Phoenix and Dragon

[annemathematics]

Incense-blackened oudh and bourbon vanilla with tobacco absolute and 9-year aged patchouli.

I'm a sucker for all of these notes, and the perfume they are brought together to create here is lovely. it is however on the soft side. if you are drawn to big delectable vanilla, gritty sweet tobacco or funky filthy patch, that's not what you'll find in this bottle. rather, P&D is more of a subtle experience with each of these notes.

it's a little smokey at the start from the oudh, and after a few hours of wear, a soft and respectable patchouli can be sussed out. but overall, this is all about the blend, and it's one that I don't quite have the perfumer's vocabulary to do proper justice to in describing. it's very pretty and wearable and gentle. as I have and treasure so many fine bpals that showcase the big-n-dirty side to the listed notes, it's wonderful to experience this different side to them. a lot of vanilla blends and tobacco blends tend to have a sweetness to them, sometimes caramelly, sometimes plain old sugar-dusted, and this does not, which I am liking. it's a yin to many of my yang bottles.

[samarablackcat]

I love these types of scents, with just a few notes; they seem to work best on my skin. And I agree with annemathematics, this is on the subtle side.

 

I really am having a hard time discerning each individual note. It's well blended, a tad smokey, not too sweet, not bitter or dirty. I'm not getting any tobacco, but sometimes I forget to roll the bottle with the absolute, as it likes to sit at the bottom of the bottle.

 

I was expecting big, loud. I got soft, gentle, like a big, tattooed, grizzly man who loves little kittens. Slightly deceiving and a pleasant surprise.

[gentle-twig]

in bottle: this is so sharp! i'm not too familiar with oudh but that must be what i'm getting. i hate to say this but it smells a little like cat litter.

 

wet on skin: the cat litter smell is being softened a little by the vanilla, but it's still there. there is a tiny bit of incense detectable, as well. no tobacco yet.

 

drydown: this definitely softens/sweetens within the first few minutes. i just think i might not like oudh? i'm praying the other notes win me over. after maybe 10 minutes i'm getting oudh with a backing of vanilla. i'm testing this at the same time as to his mistress going to bed, which definitely has a gnarlier patch note. here i'm not getting any patch at all! the more this dries down, the more the oudh calms down. it doesn't smell like cat litter anymore, it's just lending a brightness to the otherwise sort of darkly sweet blend. i wish it didn't start like that, because now even the well behaved oudh is still reminding me of cat litter. I'm about to wash this off after about an hour, but it is starting to be palatable. I'm still getting mostly oudh, but at this point it is being held in check by the vanilla and a tiny bit of tobacco and patchouli are detectable. i can actually say i like it at this point and will give it a full day test soon to see whether this is how it stays. i hope so !

 

i want to keep this around to let this age a bit. it seems like the sharpness of the oudh might mellow out and the rest of the notes are favorites!

[Little Bird]

This was my least favorite of this year's lupercalia blends. I love vanilla, tobacco and patchouli, and usually enjoy oud, so this should have been a safe bet, but it's just awful on me.

Overall, this gives off a cheap, plasticy potpourri vibe (like being in a craft store), but there's also an intense, sharp soapiness and a weird, rotting mulch and cigarette ash dirtiness to it. A hint of something like Pine-Sol in the drydown. It's somehow a dirty smelling clean and dirty smelling potpourri... the drydown has a strong dirty ash tray feel to it at times.

 

I've tried to wear this a few times now and I just wind up wanting to scrub it off for hours.

[Lycanthrope]

Well... I think we're falling into the categories of getting beautiful subtle notes, and then the opposite getting surprisingly potent, off, husky, strong aspects of the notes.

 

I'm with gentle-twig and Little Bird, in theory these notes should be gloriously beautiful on me, but when this touches my skin, it's like this interchange:

 

Skin: Oh hai, I iz wanting the rich sweet burnished perfume?

