Bast

[Dark Alice]

There was a girl. He had met her somewhere, and now they were walking across a bridge. It spanned a small lake, in the middle of a town. The wind was ruffling the surface of the lake, making waves tipped with whitecaps, which seemed to Shadow to be tiny hands reaching for him.

- Down there, said the woman. She was wearing a leopard-print skirt, which flapped and tossed in the wind, and the flesh between the top of her stockings and her skirt was creamy and soft and in his dream, on the bridge, before God and the world, Shadow went down to his knees in front of her, burying his head in her crotch, drinking in the intoxicating jungle female scent of her. He became aware, in his dream, of his erection in real life, a rigid, pounding, monstrous thing as painful in its hardness as the erections he'd had as a boy, when he was crashing into puberty.

He pulled away and looked upward, and still he could not see her face. But his mouth was seeking hers and her lips were soft against his, and his hands were cupping her breasts, and then they were running across the satin smoothness of her skin, pushing into and parting the furs that hid her waist, sliding into the wonderful cleft of her, which warmed and wetted and parted for him, opening to his hand like a flower.

The woman purred against him ecstatically, her hand moving down to the hardness of him and squeezing it. He pushed the bedsheets away and rolled on top of her, his hand parting her thighs, her hand guiding him between her legs, where one thrust, one magical push . . .

Now he was back in his old prison cell with her, and he was kissing her deeply. She wrapped her arms tightly around him, clamped her legs about his legs to hold him tight, so he could not pull out, not even if he wanted to.

Never had he kissed lips so soft. He had not known that there were lips so soft in the whole world. Her tongue, though, was sandpaper-rough as it slipped against his.

-Who are you? he asked.

She made no answer, just pushed him onto his back and, in one lithe movement, straddled him and began to ride him. No, not to ride him: to insinuate herself against him in series of silken-smooth waves, each more powerful than the one before, strokes and beats and rhythms that crashed against his mind and his body just as the wind-waves on the lake splashed against the shore. Her nails were needle-sharp and they pierced his sides, raking them, but he felt no pain, only pleasure, everything was transmuted by some alchemy into moments of utter pleasure.

He struggled to find himself, struggled to talk, his head now filled with sand dunes and desert winds.

-Who are you? he asked again, gasping for the words.

She stared at him with eyes the color of dark amber, then lowered her mouth to his and kissed him with a passion, kissed him so completely and so deeply that there, on the bridge over the lake, in his prison cell, in the bed in the Cairo funeral home, he almost came. He rode the sensation like a kite riding a hurricane, willing it not to crest, not to explode, wanting it never to end.

A desert wind alight with myrrh and golden amber, cardamom and honey, bourbon vanilla and cacao.

Wet: Cardamom blended with honey. Dry: hints of honey with gentle billows of cardamom. I am waiting for this to settle more so that the cacao comes out more. But so far, it's my first honey scent that I can wear with out it going stinky on me. In short, I love.

[roseus]

Beautiful rich myrrh and amber, thick and golden. Sweetened by vanilla and honey, and the cardamom is on the light side and gives an arid/dry aspect to the blend. There seems to be just a breath of cacao giving it a deep and snuggly or comforting feeling. I would put it in the same family as Morocco (dry, spicy, resinous vanilla) but it's quite different. I am in love! It's rich but the the throw is fairly low. Definitely sensual and sly. So perfect!

Edited June 13, 2017 by roseus

[hammy]

In the bottle - ...Exotic, I guess? Weirdly, I’m not getting much on cold sniff...

 

Wet - Wow. Holy crap, you guys. This is fantastic and unexpected. I don’t like cacao/chocolate, so I almost didn’t buy this. I’m really glad I did. It’s so gorgeously blended that my trouble notes (myrrh, cacao) aren’t shrieking at me.

 

Drydown - A little more of the desert wind and myrrh. Less foodie and far less sweet. Noticeably drier than before. It smells like enchanted sand being blown in your face by a warm wind -- but in a sultry, sexy way.

 

Verdict - This definitely feels related to The Small Brown Cat. If SBC is the warm ball of purring fur in your lap, this is the sensual woman from Shadow’s dream. I love the parallels and the storytelling at play here. I’m going to try wearing this for sexytimes.

