A Stroll Through the Quarter

[tativa]

Incense smoke drifting out from the basilica mingling with oleander, just-flamed bananas foster, and a splash of Dorian.

This is a really interesting scent. Seriously for the first few minutes its really strong really sweet bananas foster/ sundae... then it fades and takes us on a journey to a church or ceremony. If I really search for it I can still smell a little bit of the dessert that started the scent, but sadly that part lasts about as long (at least on my skin) as the real thing. But is scent locket or diffuser material for real... this is the most realistic banana note I've smelled in a perfume.

Luckly I like the dry down as well... It's a really deep and entrancing incense.

Incense though, not resins like how OM GAM is incense like. Like the kind that is already lit on fire, or in stick form in a box.

If you are scared of banana but love incense, give it a spin and ignore the first few minutes and see how a decant plays with your skin. I can smell the faintest bit of Dorian mixed in with the incense. Meanwhile, if you are a foodie who is scared of incense... this would be a highly skin dependent scent.

To be honest, it still is kind of morphing. I don't know if the scent is changing or my nose, but there are two vasty different genres that make up this perfume and flip flop in a Jerkyll Hyde kind of way. Neither is too overwhelming after dry down, but still distinctive.

It's basically Dorian's glutton cousin joins the priesthood, where he spends most of the day in church but still has the occasional sweet and high out with cologne.

Really complex scent that goes on a journey and wafts you through the complex city of sin.

[OctoberGwen]

WTF, banana? I figured this would be "scrub it off!" awful, but at the NYCC booth it was the one blend I could not stop sniffing on my arm. Something about the incense and, yes, banana really works. It's sweetish and unique and...I bought a bottle. An utterly shocking hit for me. (I should note here that New Orleans is one of my very favorite cities, so...I dunno. Maybe that has something to do with it.)

[ltrittipoe]

This was all, holy bananas, batman! in the bottle, but I tested it anyway The banana scent lasted juuuust long enough for me to start to worry, and then suddenly it's gone, leaving sweet incense with a hint of foody carmelized fruitiness way in the background.

 

I liked the drydown enough so that I did get a bottle, but the banana at the beginning almost scared me off! Don't be scared, it fades.

 

[ziggystardust13]

In the bottle and wet on skin - bananas foster!

As it dries, the foody note begins to fade into a soft and perfectly sweet incense. I don't get too much Dorian - but it's beautiful nonetheless.

 

Puddin' was spot on with this scent. Love love love

Edited October 15, 2014 by ziggystardust13

[Atrous]

Had to try this because Bananas!

Honesty, this scared me when I sniffed it in the bottle because all I smelled was nail polish remover.

Not to worry though. This dries down to a beautiful scent. Its a morpher.

When first applied to the skin Bananas Foster starts to bloom and keeps on blooming for awhile and then settles down.

Incense comes out next. The scent dries to a sweet incense. Bananas come off as fruitiness. It doesn't sound like it should work but it does.

I catch whiffs of Dorian but its distant As if someone wearing it just walked by.

[VioletChaos]

In The Bottle: Yup, that's some bananas, alright! But not just any bananas- to my nose, this smells almost *exactly* like Laffy Taffy Banana candy. Which I would've lived on as a child if I'd been left to my own devices, so I'm in already.

 

Wet On Skin: The banana immediately starts to tone down as the oil warms on my skin, even at this wet stage. And what comes to fill in the void is a beautiful, light incense. It reminds me actually, of a very light version of Midnight Mass, oddly enough.

 

Dry Down: Okay, so the "flambé" aspect of the bananas foster- that is, that which makes it caramelized- is now out. So what remains is a light, slightly fruit-based incense with some beautiful caramel note rounding it out.

 

In All: It might sound strange, but this scent feels holy, and silly and magickal, and, having just spent my honeymoon in NOLA a few months ago, I do declare that Puddin has done an near-impossible thing, which is transmute a place into it's essence and make it utterly wearable and sacred.

 

Well done, sir! Definitely a keeper!

[doomsday_disco]

In the bottle: Bananas! Plus a sweet creaminess that must be the 'foster' aspect.

