Trauervorspiel und Trauermarsch

[ladymeag]

Champaca incense, vetiver, red tea, and oudh.

I tried this one against my better judgement - tea and I rarely agree and incense blends have a tendency to go a little over to chemical-room-spray. Sorry to say, folks this one is no exception, though it's very well blended. So well blended in fact that... well, you'll see.

In the bottle: I can definitely smell the champaca and oudh's sweetness but I'm not detecting vetiver at all.

On my skin: Champaca's here, tea joins in and goes soapy. All at once, I'm hit with a spa-like memory. You know those blue salts they put in seemingly every pedicure tub in the US? Exactly like that. If tea agrees with you more, I'm detecting what could be a lovely tea-and-incense on a breezy afternoon feel behind the soapy-bath-salts overwhelm.

[LadyMedb]

Dark, yes, but kind of sour and powdery, and really not a fan of my skin, which is weird, because usually vetiver is so nice on me. In this case, it's just all sourness and muddle. Argh. Oh well.

[Caper]

I tried this without looking at the notes to see what I could pick out.

 

It seems pretty commercially-floral, but not overwhelmingly so, because I'm pretty particular about florals and I like this. It reminds me of Unveil the Grace, but that is probably my mind just putting them in the same category, because I just double-checked and there isn't much that is the same here.

 

It very strongly reminds me of the aisles of Cost Plus (now World Market) that I used to wander in high school. Lots of incense and neat boxes imported from India.

 

I thought this one was the most interesting in the imp, but I'm not feeling the need for a bottle. I am glad I tacked it on though because I keep having flashbacks to shopping with my best friend and scent memories are hard to come by.

[aoiphe]

Wet, this is prominent vetiver with a fruity note (the red tea?). Drying down, I get tea and smooth dark woods, with an almost soapy undertone.

I'm intrigued, but this isn't my most favourite incense blend ever.

[thekittenkat]

In the decant: Red tea and the champaca incense.

 

Wet: Eek! The vetiver is trying to drown the other notes, alas.

 

The dry-down: This, for all effective purposes, SN Vetiver became dry and harsh. Disappointing, as the cold sniff was so elegant.

[MCS4096]

This is what I call a discordant scent. I always find them fairly interesting to smell, but dont always find them wearable. This is a bizarre mix of deep smoky vetiver and high-pitched tea and lemon. The high notes do seem red, and juicy, and they are fascinating paired with the vetiver.. but in a kind of nauseating way. The throw is ok-- as someone else mentioned its a bit like an import store: incense and fruit and dry wood/grasses. I couldnt stop sniffing my wrist, but that was out of fascination, not pure love

[zankoku_zen]

Incense, vetiver and oudh. It's a smooth, incense blend. As it dries, there's a slightly red-tinged vibe to it, which reminds me to a Shunga.

 

There's a slightly sharp note on it that I catch on occasion, and I wonder if its the red tea. I have come to notice that BPAL tea's note can be kinda iffy on me.

[strahlend]

Very appealing in the decant and when first applied to the skin. I love the champaca.

 

It's kind of starting to smell like vitamins. I think it's the vetiver.

 

Ah, the champaca comes back after a brief stint of vetiver. It's lightly incensy, in an airy, almost fruity way, but with a bit of dirty depth to it.

 

Dries down to... it's nice, but didn't make a strong impression on me either way. It's a pleasant scent, but I'm not in love.

[milo]

Ooh, lovely incense. I recognize the champaca from Halloween LV, but there it is just a touch. This is just so nice and heady, though it makes my nose tickle a bit. I like this, but I do have a few incense blends, and it's not a scent family that I wear often. Still this is *really* good. Incense lovers should take note. I got the vetiver at first, but it kind of just blended in with the incense.

[stellamaris]

sigh. I thought I would love this one so much, but it has a very heavy note of Blergh that smells sort of like the residue left in a marijuana pipe, not that I would know what that smelled like. It's the same Blergh as in Expressive Head, but EH has Fabulous that overcomes the Blergh, sadly this is too heavy on the Blergh. I will gift it to my son, he may or may not be familiar with that Blergh smell, I believe he likes it better than me.

[Magycmyste]

Well, I love champaca and incense, but vetiver tends to not do as well on me, so this will be interesting.

 

In the imp: Sweet and sharp. I think I'm getting the red tea, but it sort of blends into everything.

 

Wet on skin: This is sending off an almost cherry bubblegum throw on my skin. Cheap cherry bubblegum. Sniffing my wrists brings out some woodiness from the vetiver and oudh.

 

Dried down: Same as before, with the red tea in the background.

 

Throw: Faint cheap cherry bubblegum. The longer it sits on my skin, the more I get the champaca, though

 

Verdict: *** Yeah, this one isn't for me. For once, champaca has not reigned triumphant, and the vetiver has kicked it into submission. I do like the throw, but not as much as Little Pythia or Touched Twice. To the swaps!

[JazzieCazzie]

Bought an imp in a decant circle

 

IN THE IMP: Oddly metallic. Cleaning fluid.

 

Dabbed -- ever so slightly up -- on my wrist and in the crook of my arm in the name of science.

 

WET: The tea just runs in and takes over and knocks the notes I like, such as champaca and incense, right out of the room and then spills a whole bunch of other crap too and messes everything up like tea always seems to do. And while PEACH BLERG is not listed on the notes, I think PEACH snuck in with tea just to be all fruity and make me nauseous. So I'm getting peach, tea, acridity and ickiness.

 

DRYDOWN: Why, oh why, did I not wash this off, you ask? Answer. I don't know. This is just bad bad bad on me and stinky too. But I'm sure it would be great on someone else.

 

OVERALL: I do not like this Sam I Am. And I can't pronounce it either so I guess that's just as well.

 

On a scale of 1-5, a 1.5.

[stellans]

Well, I had to look it up but now I can pronounce it (TROWER VOR schpeel), and what's more, I like it. In the bottle, I was a little unnerved that there was not much "there" there, almost as though I had received a bottle of RPG Neutral by mistake or something, but once on my skin the lovely notes of champaca, vetiver and tea bloomed. The oudh, which normally my skin amps above all other notes in a blend, didn't begin to show up until dry-down, and even then it didn't trumpet its arrival as normal - it merely slipped in, made itself at home, and played nicely with the others.

 

I like this blend very much, and it just might enter my Top 10 list if it ages as well as I think it will. So far, this scent has earned 4 of 5 stars from me. Well played, Beth, well played!

Edited April 14, 2015 by stellans

[Casablanca]

Freshly applied to my skin, Trauervorspiel smells much more rough than I expected. The vetiver is strong but deeply reddened by the tea and warmed by the champaca and oudh. What a curious smell. It seems more floral than just champaca flower, and I also get a red fruit note that smells like fake cherries, maybe with a pinch of rosehips. I'm just thankful I don't get rooibos from it.

Once this dries, I think I may have spoken too soon. It starts to smell a little armpitty on me in a way that reminds me of both red musk and rooibos.

A curious smell, but I can't say it's a good one.

[Cali]

Ah. Yes, i forgot that this is how vetiver smells (thank goodness, it is my #1 death note), but that makes sense. I hate this. xD

But anyway, i figured i'd try a skin test anyway, to be fair. I'm getting quite a bit of oudh besides vetiver being SO SO strong here, it does calm down a tiiiny bit on drydown. i am getting a reddish note (which would be the tea, though i'm not picking it us as being tea), and only vaguely getting the incense. ....Not at all for me, clearly, but someone would love this.