[miss_rynn]

Bast is a tricksy scent. It reminds me of what I wanted Bilquis to be, way back in the day. Something about the myrrh and amber comes across as a heady lily. It's that oddly floral note that only thick and rich resins can. The cacao is a warm, throaty base, but it's hard for me to get beyond the resin/floral heart. It's probably the mix of the myrrh and the honey that does it.

 

If you're after a deep, thick, unapologetic sweet resin, this is for you.

[ltrittipoe]

This.....this is gorgeous. Everything is so well blended that it's hard to pick out individual notes, but I get glimpses of them as it wafts around me.

 

I am getting a warm, hazy, resiny sweet and spicy scent - warm skin in hot sun, spicy honeyed amber - I don't get any cacao, but I think it blends so well with the myrrh and cardamom that it just adds to the spicy sweetness.

 

And this is the rare blend with honey that I can wear. I'm always hoping because I love the scent of honey, but 99.9% of the time it turns to sweaty skanky nastiness with my skin chemistry. This is not that, The is honey and spicy desert sands.

 

 

And it's fresh out of the mailbox. If it changes after a few days I'll come back and edit, but it's amazingly good now.

[Jenjin]

This Goddess. As truly stunning as any amber, opulent and wearable. Mesmerizing, as the millions of decades of amber have been in existence, glowing with sensuality and beauty. As true to its essence as amber can be - a perfectly resinous amber absolutely without any harshness.

I see this as a companion scent for Shadow, opulent, rich and voluptuous, it makes me feel exquisitely womanly, exotic and alluring. Magnificently blended, the notes come to the surface in various ways, giving me little whiffs of ecstasy. Effortlessly sexy, this is hot, warm skin in a bottle that makes you want to get closer, all wrapped up in a cashmere embrace. It has a vintage vibe, a deep, sensual hippy vibe, deep and seductive while it works it's swirlywhirly magic. Full of emotion, of lust, love, bliss, mystery and LIFE with all of its dimensions. Don't be afraid to embrace her with all of your being. She will give you back more that what you ever dreamed.

Edited June 28, 2017 by Jenjin

[galahad]

In the Bottle:

Vanilla, cardamom and rich honey. A lovely warm, spiced vanilla.

On the Skin:

A rich cardamom honey, warmed by amber. I believe the cacao is giving a warm depth to the blend but isn't specifically identifiable as a note. There is almost a rosey floral intensity to the blend as it warms on the skin.

On the Drydown:

The cardamom and amber twine together so beautifully to create a spicy desert aridity and the vanilla and honey add warmth and depth. There is also a sense of underlying booziness. Becomes drier and spicier as it dries down further. Exotic and very nice.

[thegadaboutgirl]

Oh hello gorgeous. I really went through several stages with this one.

 

In the bottle (The approach) I get the vanilla, myrrh, and honey. It's demure and sweet, but with an edge underneath. A cat weaving between your ankles to get your attention.

 

On the skin (The embrace), she's sweet and spicy. Honey and cardamom make a beautiful cloud of scent around you. The cocoa isn't powdery at all; it gets swept up in the honey and spices to something that's both powerful and soft. The throw is a bit much here, but Bast is a woman who knows who she is, and hits you with it full force.

 

Dry down (The dream): Warm, snuggly, love-flushed skin. The honey has calmed down but there's still a sweetness close to the skin. The myrrh and amber have turned this into a drier/warmer blend, definitely more desert-like. The cocoa still lingers, gently in the back to provide a bit more depth. There isn't the intensity of the first few minutes, but hours later there are still near constant whiffs of its original glory.

 

tl;dr Bast is the equivalent of a cat lounging in a sunbeam between the carts of a spice market, and I love her.

[patina]

In the bottle I get baby oil, pretty much straight up. Must be the vanilla, amber and honey. As I apply it I get a rush of spices but those almost disappear on me and instead the dry cacao comes out. Maybe a little caraway. Very homey.

 

This reminds me of pale apricot colored silk sheets or (somehow) desert sand. A lot of people will find this very sexy.

Edited August 1, 2017 by patina

[lizardqueen]

This is interesting! I expected it to remind me of Bastet for obvious reasons, but I'm finding it more reminiscent of Bilquis--I assume they must have the same honey note. Bast is a bit cooler than either of the other scents named, and as it dries down something (I assume it's the honey, which doesn't always work on me, but it could also perhaps be the amber) is wanting to go just a bit powdery on me. Mostly, though, I'm just getting a nice myrrh/amber scent that stays fairly close to the skin.