Wet: The bananas dominate at first, but then the vanilla ice cream aspect of the banana's foster comes to the front of the blend, and it smells amazing. I was worried about the banana note in this (as I'm not overly fond of bananas), but this just... works, oddly enough! I am not getting any incense smoke or Dorian at this point in time.

Dry: The vanilla ice cream part of the banana's foster is the dominant note, mingling with the incense smoke. There is only a hint of banana now. This is absolutely wonderful. I can't stop huffing my arm! Sometimes I think I can detect hints of the Dorian, but those moments are very fleeting.

Verdict: I'm SO glad that I have a bottle of this! I may need to get a back-up bottle before it goes away.

[Antoinette]

This is all banana in the bottle but becomes a very pretty banana/incense on my skin. It's really very pretty.

[Leopard403]

Oh, la. This is lovely. Apparently my brain reads this banana note as similar to the Lab's buttery pumpkin, because that was my impression on first sniff. That slowly went away, replaced by what could be banana tea incense (if that were a thing). I never get that OMGBANANA that others have noted. I love that this is hard to pin down, because I think that captures Puddin's goal of making this about a theme, a memory, rather than a scent. Glad I got a bottle!

[zankoku_zen]

Caramel bananas, a hint of nuts and Dorian. As it dries, the bananas remain, and a slightly more resinous vanilla comes out. It's pretty much a resin vanilla-banana blend on me.

 

Slightly masculine, I do have to say.

 

It's warm, contemplative with just the right of silliness thrown in. Its actually a very comfortable blend.

[brilliantcat]

I adore Bananas Foster, in fact I just made a big batch of them to have over ice cream. This is very true to that caramelized banana scent when you're cooking the bananas. On me, the banana is super-potent for a few minutes (love it!) and then calms down and melds with the oleander, incense, and Dorian to form this incredible blend of what should smell totally strange but is actually totally wonderful. It's fruity, resinous, very slightly floral, and vanillic. I actually DO feel as though I'm walking down a NOLA street, passing an overgrown oleander bush, a cafe serving Bananas Foster, and a Catholic church with incense censors swinging. It hits all of my note loves.

[Jangzonrice]

In the imp: banana and Dorian with a little bit of incense

On skin: Dorian dominates with some incense, banana starts fading. There's also some soft floral in the background

Edited November 9, 2014 by Jangzonrice

[annemathematics]

the notes in stroll through the quarter play like songs on an album. each in it's turn, and then it's over.

 

bananas open, then soft and sweet incense, closing with dorian. each part of it is lovely but it doesn't last very long (a quick stroll through the quarter!)

[milo]

Smoky and foody. Kind of like pralines and caramel/brown sugar. Love to eat that stuff, but not to smell like it. It definitely smells yummy, and I really could go for something like caramel popcorn right about now. Very comforting, but I probably wouldn't wear it much.

[Gin]

I. Am. OBSESSED.

When I first tested it, I got almost acetoney (??) banana, then a whiff of flowers and church incense and I was like, oh no...

But then suddenly, it morphed into a sort of incensy vanilla bean ice cream. I can't even describe what it smells like, but right now I want everything scented with ASTtQ. I've been slathering it practically nonstop over the past few days. I don't get much banana except for the opening blast, and I haven't really noticed the flowers since that first test. The incense is somehow salty (??) and reminds me of All Saints' (at least my memory of it). And the final stage... is just heaven. "Incensy vanilla" is the best I can come up with, but I feel like that doesn't convey how amazing it is. It's so, so good. It's sweet and foody enough to satisfy my olfactory sweet tooth and the incense adds a unique twist and makes it a little more interesting and 'grown up' than my usual candy-sweet BPAL faves. If it wasn't an LE, I think A Stroll Through the Quarter would be a perpetual multiple-bottle purchase for me.

[DevilsCandyCane]

Ohhhh, this is *lovely!* As with the other two Lilith-y bottles I've fallen in love with, the initial description did nothing for me, but after seeing the reviews I gave it a shot, and I'm so glad I did

 

Wet, it smells like banana Nesquick, which I *love*, then as it dries it turns into a creamier banana icecream sort of scent, before Dorian starts to peek out from behind. And it's the very best parts of Dorian, all aged Dorian, the soft sugared vanilla tea note with a hint of masculinity, still tinged by banana icecream - I adore that this is so gender neutral while still being foodie. And it somehow manages to *smell* like being outdoors on a happy summery day, it's such an uplifting, happy-inducing scent. In its final stages there's a hint of incense, while the Dorian and soft banana remain, and this final soft comforting stage lingers quite a while on my skin (like a WHILE, it's been on for 7 hours now!)

