Bulgarian Tobacco

[Ordo_ad_Chao]

Another Tobacco SN- I had to get it!

Where French Tobacco SN was heavy, sweet, and chewy, almost to the point of being foody on me, Bulgarian Tobacco is lighter, drier, almost a little smoky- still sweet but in a light softness rather than a caramelized feel.

This smells like walking into an excellent cigar and pipe shop, the dry but rich smell wafting from the humidor and the familiar comfort of popping the top off a jar of loose pipe tobacco.

I kind of adore it!

[Haltija]

Definitely different from my beloved French Tobacco. For one it's not as strong and not as caramelized smelling or well on the sweeter side in general. Bulgarian Tobacco to me smells very Middle Eastern. Like it belongs in Istanbul at a market. I see myself back there during the Medieval times in the Bazaar, walking straight through the incense stands and I can smell the tobacco wafting off the rooms of vendors that have the jars of pipe tobacco open for everyone to smell.

 

It's spicy, a tiny touch earthy, thick, meditative and a little ancient. I love it very much!

[GoldenRubee]

This is so so good that my son tried to take my bottle. It is going to age beautifully so I immediately ordered a backup bottle and a bottle for my son. It starts out with a whiff of barely there chocolate and spice with just a beautifully soft tobacco that anyone can wear. The chocolate fades immediately and I get left with a gorgeous lingering spicy tobacco scent. Really, one of my favorite of the SN's.

[Dark Alice]

Smells like heaven. But it starts out like hell. Wet: There is something in this that burns the back of my throat. It's just harsh and burning. Dry: It's like this lovely, dry, sweet pipe tobacco blooms on my skin. It's amazing. I got a decant today and had to order a bottle. It's just that good. So glad I tried. it.

[zankoku_zen]

Bulgarian Tobacco smells drier, smokier and more straight up tobacco and less sweet than the French Tobacco. It's grittier and what I'd associate more like a cigar tobacco. Slightly patchouli smelling toward the end.

[tdiym]

Labdanum.

[Astarial]

Oh man this is so pretty. I've thought for a while that tobacco is good note on me that I enjoy, and this has.. wow. has it ever confirmed that.

 

It's sweet, a bit smoky, incensey, with a sort of chewy vanilla/benzoin vibe going on. Suuuuper nice.

[QOTCPcf]

I haven't tried any of the other tobacco single-notes, so to me this is a wonderful sweet, smokey, spicy blend.

However, there are big glops of ... resin? in the bottle, and sticky bubbles form at the mouth when I open it. Is that normal for tobacco single notes? I emailed the shop about it but they haven't gotten back to me yet. It makes it a little icky to wear, and if they're already switching to the next single note I won't be able to get a less-sticky bottle :-( Is there any way to fix a *chunky* bottle of bpal?

[roseus]

Oh my goodness, after trying Ask the Nearest Hippie I realized my love of earthy scents and I had a good feeling about this scent so I went for it. In the bottle it was dry, quality tobacco. This is seriously such a thick oil, it's so gorgeous. Wet and dry are similar on me. It's sweet (I have no experience with French Tobacco SN so I cannot compare) and smoky and so very smooth. There's something very vanilla-like, I agree with Andyl on the chewy benzoin aspect. Overall I am very happy, it's a warm, rich, and subtly sexy scent.

[Little Bird]

French Tobacco is my favorite single note, so I crossed my fingers and ordered two bottles of Bulgarian Tobacco. I love earthy, sweet tobaccos and hate gritty or smoky varieties (if it smells like standard cigarettes or ash tray, I can't stand it, but I love clove cigarette, cigar leaves, and chewing tobacco type scents). Thankfully, this isn't smoky, harsh or gritty at all. Bulgarian Tobacco makes me think of cigar shops and sticky-sweet, dark, rich, chewing tobacco leaves with a sprinkling of dark cassia/cinnamon. The spice amps up on me for a few minutes and I was like "oh no," but then it calms down and moves to the background. I'm not getting any smoke from this at all. It's chewy and sweet smelling with a damp, earthy, sweet tobacco leaf scent.

