of Ireland, The Smiling Spider, and Count Dracula and this falls right into the pantheon of awesome dark clove stuff. Sadly I will probably never find a bottle for sale.

 

2024 Aged decants So the original was more gleaming black notes including leather. Now, with aging most of what I get is clove and oakmoss. I may not need a bottle after all.

Edit: Tested a second aged decant. While dimmed, this one has retained some smoky vetiver and leather. Maybe a pouring issue with the decanters? it does seem like aging has softened both decants.

Edited February 27 by patina

[MCS4096]

I was powerless against a blend containing both clove and leather.. and with the other notes, I knew this would be a vetiver I could enjoy.

 

This is the smell of clove ciggies, a dirty leather jacket, and skin with a splash of cologne. Even though the notes describe something quite masculine, for some reason I always find the warmth of clove to keep such blends from being too masculine for my wearing.

 

I really need to death-match all my "clove cigarette" type blends (Smiling Spider, Gacela of the Dark Death, Mourning Lace....) but I have a feeling this is the winner.

[Lucchesa]

In His Hands was a frimp, and I wouldn't necessarily have chosen it; while I'm learning to love vetiver, I still shy away from it as the first ingredient. The imp had dark brown globules, like a cacao blend, which stained my wrist; in fact, the brown spots were still visible after a shower, so take care in applying. When I put it on, I couldn't really smell much -- strange for such powerful ingredients -- so I applied a little more. But In His Hands is one of those BPALs that take their own sweet time becoming what they're going to be. I kind of forgot it was there, and half an hour or so later was greeted by this dark, sultry, syrupy, smoky scent that was to die for. The clove emerged even later, and I never really picked out the leather, but it is gloriously sexy. Gender neutral trending masculine, awesome of course for those of us without a Y chromosome who like such scents. And despite the slow start, it smolders for a long time and was still lingering on my wrist this morning after yesterday evening's application. This is the best kind of frimp experience -- out of my comfort zone, into sheer enjoyment.

[Rane.]

This is a warm scent to me. The clove stands out with the leather. Overall this is almost a spice like scent, but it has warmth to it.