Palmyra

[stellamaris]

Golden amber and galbanum with frankincense, myrrh, Balm of Gilead, vanilla-infused sandalwood, sand-smoothed leather, and Ceylon cinnamon.

Wow. This is lovely. I thought it would be more aggressive and "resin-y" but it's actually a cuddly beautiful thing. Lovely cozy sandalwood. Beautiful and totally unisex.

[Poenari]

I am also surprised at Palmyra, in a really good way! Frankincense tends to amp on me, and like stellamaris I was expecting more of a resinous blast from this perfume. But this resin is soft, gentle, with a hint of sorrow. This is a great scent for those who wish they could wear leather but can't. For those who fear cinnamon, I detect no burn here. It's so well-blended that none of the notes speak out individually, but they are melded into a gorgeous cozy resin. This is a warm fleece blanket on my lap, with my kitty purring softly as she lays on on top of the blanket.

 

Beth has once again created a beautiful scent for a wonderful cause! But this, everyone!

[kscha2017]

All I get is Aqua Net hairspray: in the bottle, wet, or dry. :'(

[aphrodite]

The beautiful love child of The Mahogany Tree and Picture Books in Winter. Yet another scent to support my lack of belief in death notes - cinnamon never works for me, but it doesn't mess with this scent at all. The overall scent is sweet but not cloying, leathery but not masculine, resin but in a very subtle way, and just a bit spiced. My boyfriend often dismisses scents immediately as smelling like incense or food, and he liked this one. It's just very well blended, comfortable, and absolutely perfect for curling up with a book and a glass of scotch under a thick blanket on a winter's night.

[Musamea]

in the bottle: incredibly smooth and well-blended; I get vanilla amber straight off, while sniffing deeply yields the sharp resin of myrrh and a bit of smoky frankincense, with the teeniest hint of leather to finish it off

wet: warm leather and myrrh, with sandalwood and an Eastern hint from the resins and cinnamon; pretty gender neutral right now

dry: leather, warm sandalwood, and Eastern resins, with the amber sweetening up a touch; stays pretty close to the skin. I don't think people who usually find cinnamon problematic will have an issue here, and while I've had issues in the past with leather getting screamingly sharp on me, that doesn't happen here. A really golden, cozy, slightly mysterious blend. Out of my usual wheelhouse of scents, but I'm really liking it, and am happy to have supported a good cause to boot!

[lady_pandora]

Palmyra goes on as soft incensey leather, and then I get an incensey cloud with a light dusting of cinnamon and still a little bit of leather. There's something sweet, somewhere, that makes me think "incense cookie." And something in it is reminiscent of the Lab's tobacco note, to me. Why does this remind me of Cafe Mille et Une Nuits? They only have one note in common. But it does.

 

It continues to be incense/spice/a little leather/a little whatever smells like tobacco for a while. Then, gradually, I start getting more sweetness, kind of a honeyed aspect to the incense-cloud. It starts to remind me of beeswax, and I go to the notes list because I can't figure out where this is coming from and d'oh! I had forgotten there's vanilla in this.

 

Anyway, it's complex and really pretty. I'm really glad I jumped on this one!

[LizziesLuck]

Wet: The oil is a gorgeous rosy colour. It smells of warm amber primarily, and what I think is the vanilla-sandalwood. It's sweeter than I expected, and so so beautiful.

 

 

Dry: It hasn't morphed a whole lot. I can now detect hints of leather and the faintest hints of cinnamon. I don't get any incense. Still primarily warm, rich amber and sweet vanilla sandalwood. Beautiful.

[savage_rose]

Fresh, warm, resinous. And there's something a bit tangy in there. Wet, it smells okay, but dry it's just very clean, warm, and just a little sweet. It IS a comfort scent.

[zankoku_zen]

Soft, sorrowful resins, leather and a touch of sandalwood and amber. This one smells wam and sad and just like the empathy you feel for someone else's pain. It's comforting while acknowledging loss. I think I'd actually recommend Palmyra as a ritual blend because it has that sort of vibe. Low throw, OK wear length.

 

Soft, comfort and sadness.