 

I still love French Tobacco just a wee bit more, but Bulgarian Tobacco is gorgeous. Hoard worthy.

[aylafr]

hmm I'm on the fence about this one...I don't know if i truly love it

It is smooth, rich tobacco with sweet chocolate mixed in. somewhat bitter after taste (smell). its earthy.

overall it smells like a cigar would with a hint of chocolate. I prefer French tobacco but this is also beautiful and i think it will age perfectly.

[LizziesLuck]

French Tobacco is one of my favourite perfumes so I had to try this! I love tobacco in many other blends as well.

 

 

Wet: Mmm. This is sweet, but not in the caramelized way that French Tobacco is. It's a bit smoky. It's amazing. It's totally different from the French version, which I am happy about, so I can justify having both. Gosh, I am just loving how sweet this is! There is something about it that's almost vanillic. I am having a hard time describing it, other than "amazing". It's almost spicy, like I get hints of cinnamon-but-not-quite-cinnamon. Mmmm

 

Dry: Spicy, sweet, and honestly almost a little bit gourmand on me, but then so is the French, just in a totally different way. I love this, and think it will age beautifully.

[LiberAmoris]

Bulgarian Tobacco is delicious. This is gourmand tobacco on me, half chewy tobacco and half caramel and vanilla. One of my colleagues at work loves perfume, and when I was wearing this one afternoon, she asked me if I was wearing Tom Ford's Tobacco Vanille. When I set her straight, she went right to her computer and ordered a bottle for herself.

 

If this is drier and less sweet than French Tobacco for most people, I don't know if I would love that note better, since this already smells very sweet and lush to me. It's really viscous and thick, almost sticky like honey on the skin. It's honestly just heavenly.

[VioletChaos]

In The Bottle: A dry tobacco, definitely very different from the French variety I've become accustomed with. It's so dry and dusty that it could be in Tombstone.

 

Wet On Skin: Someone of the FB thread was talking about how this has a vanilla extract undertone to it, and I can now see what she meant. It's not foodie in the least, but there's definitely a dry vanilla thing going on and it's really, really working here.

 

Dry Down: This is really, really beautiful. Honestly, I've gotten to a point with French Tobacco where it's usually too heavy and over-powering for me to handle, unless it's part of a heavy, rich blend, like Red Lantern. But this, this I can wear all its own. It's dry and light and slightly sweet and smells like the desert and sweet sands and crackly leaves.

 

I think I'm in love.

[tharsei-thanate]

As a tobacco junkie I just had to get a bottle of this. I got it in the mail a while ago but I've let it age a little and I'm finally properly testing it.

 

In the bottle it smells kind of smoky and gritty but on my skin it's super delicious and sweet, almost gourmand. It's a much brighter blend than my beloved French Tobacco, which is dark and rich with caramel goodness. Bulgarian Tobacco is a thick and rich blend, too, but it's like the daytime side of tobacco while French is the nighttime side, if that makes sense. I also find it sweeter than French Tobacco, which I didn't think was possible. There is most definitely a chewy vanilla something in here, and I'm going to say it's benzoin specifically since bpal vanilla tends to turn plastic on me and this smells amazing. I really never thought I'd love something more than French Tobacco but Bulgarian Tobacco really hit it out of the park! This is my new signature scent for sure.

[milo]

I wasn't a huge fan of the French Tobacco single note. I always associated good tobacco to be like pipe tobacco, chewy and delicious. The only blends I find that has that particular note is Perversion and Mr. Nancy. This falls somewhere in between. At first, rich and chewy tobacco, the kind you may find in European cigar shops. It then gets kind of smoky, which some people love, I do not. So it ends up being a smoky, rich tobacco blend, it kind of reminds me of the smokiness of Liz. This would layer amazingly well with a strong vanilla or even Snake Oil, to make a smoky snake. However, I really don't think this baby is for me. It came close, but I'm not fond of the smoke. Mr. Nancy without the lime is what I was looking for.

 

eta: This one has really grown on me, surprisingly. I keep reaching for it, and I love the tobacco sweetness of it. I think I'll keep this baby...