 

I tried it in my scent locket about an hour ago, and at first I thought, oops, bad move - the banana got very strong and artificial, it reminded me of some peculiar banana Rizlas I bought in Amsterdam many years ago, and then mostly ate while stoned! After about 10-15 minutes though, the banana calmed down into the soft banana icecream stage, where it's basically remained, a little Dorian coming out now. It's very lovely and making me a bit hungry, which never happens with BPAL! Overall I think I prefer it on skin though, the complexity of the scent really shows itself more.

 

In summary, I frickin' *adore* this, and will be wearing it very, very often. It may even require the hunting down of a backup bottle!

[vanilla323]

It starts off as delicious bananas foster scent when wet. I love this banana though it's one of the best I've ever smelled. I like it better then Splatter Comedy's banana (loved that but hated the metal/grease note). When it dries down the incense scent comes out and is so gorgeous! It starts sweet and then turns sexy at this point. I do smell a little bit of Dorian too which is a nice addition. This is unique and special. The throw is good too.

[Aviatrix]

At first this is a lot of banana, but a little dark, like flambeed banana.

As it dries, more of the incense comes out and a little bit of sweetness from the Dorian. Not sure what oleander smells like.

It stays fairly close to the skin, but is quite lovely.

[SimplySyra]

Wet this starts with the bananas foster. I don't normally like bananas but this is not a fresh banana. This is warm candied caramelized banana and cream and it's quite nice. As it dries, I detect more incense. It's lovely and sweet with the bananas fading into the background to make room for vanilla. There is a hint of Dorian in the dry stage but on my skin at least he is just a faint murmur behind clouds of incense and vanilla.

 

The throw is stronger at the start but fades close to the skin as it dries, which is a shame.

 

Still, this is absolutely lovely! Very glad I picked this up.

Edited September 19, 2015 by SimplySyra

[TrailerTrashPrincess]

i finally decided to rehome this and so as it has moved on to a better owner, i thought i'd add my thoughts:

 

i love bananas. real ones (more black than yellow, please). fake ones (runts! milkshake from Sonic! Laffy Taffy [sorry Mitch]! hard candy sticks from Cracker Barrel!), etc. as long as it isn't green (*shudder*), i'm pretty much good with any form of banana.

 

i don't really get any banana here. a faint church-y sort of incense (no nag champa or frankincense). i also don't really get any Dorian. more of a burned sugar-incense-oleander. which in and of itself is nice enough, but it is so faint that it just doesn't work for me.

[Soupy Twist]

BAAANAAAAANAAAAAAAS in the bottle. Goes on as quieter bananas, which develops a brûlée note. Then there's a smokey, maybe incense note? Something uncomfortable in the back of the throat. (I'm not an incense fan.) Fades quickly.

[Catcircus]

This is lovely. It does start out like a very strong overly sweet banana. But when it dries it's a sweet incense. It's very rich and last all day on me. The incense smells like a fancy japanese one to me.

[aquazoo]

Starts out a little confusing. I’m getting a little bit of incense, but the banana seems to be creeping in. Finally I get an overpowering floral. It’s not bad, just not what I was hoping for.

[Little Bird]

This is such a fun, interesting fragrance. It starts off as a creamy banana candy (like banana laffy taffy or banana pudding) with a slightly boozy, caramelized goodness. Then a warm, slightly powdery, slightly smoky, soft, sweet incense note creeps in, reminding me of Midnight Mass and Feeding the Dead. I really enjoy bpal's creamy cake + incense blends, and this has a similar feel with the sweet, creamy banana caramel and incense. Over time, the cool vanilla muskiness of Dorian starts to come in and the banana fades away, but I still really love the experience of wearing this fragrance. It gives off wafts of incense, caramel and Dorian for several hours before it disappears entirely.

[Riezky]

In bottle: Acetone

 

Wet: Banana flavored candy/pudding

 

Dry: Incense, a bit of vanilla/caramel sweetness