Oil: I am made of win please to apply

Skin: OK then

Oil: I am sekrit russian walrus and lounging on your skin all like barbed and with whiskers and much more potency than expected

Skin: Oh no I am betrayed! Darn you and your baleful espionage!

Oil/Walrus: *chortling like a walrus* *chortle* *jiggle* *chortle*

 

Immediately the top notes for me are truly skatole-ish, and not in a good way for me. Over time the scent does round out, and on me goes towards a dry more black patchouli. I suspect the culprits for me would be tobacco if it's a variable or different tobacco note, and oudh generally is good but maybe parts of it didn't play well together for my skin chemistry. This is definitely one to try a decant first. I think I may be able to deal with the drydown, but I'm kind of scared that others may smell the ferocious skatole-like opener and it may linger more or be more apparently freshly encountering someone. I'll let it age and see what happens.

[LizziesLuck]

This was not originally the decant I had intended to get - my Decantress had to cut the one I wanted, and so I picked another one from the scents that still had openings in the circle. Sometimes whim purchases work out really well for me, other times not so much. But here goes!

 

 

Wet: Very smoky. Woody. A bit sweet, but also a bit acrid. I think it's the blackened oudh that I am really not enjoying here. The aged patchouli and vanilla underneath though are lovely. but that black smoky oudh sort of lays overtop of everything and just is not good on me.

 

 

Dry: This dries down to a smoky, expensive smelling cologne on me. It might be really nice on a man, but it's not working for me.

[zankoku_zen]

Oh god, I got acrid, sour oudh and then super stinky patchouli. This did horrible, horrible things on my skin chemistry. And yes, it had a GREAT throw.

 

*HEARTBROKEN*

[theseagrows]

whoa, at the beginning i get a strong and stinky watery scent here. probably oudh and patchouli. i am really not sure what's going on here, but this smells like a cheap bathroom freshener on me, wtf skin chemistry! unfortunately, this is a scrubber for me, which is sad because i love most of the notes and often like patchouli. oh well.

Edited April 25, 2016 by theseagrows

[milo]

This blend is definitely 'blackened', and really smells like classic bpal. Kind of herbal, a bit of non-descript floral, resins, some patch and a bit of sharpness I associate with TAL blends. I'm not really wowed by this one.

[vthesiren]

Gnarly, man. Strong patch/oudh - I get very little vanilla or tobacco. It smells sort of like the incense section of a dusty head shop. The first few seconds wet are unsettling because I can see where some of the less positive scent analogs in this thread are coming from, but after it dries down, it's a very earthy scent. Sharp throughout, but stays close to the skin. I'm strangely fascinated by this - not sure if I'll upgrade to a bottle, but I'll hang onto my decant.

[Spaztic]

This one was a gamble for me, I love 3 out of the 4 notes listed but kinda tend to hate the 4th (oudh). My only hope was that the oudh was weak, even though it's the first note listed

 

I don't know if it's the oudh that made this sent not work for me at all, but something ruined it. It's it super sharp and dry on me and doesn't seem to want to calm down at all, just persistently sharp and all up in my nose annoying me.

 

I'm giving this one a little time to age to see if it does something to make it wearable on my skin, but I don't have high hopes. Other bpal scents I've tried with oud only get more oud prominent with aging.

 

It will probably end up in a swap pile in a couple years, but hopeful someone loves it and it'll make their day to see it there

[Lucchesa]

Wet, this was all oudh. Not incense-blackened oudh, which sounds fantastic, but the plain old stinky kind. I like oudh, most of the time it settles down on my skin and gives good throw, but this was at the edge of my tolerance. Where was the bourbon vanilla? Where was the patchouli from last decade? Single note stinky oudh.

 

I did not give up. I let it go for the next few hours, and the oudh continued to dominate. I eventually could perceive the patch and the other notes, but what I was hoping for was that almost caramelized chewy patchouli and sexy dark incense and boozy sweet bourbon vanilla, and no. It was a dry patch and the other notes whispered, at best. Entertaining the Heian Court Maiden works much better on me.