Edited July 5, 2016 by milo

[chrisann]

I'm not usually a huge tobacco fan. It's okay if it's expertly blended into a scent to add dimension, but not dominate. I did not hold any high hopes for Bulgairian Tobacco SN, but was curious to see if the rave reviews warranted a try.

 

This went BEYOND my expectation!! It's a vanillic tobacco. Sweet and chewy. Its like they've taken pipe tobacco, added a syrupy resinous vanilla, and mashed it all up. It's gorgeous alone and I've been having fun layering under other smellies. It's a glowing tobbaco vs a dry/dark one. I love it so much I bought three bottles.

[marared]

Got a sample as a freebie, and I was a little nervous, because BPAL's tobacco almost universally smells like death on me, except for Penumbra. This? I was gobsmacked at how good this was. It's dry and sweet, but it's not gasoline-sweet like the flower - this is a syrupy dried tobacco, somewhere between earthy and gourmand. Vaguely resinous, almost caramel. It doesn't change much on my skin - maybe gets a little deeper.

 

I need dis.

[Verios]

This is everything I hoped it would be. I haven't smelled the French Tobacco for comparison, but since I generally love tobacco smells (other than smoked cigarettes, I love it in every incarnation I've come across it in), I was hoping that this would be wonderful...and it is.

 

This is a sweet, glorious cigar tobacco. It's rich, and I almost get a chocolatey note to it (not enough to make it outright foody, but enough to be downright delicious), and on me (at least so far), has a wonderful amount of throw. Hopefully I can swap for a backup at some point, because this is my favorite single note that I've tried to date (I'm also really going to have to try to find some of the French Tobacco SN to compare now!)

 

Edited to add 09/17/2021: This remains my favorite SN to date, and reminds me why I love tobacco notes in general - it definitely smells more like a high-end cigar than the French Tobacco SN, with a dry, almost sweet-spiced feel to it? It doesn't cross over into being 'spicy', exactly, but definitely leans that way. I still haven't managed to snag a backup of this, so I don't indulge in wearing it too often, but I -love- it.

Edited September 17, 2021 by Verios

[SJanet]

I find Bulgarian Tobacco to be a sweet and creamy tobacco blend. It has a chewy quality, like a fresh pouch of vanilla tobacco. It is the best tobacco scent I've ever smelled. It has great throw, while staying quite true to the initial application. I adore this scent!

[follis]

Decant: cigarettes, something creamy and sweet

Wet: vanilla only so far with tiny hint of cigarette/food smoke 

On: this is creamy and the smoke has mellowed. It's not really a Tobacco on me but it is nice. Very vanilla. It reminds me of creamy fig milk with smudge of smoke.

Dry down: Not much morphing from here. I like it but would like it more if it weren't for that cigarette note at the start (I like a chewy Tobacco).

Medium throw long wear.

[Penance]

Preconceived notions:

 

I love tobacco scents.  Love them.  I have French Tobacco (which needs tested for reviewing), as well, but I was excited to see another option!  I read the reviews, but I'm still not sure what to expect in terms of this being different than French Tobacco.

 

First sniff:

 

Oh!  So pretty!  It wafts out of the bottle beautifully.  It's definitely tobacco (of course), but there's something almost spicy to it?  It smells like a very pricey tobacconist's shop.  I find this to be somewhat dry, not really "chewy," but that's me. 

 

Wet on skin:

 

Beautiful.  Strangely almost perfumey or floral, without being either one.  I think it's just the sillage and throw coming together.  This one wafts.  There's no other word for it.

 

Dry down:

 

This almost doesn't read as a single note.  I could be convinced that this was a blend, actually, because it's surprisingly complex.  It's a dry, but not dusty, tobacco with an edge of spice and that same almost floral waft to it. 

 

The final verdict:

 

This is beautiful.  Definitely the most complex true single note I've tried. 

I'm just not sure how to describe quite what I'm getting here.  I keep thinking "perfumey," but that's not right.  And then I think "almost floral," but that's not quite right, either.  It has the same "feel," somehow.  I wish I could be more helpful, but I just can't find the words.