Our Hearts Condemn Us

[zankoku_zen]

Keralan teakwood, Bulgarian rose otto, Himalayan cedar, and oudh.

Our Hearts is a heavily oriental rose and cedar. Very sophisticated Oriental blend.

[tinyvulture]

Deep, swirling, meditative rose. Glorious, rich teak and cedar notes. (Fresh cut wood, like walking in a forest, as opposed to lacquered, polished wood in someone's home.) Somber, transfixing in its singularity and beauty. I would wear this to do yoga.

[Atrous]

Teak, cedar, and rose all come out strong. The cedar and teak have alot of depth to them or maybe it's the Oudh that's giving this scent it's depth?

I can't speak too much to the Oudh since I don't have a great gauge on what that's supposed to smell like.

 

As this dries it takes on a bit of a cologne smell but retains the individual notes. thank goodness the cologne isn't overpoweringly male so it remains unisex. It's a warm, introspective scent with a medium throw. Something cerebral about this scent calms me. I love it.

[whataboutprom]

So far this is the only scent from the series that works on me. It's a lovely, forresty, earthy scent. When wet it almost smells like a single note patchouli accord, patchouli recreated using other plants. I don't get rose at all, either in the bottle or on my skin. During dry down this can smell somewhat dusty when I put my nose too close to my arm, but that is a common problem I have with perfumes. The scent is nice enough that I don't mind that.

[mymymai]

• ITI: Lovely teakwood and dusky rose otto and oudh create and old, pained, but hauntingly lovely scent that fits the name well.

Wet: The wood notes here are brilliant - it's clear, with what seems like lemon juice, honey, brandy and tea undertones (like a watered-down Hot Toddy), sweetened with rose otto and mellowed by oudh. This was nice in the imp, but it is fantastic on the skin!

Dry: As the scent settles, the cedar becomes dominant, reminding me distinctly of the cedar carved chest in my living room, but deeper and more natural thanks to the addition of the teakwood, yet the oudh adds a phenomenal indolent quality alongside the rose otto that is deeply meditative, earthy, warm, and seductive.

[Dark Alice]

This is just gorgeous. Woody, slightly sweet with a hint of rose. Damn it all to hell...another bottle I need to own!

[HerbGirl]

I love this perfume. Sophisticated rose infused cedar on me, and i love it.

 

Had to edit my review as i wore this last night while listening to the song.

This is like the ultimate sadness...the perfume matches the music and the sentiment perfectly.

Wet, this is all teak and a hint of cedar and a tiny tiny hint of rose.

Dry, this morphs into a sweet, sparkling rose tinged soft cedar. WOW.

I had a feeling this line would be amazing, but i had no idea how much i would end up loving these perfumes.

Edited November 29, 2014 by Herb Girl

[OctoberGwen]

Oh, my. I don't recall cedar behaving like this on me before, but all I'm getting is slightly sour pencil shavings.

[milo]

Starts out rather like a vetiver heavy blend, and ends up being a sour wood. The rose combined with the cedar is just not doing it for me.

[KaytiAnne]

Did not love it wet, but dry, it's starting to smell... dry? I like it a lot more now- note to self to apply an hour before going out in it.

[annemathematics]

on me this was a sweet cedary rose. or perhaps a juicy rosy cedar. at any rate, this blend showcases the beauty that comes from combining rose and cedar. good throw, long lasting. another scent that "hummmmms" in my nose.

[Minh Scent]

Beautiful, sophisticated blend. Light on the rose, magic on the wood. Took about 20 minutes to settle before the wow set in.

[Nicnivin]

I am SO happy that I gave this scent another chance.

 

When I first received it, my first instinct was to recoil: as someone else mentioned above, in the bottle it smells like patchouli re-created from other scents, and since I loathe patchouli with a seething passion, I cringed and backed the hell away. I did try it a few weeks later, but the cedar went sour on me and I had to scrub it all off within just a few minutes.

 

Well, it's been a few months now, and I decided to give it another chance despite the "huurrrblaarrghhh" reaction I have whenever I open the bottle... and I'm very, very happy that I did. I wouldn't have imagined that the scent could morph so much from the bottle to my skin, but it has.

 

Wet, it's VERY heavy on the cedar, hence the negative knee-jerk reaction I had the first time I tried it... but that dissipates a few minutes later and is replaced by the soft, warm rose otto. The teak and oudh seem to cradle the rose and keep it from going too high-pitched floral on me, and after about 15-20 minutes, everything softens into a very elegant, mature, woodsy scent with just a hint of rose. This really is startlingly beautiful, and I'm SO happy that I decided against trading it away.

[Ryvre]

So much throw, and it lasts forever! Unfortunately, it makes me smell like a cedar chest. My skin amps the cedar so hard that nothing else comes through.

