Black Silk

[sarandipitee]

A throaty laugh, a sinuous whisper: blackened sandalwood and bourbon vanilla cream with gleaming Haitian patchouli, animalic ambergris accord, immortelle absolute, white benzoin, and a drop of tobacco absolute.

Eek! First. Ok, I'm not the best at reviews and this is fresh outta the mailbox.

In bottle: Rich sandalwood with a sweetened, deep patch and a whiff of ambergris.

Wet on skin: Sweet,creamy with a sharp edge as the Haitian patchouli comes to the forefront.

Dry after about 10 min: Smoky patchouli - kinda reminiscent of a bonfire night I sampled last year but MUCH smoother. The tobacco is VERY soft in this so I don't get the raging headaches it can sometimes cause. The blackened sandalwood blends beautifully with the patch but I've lost most of the vanilla sweetness. I'm not very familiar with immortelle so I can't comment on whether it's appearing here or not.

Verdict: For a blend with such strong elements it stays very close to skin on me. The ambergris helps to temper the patchouli and the more time passes the smokier and softer it becomes. I'm really not feeling any of the vanilla cream but I think the benzoin is there. I'm just amping the patch so much that I'm having trouble picking apart notes.

This is a definite keeper just for the fact that I think even in 6 months I will be crazy about it based on how I really do like the wet stage.

Very happy I bought a bottle and I will edit this when I retest tomorrow.

[Ethaisa]

At first the patchouli is a bit growly beneath the dark, rich sandalwood, but they settle down into a lovely duet that sweetens as it opens up. I caught a hint of dark herbal in the bottle (the immortelle?) but it doesn't seem to come out much on my skin. The vanilla is subtle and becomes a bit creamier on dry down, but the real stand out bit for me develops late: a wonderful soft, drifty smoke. There's a hint of slipperiness to this scent. I'm very much looking forward to how this ages.

[Lady_Fire]

So I'm really super terrible at picking out scents, but for you guys I'll do my best. On me this is a very lightly sweetened sandalwood-tobacco scent. I cant really make out the vanilla, but there is a gentle sweetness to the scent so I know it's there. The patchouli is very well blended. I can pick it out, but it doesnt scream at me. I have no experience with ambergris or immortelle so I'm not sure how they are playing into the blend. As it dries I can sense the smokiness coming out the previous reviewers mentioned. It really is gorgeous.

[doomsday_disco]

In the bottle: The notes that are standing out to my nose are the patchouli, sandalwood, and tobacco notes. The patchouli note is a deep, 'chewy' patch (for lack of a better term) that doesn't smell hippie-like at all. The ambergris is present but not as prominent as it was yesterday (when it arrived – I decided to let it sit for a day before testing it since it is so cold outside). The vanilla cream note is lingering in the background, adding a bit of sweetness to the blend.

Wet: The sandalwood is the dominant note at first, followed by the patchouli and tobacco. I am getting the ambergris and benzoin notes as well. After a few minutes, the vanilla cream note makes an appearance. The ambergris note starts to become more prominent over time, and I think I may be smelling the immortelle note as well, but I'm not familiar with that note, so I can't be sure.

Dry: What I believe to be the immortelle note (I'm getting a floral note) mixed with the ambergris, the smokiness of the tobacco, and just a hint of vanilla.

*edit* Several hours later, the vanilla comes out more, and the combination of vanilla, immortelle, and ambergris is somewhat reminiscent of Lyonesse (which has a different vanilla and floral note).

Verdict: I waffled on this one at first because I was worried about the patchouli, but couldn't resist the vanilla, benzoin, tobacco, and artwork. I am glad that I took a chance on this one because the patchouli note wasn't problematic at all. I am going to hold onto my bottle. I can't wait to see how it ages!

Edited November 19, 2014 by dementia_divine

[Anaire]

Disclaimer: I had the same problem here as I do with Diamond Star (Ambergris accord, guiac wood, white benzoin, immortelle, and Somalian myrrh.), it's gorgeous for about 15 minutes then it disappears entirely from my skin.

 

Wet: It's dominated by Vanilla cream with a hint of the of a floral in it (I'm guessing the Immortelle?).

 

Drydown: I get a bit of the patchouli and immortelle before it disappears almost entirely and becomes just barely a skin scent. I supect this is gorgeous on the right person, but unfortunately that's not me!

 

[VioletChaos]

In The Bottle: The sweet dustiness of the ambergris and sandalwood in combination give an immediate early association with Tombstone for me, with the vanilla cream and patchouli mixing together for what I agree someone else in this thread called a "chewy" patch. It's almost got a fudge-like quality- though not in a foodie way.