[stubbornfire]

The only down side to this blend is that it basically doesn't last on me at all - half an hour, an hour? Tops. But that's my chemistry's nonsense. Otherwise, this is a perfect blend.

 

Fresh, drying, or dried - I have trouble picking out notes when they blend this well together. It's soft, comforting, and a 'bright' unisex scent with a throw that doesn't go far, but is pretty strong in my immediate area!

 

Honestly this isn't much of a review, but if you love resin scents? Definitely try this one. If you're not sure about resins and want a gentle introduction? Try this one. All elements are present but well blended and none overpowers all the others. I will have to try for a lab order before this comes down - I will definitely regret it otherwise!

[The Forest Floor]

...so much softer than I'd imagined. When I went through my order of 6 or 7 scents, opening bottles and smelling them, I came to this one last or next to last, and when I sniffed the bottle, I couldn't smell anything! I had to come back to it later when my nose wasn't spoiled by so many other stronger smells.

Palmyra is lovely, warm, and soft. Goes on like smelling like incense. After I've been wearing it a while, or it's just dried down, I start to get an almost gamey kinda note from it… something with a very faint kind of animal funk to it… like wet wool? Not really, and it isn't unpleasant, it's intriguing. I can't place it. I re-read the description… OH- it's leather! OK then. I like that, it adds another dimension to it. It is primarily sweetly incense-y. And although I thought it was so faint on my first sniff of the bottle, it's not really a delicate scent, just a very smooth one, with a regal and restrained power in it.

This one is really nice and I like it.

[Aviatrix]

As other reviewers have commented, I am not getting any cinnamon from this, which is good for me.

This is leather-forward, and it reminds me a lot of Perversion, so I'm guessing the leather is the same as in that one. All the notes blend together well to create a warm blanket of scent around you, reminiscent of warm desert sands indeed.

The throw is very good, and the staying power is sort of average. I needed to reapply in the afternoon.

[Follow My Nose]

I am so glad I picked up a bottle of this, it's just lovely! As other reviewers have said, all of the notes are incredibly well-blended.

 

On first application, I'm mostly getting the amber and sandalwood and other resins, but a soft blend.

 

As it dries down, I get more of the smoky frankincense on top and subtle vanilla and leather in the background to make the whole scent more complex but still smooth. I generally get a warm, golden feeling from this scent, not too spicy or strong, but with good staying power on my skin.

 

Such a lucky blind-buy for me!

[Lunasariel]

In the imp: A smooth, warm, golden scent. Amber and vanilla are prominent (two of my favorites!) as is sandalwood. There's also a whiff of resins/incense way deep down, but they're not immediately apparent.

 

Wet: I got a big ol' whiff of cinnamon before I'd even finished applying, but that faded almost immediately. Instead, the incense and leather take a big step forward - very unisex! But that warm, smooth amber-vanilla-and-a-bit-of-sandalwood from ITI is still there; I just have to sniff a bit for it. Overall, it's a very cuddly scent, but not in a "grandma's house, fuzzy crocheted afghans, a cup of tea, and a purring cat" - cuddly in a sexy way, like getting a hug and a thick blanket from a sexy dude when you've had a bad day and it's cold outside. Or maybe I'm just projecting. ;P

 

Dry: The incense/resins are mostly still dominant, but the amber manages to keep them entering funky-sour territory, as they so often do on my skin. Instead, they blend beautifully with the amber and the leather at the base. But this is a smooth, well-worn leather, as in Paladin or Blood and Judgement So Well Commedled, not the sharp, new leather of Whip or Iago.

[LiberAmoris]

I'll echo reviewers above and say that Palmyra was a real surprise. I also expected a cascade of full-throated notes, but this is soft and fuzzy, a scent with a very light touch. It's very well-blended indeed, making it tough to pick out individual notes. I can smell the amber, frankincense, and myrrh, and the vanilla-infused sandalwood is detectable and divine—as is the sand-smoothed leather. The cinnamon is so subtle that I can't pick up on it in any measure that might trigger sensitivity. On the drydown, this is amber, vanilla, sandalwood, and leather...all so light that they defy gravity and seem almost wispy. I like this a lot, and could see myself wearing it to work when I want light-as-air scent that's very soothing.