[Little Bird]

I love the smell of real cedar (closest I've found to that is Solstice Scents' Attic and Olympic Orchid's Woodcut), because it has a pleasant spiciness and green tone to it. This doesn't smell like cedar to me. It's sort of like pencil shavings + a hint of sour rose. Very dry, and slightly powdery in the drydown. This one fades fast on me.

[fiddlehead]

I wasn't very impressed with this when I first got it a year or so ago. It just seemed like light rose and cedar on me and disappeared quickly. Fast forward to today...and it's beautiful. The rose otto is definitely present now and the cedar lightens it and makes it airy. I dabbed some on my wrists to re-test this morning and just went back to slather. Might need another bottle of this to age.

[Samuraibrarian]

Now I feel less embarrassed about my occasional difficulty with discerning between patchouli and cedar! This one goes on like a more rosy/floral version of Owl Moon (patchouli and honey) and then takes at least an hour for the individual notes to open up, breathe, and be identifiable as themselves.
Having listened to the eponymous track, I feel like this is a good illustration of a Tudor/Elizabethan lutenist at practice. You get the lute (teak and cedar) and a little rosewater and sweet oud, from the musician's eau de toilette.

[Casablanca]

Red rose and rich red cedar, with a little teak and oudh coming in on drydown.

 

Despite listing no resins, Our Hearts has something of a resinous quality to me within its rose and woods, giving it an oriental feel. Something here is reading as frankincense-like.

 

The blend doesn't last long on my skin, though: not much more than an hour. Its balance is consistent through its life.

[theseagrows]

i was hoping for the cedar to be subtle, but of course i amp it to 11 and it's all pencil shavings with a hint of rose. daaamnit. it almost works, if that cedar wasn't so prevalent.

[LizziesLuck]

I had been on a BPAL hiatus and came back shortly after the OLLA's were released - the really popular ones had already sold out. I tried to track most of them down to try, but there were a few I missed, so I was really stoked when they came back (and of course to snag back-ups of all my faves!)

 

Wet: Immediately that gorgeous teak note comes to the forefront - like the teak from Antikythera. But then the cedar comes and stomps all over it. I was hoping a few months would be enough aging to take the edge of the cedar - it wasn't. I do like cedar, but I have learned the hard way it's gotta age quite a while before it's good on me. I can't even smell the rose in this at all, and the teak is only barely detectable beneath all that cedar. Maybe it will dry better?

 

Dry: It does settle a bit, and some syrupy rose comes out, which is nice. The teak is there, and it's gorgeous. But that cedar...it really just needs to age. It's hovering somewhere between pencil shavings and BO and the wonderful warm woody scent it wants to be. I'll keep the decant and age it and see what happens!

[Teamama]

Oh, Baby! I regret not trying this earlier. I was afraid that the teak might dominate, or that the oudh might be the one that is too intense (fecal) on my skin. Nope & nope. I'm so happy I obtained a decant: it's PERFECT.

Our Hearts Condemn Us is more cedar on me than teak; I love BPAL cedar. The rose otto & oudh are exactly in balance: the rich sweetness of the rose keeps all that woody, resinous goodness from being too dry.

On my wishlist for a bottle, ASAP.

[DigitalCoyote]

This one is not for my skin.

 

I smell like someone poured sour oil with a whiff of rose  in the classroom pencil sharpener.

 

 

#BPALphabetAUG20

Edited August 25, 2020 by DigitalCoyote

[Poenari]

I somehow forgot to review this, and it's one of the OLLA scents that I even needed a backup bottle of! The teakwood is present and the cedar doesn't turn to pencil shavings. The rose is tempered and deepened by the woods and the oudh, and the overall scent is elegant and absolutely gorgeous.

[windbourne]

I really wish this were something I liked and wanted to wear, but I just don't enjoy cedar or teak and those are the strongest notes on my skin. The rose otto and oudh are there, but this is almost entirely pencil shavings, antique store, and sadness on me. Low throw, doesn't last too long on me, better for those who like *waves hands* that sort of thing. Don't get me wrong, I'm not against wood & rose scents, but I really prefer sandalwood or pine or rosewood or literally anything other than cedar or teak. Later on it becomes mostly rose oudh, which is fine and I like much more, but I also have Elizabeth of Bohemia, which is that from the get-go and skips the parts I don't like. ^^;

[QueenProserpina]

My ninth BPAL fragrance, October of 2023. Sweet, bright, juicy rose and smooth wood notes, an extremely elegant blend with good staying power and medium throw. Another classic! As of mid-April, a darker, more bitter base note has emerged-- the teakwood? In early June, the notes have rebalanced again, with woody notes coming through strongest on skin and rose shining through on fabric, along with the coolness of sandalwood, something honey-like, and a resinous note that might be mistaken for frankincense, while also being reminiscent of myrrh and opoponax, which must represent the oud.

Edited June 5 by QueenProserpina
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