 

Wet On Skin: Initially the sandalwood/ambergris dominated making it just seem like Tombstone v2. However, after about 90 seconds, it really starts to bloom and the benzoin comes out to play. There's a surprising warmth to this scent. I knew there'd be sweet resin involved but this "feels" really warm to me.

 

Dry Down: There's a way this scent keeps trying to fight for it's right to go powdery on my skin (immortelle, is that you?) but is held in place by the surrounding notes. I get no tobacco from this, which feel miraculous, as normally I amp that note to the heavens.

 

In All: Medium throw, though subtle- it can waft, but is more of a 'skin' scent, so resist the urge to slather, as you won't be doing yourself any favors. There are certain scents that for me are nearly the same as putting on a big comfy sweater and drinking a giant mug of tea while reading a good book. (Hod is one of those, for point of reference). This, too is such a scent. I think that given the notes, some real aging is required (patchouli, I'm looking at you.) But I feel strongly that give this a year and it'll be a covetable thing indeed.

[bulletslc]

From my wee tester...

Black Silk is sleek, black and deep.

I agree with the 'chewy' adjective.

What this scent most reminds me of is chewing on a piece of high quality black liquorice.

All of the scent notes blend pretty well. The most prominant

To my nose is a smoky Patchouli.

This is a lovely, seductive, smoky blend.

 

This one will age VERY well.

Edited December 1, 2014 by Bulletslc

[zankoku_zen]

Oh, Black Silk... I just don't know what to do with you.

 

On wet, you're vanilla sandalwood with patchouli and ambergris. You're dark, silky, and well, kinda slinky. You stick close to the skin, but whatever, you're lovely and maybe I just need to slather it on.

 

Fifteen minutes later, you're gone. Like I put my nose against my skin and catch the barest inkling of patchouli.

 

Seriously, where did you go?

 

So, on one hand, super disappointed that you and I didn't work out. On the other hand, overjoyed since there are only 50 bottles of you out there in the world, I don't need to sit under a Tree of Despair , because you can never be mine.

[Balame]

Another thanks to the wonderful MuskWitch for sending me a tester/sniffie of this.

I'm especially happy because now I can stop agonizing over this blend just because the notes made it sound like the best thing ever.

 

You guys. This is Black Pearl 2.0!!

 

Seriously, this is almost exactly Black Pearl to my nose except it has a way more alcoholic/dry edge (bourbon vanilla can do that to me sometimes).

Black Pearl does have the whole booze thing going on, since it's always had a very "Frangelico" vibe to me, but Black Silk smells very similar for all its extra notes.

I would say Black Silk is a bit foodier to my nose, but BP was my original BPAL love and it still beats this out.

 

So if you're worried about missing this and either love or hate Black Pearl... either way you should find a relieving answer.

And thank goodness for that!

Edited December 23, 2014 by Balame

[Monster]

This truly smells like black silk, it's smooth, dark and sexy. For the note listing, this is surprisingly light and understated. It's not the type of scent that fills a room, rather, it hugs the skin in a sensual way. Like a black silk slip, it's not meant to be shared with just anyone.

 

The dry down is a smooth, vanilla cream with ambergris and only lasts about 30 minutes before it fades. Hopefully with some age, it'll deepen and stick around a bit longer. While it's there though, Black Silk is gorgeous. <3 I'm so happy to have a bottle.

[DJ Sin]

A lovely women on fb gave me a small amount to test of Black Silk.

 

It is very tobacco heavy with patchouli, ambergris, sandalwood and barely there vanilla. It went on strong and reminded me A LOT like Hope and Fear Set Free with the resins and notes.

 

and then in 45 minutes it was gone........

the drydown was a light spice vanilla, very faint and silky.

 

I am glad I got to try it, but I am happy that I no longer am crushing over missing getting a bottle of it because of the faint drydown. My skin chemistry simply ate it up. I am sure it is lovely and holy-grail worthy for someone else.

[LiberAmoris]

I'm unable to resist anything with 'animalic ambergris accord', full stop. Black Silk starts off as bourbon vanilla and that fanged ambergris accord, with white flowers swimming in the background. There's something very dark here—the patchouli and tobacco pull down the shades on everything. As it dries, the tobacco comes forward along with the immortelle and it starts to feel more grey. An hour or so after application, it feels dove grey, like a curl of light vanilla pipe smoke wrapped around my wrist. I agree that this will age magnificently!