[rix]

Gee, everybody else gets a beautiful scent and I get...honey incense burning in a headshop. Why oh why? Banished to the swap list!

[Little Bird]

Palmyra is a light, powdery sandalwood and amber with a little sweetness from the other resins. Drydown is all powdery sandalwood with not much throw on my skin. Only lasted a couple hours.

[Roogna]

*sigh* starts great - an initial wiff of cinnamon that fades to a background spice, overall smooth, soft, warm...no note stands out

 

then, within an hour, cloys

I can't pinpoint the culprit note or notes, but turns a bit sickly. *sniffs again* (sour leather maybe?) If I sniff through that I think I still pick up a few good notes, but I shall be swapping this for something that loves my chemistry more.

[theseagrows]

starts off with this sharpish green masculine thing i dislike. i think it may be galbanum? i think my skin amps it up and it tends to overpower everything. besides this i maybe get sandalwood and amber? i'm not sure. it mostly smells like men's shaving cream on me, sadly. i don't get any leather or vanilla or amber, which i was hoping for. i think it's just all galbanum on me.

 

eta: after awhile I do get some sort of burnt woody note, so less galbanum but still not a success.

Edited January 22, 2016 by theseagrows

[roseus]

This totally captures the image of a blazing sun over a desert, with the wind stirring up the sand all around. For the first half hour all I get is sharp, smoky leather. But then it fades back and the resins come out. It's smooth, warm, smoky. Just a little powder-y sweetness from the amber and sandalwood, and a hint of fire from the cinnamon.

[yakiguri]

I've dried quite a bit of BPAL's "desert" scents--Baghdad, The Ifrit, Ozymandias--but all of them all seemed just a tad too dusty in scent for me to buy. Palmyra has the dry heat and spices like the others, but it's softer and sweeter thanks to the vanilla sandalwood and leather. I know there's no tobacco or honey in this, but the blend of resins and vanilla reads as syrupy tobacco to my nose and on my skin.

 

Love scents like White Peacock and Variety of Pleasing Amusements? Make sure to pick Palmyra up before it's gone!

[xeia]

I am so glad to have this one in my collection! Leather and I don't usually get along, but I don't get any standing out here. The cinnamon is subtle and nonburny. I have it filed in my head near Haloes: Warm, soft, well-blended, crowd-pleasing.

[Balame]

Although it should have been a hit, Palmyra becomes too typically "perfumey" on me. The galbanum is sharp and paired with the bitter myrrh it just comes across as too commercial, almost alcoholic. Don't get me wrong, the incense/vanilla/amber combo is killer and there's a stage it goes through where it's all sweet resiny goodness. At that point it reminded me of a lighter version of The Final Darkness, which has a similar, drool-worthy amber combined with resins. But unfortunately it didn't last.

 

After sitting for a while Palmyra became dry in an unpleasantly dusty way, and most of the resins disappeared. Essentially leaving me with sweetened dust. Maybe that's properly evocative of the name, but not something I want to smell like! I couldn't pick out any leather or cinnamon from this blend, so if you're usually concerned about those notes, I wouldn't worry since they're mixed in well.

 

In my opinion this could have been very much in the same vein as (OLLA) Eve. Almost perfumey with many different notes coming together to create something wonderful and mysterious. This time my chemistry just didn't want it to happen. I definitely don't get the lasting, rich sweetness of something like White Peacock or Variety of Pleasing Amusements in this like thatbrownelf did, but it's good to know others are!

[bridgetvoid]

this smells subtle and pretty in the bottle, sort of nondescript sort of watery and perfumey if that makes sense.

 

on me - straight up celery.

 

dry down - sweetened celery? it's so close to being awesome but it's celery.

[Casablanca]

Bottle: Amber and old forest, like cedarwood, and a little sweetness like honey.

Wet: Much stronger resinous incense.

Dry: In place of the cedar forest, there's now an Old World temple pumping out smoke like a 19th-century industrial plant. Sandalwood amps up to join this myrrh and frankincense incense, with a little vanilla sweetness.

For your inner smoky, back-lit priestess, I think? I love Ceylon cinnamon (and get it for my parrot), but I catch very little of it here.