[zankoku_zen]

For me, Bast smells like a combination of both Bastet and Morocco. Spiced, honeyed vanilla and myrrh. Warm, slinky, great skin scent. Low throw, great wear length.

[torikitty]

The bourbon vanilla in this plays much better with the amber and myrrh with my skin. It's just kinda a generic sweet scent. Cardamom, honey, and cacao aren't too apparent, but I think that just means they are blended well.

[Elspethdixon]

n the imp/wet - slightly perfume-y amber, with a hint of something warm and dry. Reminds me of some of my NAVA scents

Freshly applied - once on, it's more of a creamy, gourmand amber. I can smell hints of the cacao, and it's very soft, warm, and sweet.

Five-ten minutes in - The cacao is gone and the cardamom has really come forward. The gourmand aspect has faded, and now it's an oriental spiced amber, like a softer, slightly sweeter version of The Lion with cardamom instead of clove. I can't really smell the myrhh, but I suspect it's giving this a little bit of depth. It's also not like NAVA's sand note at all anymore.

Thirty-forty minutes in - slowly morphing into something a little more amber-y and less spicy

two hours in/late drydown - creamy honeyed amber, like a softer/less sticky version of O

I really like this, but it's similar to several perfumes I already have (I have a lot of honey/vanilla/amber scents). It's very well blended, and morphs just enough over its wear length to keep it interesting.

[Teaotter]

This is a beautiful spicy vanilla amber scent, right on the edge between gourmand and oriental. My only complaint is the very low throw -- I hope it'll age into something a bit stronger.

[lexyOZ]

Extremely low throw to the point that I can't smell it a minute after I've applied it. Can't speak to notes or impressions since I can't smell it at all.

Update: today it is a little more forward and it is indeed lovely. A spiced vanilla with an almost baby powder feel to it. Very comforting and soft. Throw is still very low however. Putting this one away to age.

Edited July 28, 2017 by lexyOZ

[milo]

Very soft amber, with spices. It does have very low throw, and definitely close to the skin. I do hope that it becomes stronger with age. I love me some amber, and this blend is very promising. I will keep her.

[VioletChaos]

In The Bottle: The cacao is front and center but it's *not* chocolatey AT ALL. I don't understand how I can even recognize it when it seems to have untangled itself from chocolate, but there you have it.

 

Wet On Skin: Hi, myrrh. Let's behave for once, shall we?

 

Dry Down: Hey, I think myrrh is listening to me! I can detect it, but instead of amping and making me ill, it's staying put, held in check by the cardamom which is very deliciously prominent in this blend. It's warm and spicy and slightly sweet without being cloying or foodie at all. I can see dabbling in this for the remainder of the summer, but more so, starting to really get into the promise of this scent as we head into cooler, crisper autumnal days.

[Lunasariel]

In the imp: Primarily dry, spicy, unsweetened cacao (the real stuff, before they add sugar or milk to turn it into chocolate) and aged, resinous cedarwood, perhaps a chest or incense. The sweetness of amber/honey/bourbon vanilla is there, but buried way deep down - maybe shut up in the chest? So far it's a seductive scent, but a reserved, mysterious one.

 

Wet: All the dry, resinous scents come on strong: cedar, myrrh, and cardamom. A straight-up oriental. After a little while, the cedar begins to veery in a worryingly dry, sharp, plywood-y direction, but is saved by the advent of the bourbon vanilla. After a few minutes, it settles down into a resinous, aromatic oriental up close... but from afar, I get whiffs of an almost O-like amber/vanilla/honey blend, complicated by something spicy that may be cardamom. Oh, now *this* is what I'm talking about! Unlike Shadow, which I loved but didn't match my mental image of the character at all, this is so very Bast - refined, elegant, but a bit reserved until you take the time to get to know her, and then she hits you with the unabashed sensuality you knew was coming all along.

 

Dry: Mostly myrrh and cacao, with just a little bourbon vanilla and/or amber for sweetness. There might also be just the ghost of the cedar and cardamom hanging around to provide a hint of aromatic-ness, but mostly I get myrrh and cacao. Oooh, this one is *nice*!

[whisperstilled]

Perhaps the scent I was most excited to try from this set. It has that telling cocoa sludge in the bottle that I love so much.