[kakiphony]

Finally decanted mine out for a PIF today, so finally tried it...

 

Wet on skin: Mostly patchouli, but a sleek, slightly oily, very dark version with a bit of sandalwood at the back of the sniff. I don't get any sweet/vanilla at this stage.

 

Early dry down: Still mostly woody, dark patchouli on me. I don't get any of the sweet/foodie vibe others have mentioned and I wonder if it's because it's so darn COLD here.

 

After an hour: Still all woody patchouli. I strongly suspect it's because my house is cold and I am wearing 2 sweaters and not morphing at all from body heat. Will revisit after the thaw.

[Erinofhere]

From my sniffie with enough for a few skin tests!

 

This stays so close to the skin that after an hour it's almost barley there.

 

The patch in this blend is beautiful and I second that it's a sleek "oily" patch. Lovely. The vanilla is creamy and light. In fact everthing about this scent is light. I was thinking that it would be heavier. Even notes like Tobacco and the Sandalwood aren't coming out very strong and that is odd for my skin.

 

At about the 45 minute mark all I am left with is a creamy sweet vanilla and woods.

 

All in all it's pretty but not something I have to track a bottle down of.

[Ordo_ad_Chao]

Editing!

 

Now: I have one bottle from the first release and two from following releases. I'm doing a side-by-side just to see if there is a difference. There is.

 

First release:

While wet, impressions of a slightly dusty, dirty essence to me- the same as climbing dripping wet out of a swimming hole and lying down on a wet rock in the sun. A little wet, a little mineral, a little dirty and musky. It evokes a really strong scent memory to me.

 

Dry it is a grey powder that lingers faintly, with a soft whisper of tobacco and smokey sandalwood- dusty and old and lovely.

 

Second release:

Wet: oh, watery! heavy on the ambergris, with the other notes taking a back seat.

 

Dry: The balance seems flipped from the first, with the immortelle and benzoin front and center and ambergris backing them up- shadows of the more earthy notes.

 

They are definitely not separate scents, but the balance is shifted somehow- whether by formulation or by aging, I don't know. I'll probably test again in a few months to see if the second release ages into what the first currently is. If it doesn't, I'll let those ones go and just keep the one.

[Teaker]

Sandalwood and tobacco. I get a touch of sweetness, but it smells more like chocolate than vanilla to me. The patchouli is very smokey. The previous reviewer who mentioned wet rock is on point, I definitely get a dusty mineral vibe from this.

 

I'm not wild about the tobacco, it's definitely the main player and it's a bit of a bully. With the smokey patchouli, and the overall dry feel of the scent, I end up smelling a bit too much like I've just enjoyed a cigar. A very lady-like cigar, but still...

 

Everything plays together here to end up with a cocoa-like scent. It's soft and dry and very much like incense. My "colour-impression" is ash-grey. Quite stately and lovely, but not for me.

[Gryphon]

I absolutely can't explain it, but I get an overwhelming sense of "fruitiness" from this scent! Drydown is vanilla incense, but I can't pick out any of the darker, smokier elements I was expecting. It's nice, but not at all what I thought it would be.

[theseagrows]

when i sniffed the bottle, something in this made me think of death adder. i thought it was coconut but there is no coconut listed. on my skin i think i'm getting the vanilla, benzoin, ambergris most strongly. someone up above mentioned black pearl and it does remind me of black pearl on my skin a bit, like black pearl without the musk and coconut. this is really subtle on me, it doesn't have a lot of throw. after about a half an hour on the skin it seems to bloom and it's more like a vanilla-ambergris with a hint of patchouli. this is pretty! but it is so similar to black pearl, and i like the muskiness of black pearl. this might work well for someone who likes black pearl but can't do coconut (?)

 

ETA: i've been wearing this for nearly two hours now and it's really beautiful now. it still really reminds me a lot of black pearl, but it's more subtle and more vanilla-y.

Edited March 14, 2015 by theseagrows

[rinster]

Wet, this definitely has a fabric vibe. It's more grey than black, with a texture of watered silk (at least that's what I think of when I smell it!). As it dries, the ambergris comes out and just a bit aquatic, then in the late stages a wonderful non-foody dry vanilla becomes prominent. I'm curious if someone has tried both this and Black Opal and if the vanillas are similar? Very glad I lucked out and got a bottle. It's like nothing else I have.

[windbourne]

So this has been tickling the back of my brain since I got it. It just smells so familiar, somehow. And yesterday I was cleaning out my closet and finally nailed it.

 

I have this black lace mourning outfit that I got in high school. It's definitely vintage and possibly handmade, and the bodice is lined with silk. It's not in great shape anymore because I wore the heck out of it at every possible goth event that I could between 1996 and 2003, when it got packed into a box during a move. But it smells exactly like this. So, I suppose, on me, this perfume smells like aged lace and silk and a touch of smoke and old sweat. Crazy evocative, at least for me. Takes me right back to summoning up the nerve to wear it for the first time. Wearing it in the rain, in the club (when I was old enough), in a graveyard that one hilariously predictable time with that one guy. Yep.

 

If I think of it in a more analytical way, it starts out patch, sandalwood, and tobacco, then melds down with the immortelle and ambergris to make a smooth, smoky slip of a perfume. The vanilla cream is a little dusty on me, as cream notes often are. It's pretty strong, but doesn't have a huge throw, and it lasts for quite a long time. Late drydown is all ambergris, because that's what always sticks on me whenever it's involved in the slightest. The sandalwood tries real hard to add something to it, but it's still pretty one note. Yay, my chemistry?

 

Anyway, it's beautiful, and I feel pretty lucky to have located a bottle. :3

[Missy_killer]

In the bottle: This smells like fabric. Which is really strange! i also smell vanilla and... berries? Is it berries? It's like berries but not. I think I can smell ambergris too, although I don't have many scents with it - so I might be confusing it with something else. The scent is cold and there's a faint memory of tobacco. Ooooh, the "berries" might actually be the Immortelle! Something about this reminds me of spending a few childhood vacations at a cottage by the seaside.

 

On: It smells very clean, but modest. It's not in-your-face-soapy, more like newly washed and dried. It most definitely must be the Immortelle that I smelled earlier, it's very floral. I can also smell vanilla and tobacco, which I have to say plays very nicely in this! tobacco is usually very strong and sour on me, but here it works nicely and stays in the background. It's a very cold scent, like a dress that's been forgotten in the wardrobe for years. OH!! It smells like VIOLETS!!

 

For about an hour it smells like straight up violets and then all that's left is vanilla and something like fabric. It's a very odd scent and I'm not sure how I feel about it.

[Poenari]

I can't describe this scent very well at all by picking out the notes. However, the primary scent that I get from this is the same patchouli that I get from Funnel of Love, so that's a great start! This is like a younger sibling to it, not the same, but in the same family. I can tell there is tobacco and vanilla but I don't at all get sandalwood's typical pencil shavings note. The strangest thing is that for me, this is a scent that can either be autumnal or worn in the spring on a warm day. I don't usually cross my seasonal scents, but this one is a great transitional weather scent. I really like it!

[LizziesLuck]

Fresh out of the mail!

 

This is choc full of notes of win for me.

 

Which doesn't keep it from smelling like cat pee when it's wet on my skin. Interesting. But I persevere!

 

I actually think what I'm smelling is the Haitian patch. which I assumed would be similar to normal patch. but is quite different. This gives me hope though, as through experience I know it takes patch. a bit to "settle" on my skin.

 

I don't know about this. I am frozen tonight, can't get warm, so my body heat is non-existent and not doing much for this blend.

Plus it just came out of the mail, and it was coldish out today.

 

I think I need to retest, but right now I'm getting a slightly floral, ambergrisey vanilla. It's ok, but not wowing me.

[DiesMali]

In the bottle: Rich, loamy patchouli.

 

Wet on my skin: Chewy, thick, rich patchouli with a hint of tobacco and sandalwood. This is already awesome when wet, but then I'm a patchouli lover...

 

Dry: GORGEOUS. I knew it would be, from the notes, but I'm so glad I was able to track down a bottle of this! The patchouli settles down a little at this dries, providing a rich and earthy base to the rest of the notes, all of which are discernible despite how well-blended this is. Vanilla, ambergris, and benzoin are at the top here, providing a creamy-smooth sweetness with just a hint of cool salinity from the ambergris. Beneath those are a beautiful, smoky-sweet tobacco note, subtle sandalwood, something vaguely floral, and of course the patchouli.

 

After wearing a few hours, the throw is now mostly creamy vanilla-tobacco-ambergris, and it's gorgeous. The reviewers who said this would be amazing after aging a year were spot-on, and UNGH SO GOOD.

[torikitty]

I think Lady_Fire's description pretty accurately describes how I'm experiencing this, too. Just when I think I don't enjoy a particular element, turns out if it's blended with some other things I think I don't like, then I LOVE it. Very odd, but very cool that I keep finding new things to like. Hoping I can snag another bottle of this. What a great swap!