Wet: Spicy, rich chocolate and honey. Um. This is amazing. Like Boomslang, but sharper and brighter. The myrhh also brings the incense, and all around this reminds me of Morocco and Boomslang crossed.

Dry: So this it's incredible. The cocoa is just a smooth backdrop to the cardamom, honey, and myrrh. The amber dries everything a little and makes it a touch dusty without being soapy. Holy smokes this is incredible. I only wish the throw was stronger!

[LizziesLuck]

This has settled for a good long while.

 

 

Wet: Honey and cardamom, oh yum! So good. Was worried either cacao or Myrrh would dominate, but I can't smell either. Hoping this isn't a batch variation - I can only see the faintest bit of chocolate sludge in my bottle. The scent is almost all smooth honey and cardamom - rich, and a bit perfumey. Lovely!

 

 

Dry: Honey - dry and perfumey, rather than rich and sticky. Cardamom, and just a hint of amber which both lend to the perfumey character and keep this from being even remotely gourmand on me. I don't really get the other notes, which I am totally OK with. This is gorgeous - back-up bottle worthy. Can't wait to see how it ages.

[Casablanca]

I passed over this initially because of the cacao, and then purchased when reviews suggested the chocolate is light. Happy to report that it's light on me, too -- just a warming edge to the blend.

 

In order of strength: I get honey, but the cardamom and myrrh are right up there, very close. After them, I get amber and vanilla, and lastly the cacao. There's a dry, textured desert edge that reminds me of saffron, though it's not listed.

 

Very nice, though it goes too faint on me, too quickly. It's probably a good companion on the arm to either Small Brown Cat or Sun's Treasure.

[Little Bird]

On me, this is herbal, bright, white musky smelling honey (I like a creamy, sweet honey). Sort of an herbal, slightly soapy, wildflower honey. Golden amber always turns into an overwhelming splat of baby powder on my skin, and that's what it does here as well. I can see the cocoa, but I can't smell it, no matter how much I shake up the bottle. A little cardamom spiciness in the drydown. Mostly an herbal honey (reminds me of dried, savory chamomile and honey after a while, which reminds me of the Sachs perfume).

 

Too powdery for me, and I don't like the honey note, and maybe I don't like this bourbon vanilla, because it reminds me of Sachs, which I also disliked.

[HeidiSaysStuff]

In the bottle: spicy chocolate and honey. It smells almost like there's chili pepper in the mix, it's so warm and the edge of the resin is so sharp.

 

Wet: the chocolate fades fast under the drier scents, the myrrh is stronger right now than any other scent.

 

Dry: amber and myrrh and a trace of what I guess is the cardamom, something dry and spicy. Warm and comfortable, without much throw. I will be wearing this on bad days to comfort myself.

[ghostnaming]

Wet, it's all amber and cocoa, quite spicy. As it dries the myrrh, honey, and cardamom turn into a gorgeously sweet incense. It goes just a little dusty at the end as the amber becomes more prominent, but it's a very nice kind of dust.

 

This is warm sweet cozy goodness. It's like putting on a favorite sweater in the fall. Very low throw, but it lasts all day on my skin. While it's not too warm for the summer, I know I'll be reaching for it even more often once the weather gets cool.

[moonarcana]

I have had my bottle for less than 24 hours, and this is a clear case of true love at first sniff. Earlier this morning, I couldn't stop huffing my wrist and I wasn't getting any work done, so I applied some to my bare shoulder so I can discreetly turn my head and sniff the wafting aroma and have both hands free to type. Bast is primarily hypnotic, resinous Myrrh and gorgeous, sensual AMBER, glittering throughout this perfume like sparkling jewels in the desert sand - and a dry breeze of Cacao, not rich and chocolatey, but primal and raw...rising from scattered pods crushed underfoot as thieves attempt to pillage the temple. It is all blended together to the point that I do not notice specific notes of the bourbon vanilla, cardamom, or honey - which is crazy because normally any of those notes are pushing their way front and center...not that I complain when they do, but for me they are not the stars of this scent. This is Bastet + Velvet + some kind of crazy sexy voodoo magic!

 

And this is a new bottle...OMG when it ages, it is going to be freakingfantastic! Please excuse my lack of eloquence here, my nose is glued to my shoulder as I'm typing.

Edited August 17, 2017 by moonarcana