Shadow Lace

[VioletChaos]

Dusky plum oudh casts a pall over frayed strands of green cognac and tobacco leaf. This tangle of threads is stained with a smear of patchouli and opoponax and intertwined with vanilla cream lace.

In The Bottle: The plum is sweet and bright right out of the gate, followed by a hint of that green cognac. That's all I get at first.

 

Wet On Skin: The oudh settles into itself, becoming a bit more rich, but not incense-y as I had expected. The vanilla cream lace is juuuuust beginning to peek out!

 

Dry Down: Siiiiiiigh. This is everything that I hope any in the Lace series to be: filling me with a painful nostalgia that haunts my longings and releases all my beautiful ghosts. It's sweet and dusky and gorgeous, no one note standing out, all working in gorgeous symphony. Like stepping into a sitting room full of silver print photographs and dried flowers in cut crystal vases.

[MischiefofRats]

UNF. That plum. So gorgeous. This one is alllllllll about that stunning, dusty purple plum, blended with that smooth, sweet antique vanilla lace. The patchouli is very light and incredibly inoffensive, but adds a note of rooty woody richness. This is not an incense scent; this is plum lace with some deepening complementary notes to add complexity.

[ramblingrambler]

I was hoping the tobacco would not be front-and-center in this blend, but alas, on me, as any fragrance containing this note, it is all tobacco, all the time. The plum-oudh makes it bearable along with the usual Lace suspects (sans tobacco), but I simply cannot wear tobacco blends anymore it seems.

 

For anyone who amps this note and/or is not a fan, stay far away. Otherwise, this will be absolutely beautiful on you, and I highly encourage you to get it.

[Casablanca]

This is a nostalgic blend: dark fruit on a complex, antique, and woody background.

 

First applied, plum is most prominent. It's a deep plum, less bright and overtly fruity than I expected. Its depth blends right into the woodiness of the oudh, with hints of green cognac and incense. After a minute or few, I find a light and subtle woody patchouli and a little tobacco grounding the blend alongside the oudh.

 

Once Shadow Lace has dried on me, its plum is soft, even subdued. Its other notes also fall back, as though in ennui on fainting couches. This is a low-throw, low-energy blend on my skin once dry. It develops a little vanilla fullness, but mostly lies supine and cannot be bothered, waving away all attempts to interrupt its reverie.

 

Most of it fades from me in under two hours, but it's a beauty, and an experience, while it lasts.

[JMorgynWhite]

Its's a few days out of the mail now. In the bottle it's a cologne-dark-fruit with a bit of booze. Wet down it has a sort of an expensive perfume powdery element which makes me think of white musk with some ethereal incense and a hint of plum. I am not getting tobacco on its own but knowing it in other laces I can see that its there but I have to look for it.

 

Dry it's faintly plum powder. The effect is super-elegant and sophisticated.

 

To me it's one of the incredibly complex scents that reminds me of department store perfume I would go for.

 

I adore it.

[zankoku_zen]

Cognac, plum, and a whiff of tobacco. Complex, and interesting, but I'm all about the Amber Lace right now.

[Ina Garten Davita]

I'm all about the plum with resins. I love it. It's a little powdery, but I think that will age out. I'm an avid "Lace" collector and this is a perfect addition to the family. The vanilla is SO SWEET.

[doomsday_disco]

I got to try this one at Dark Delicacies yesterday! I applied a drop to my arm and then walked around Magnolia Park some more, so this isn't the most detailed review as I was walking around in the heat and just sniffing my arm occasionally.

Plum isn't really my thing, so I didn't order a bottle of this when it went live, and I didn't end up grabbing one at the store either. But I do want to say that, even though I'm averse to plum, this wasn't as intense on the plum as I expected. This is not a cloying variety of plum, so while the plum remained the dominant note at all times, I never felt like I was in an irksome cloud of it. The plum and cognac were strongest notes on me at first, and then I got some of the Lace vanilla and tobacco, and then the oudh came into play after a few hours, making it a resinous plum scent. After a full day of wear, it was back to being mostly plum-infused Lace (cognac, vanilla, and tobacco).

Shadow Lace is evocative of its name, and I recommend it if you're a fan of darker plum scents.

[milo]

Strong metallic and sweet, fake plum. I'm not getting any vanilla which may have saved this blend.  I will keep this for a bit to see if it improves, but not a fan at this point.

[AirimirOfGondor]

Generally, I actively dislike cognac. (I'm pretty sure that's the note that turned me off of Amber, and Summer Lace)

 

That being said, it must be lighter in Shadow Lace, because I love this!

 

For me, it's dark and chewy (but not too dark), with touches of earthiness and woodsiness. The patchouli and tobacco are pretty subtle to me, as is the oudh, and the plum is definitely the star player. But it's not an annoyingly sweet fruity smell, it's more like a dark, rich, sweet-and-savory-plum-sauce-reduction thing. Or something; I just know it's clearly plum, just not the same kind of juicy dark fruit note I'm familiar with from other blends.

 

Overall it's extremely well blended, and everything really melds together for me. 😊

Definitely one of my faves~ I had been collecting Laces, but I've since been purging the collection of ones I didn't get excited about anymore - and Shadow was one of the ones I knew I had to keep! 😄

[Minh Scent]

This is beautiful! The standout note is the rich plum. The other notes all there, but making a complex background for the plum. It is dark, perfumey and has a complex drydown. 

[artisjok]

Shadow Lace is all about that lacey plum, as others has noted. I can’t exactly pick out more notes, besides the vanilla lace and plum, but they are creating the dusty yet velvety feel of the scent. It’s like a room draped in old purple velvet curtains, with memories of incense and rich perfumes ladies seeped into the curtains and walls. Ghosts of the pasts linger about, drowsily. 

 

I’m digging it! Creates a mood for complex melancholy thoughts. Also, makes me feel like a gorgeous dignified woman  

Edited April 6, 2019 by artisjok

[Little Bird]

Everything is well blended and swirled together. 

Hints of sweet plum, sharp white smoke, and patchouli that is both chocolatey and woody, with whiffs of pencil shavings and dry cedar. The oud gives off an edge of Off Deep Woods bug spray for a while in the opening.

The drydown after a half hour is mostly white tobacco with smoke, powder, and dry woods.  After an hour, still that powdery white tobacco and dusty wood, but I also get a weird vegetable oil smell from this.

Edited September 18, 2022 by Little Bird

[Sjofn]

I was desperate for some plum-y lace! It's great, but, it basically dries as a dusty plum oudh. I don't get any cognac or vanilla. Thankful for the tester, but, that purple oudh vibe that I get here can be scratched by others in my collection (Arlecchina, Blackberry & Oudh, etc.)

[starbrow]

Plum Lace glory! The old-school BPAL plum that is so gothy and Victorian and sensual is back, with her co-star Oudh Tease. (They have previously starred in A Savage Veil, Cassiopeia, Euterpe's Eukelele, Vampire Princess, Voluptuous Wantonness, and I hope a LOT MORE blends because I love it.) These two, Goth Plum and Oudh, twine and twist into a dark purple veil that envelopes the skin in magic. Old-school BPAL plum has a uniquely gothy vibe that I don't know quite how to describe - some have said it's perfumey, some clovey, some grapey. But you'll know it when you smell it. I LOVE IT. And I keep loving it, as it lingers for hours in distinguishable waves, with no dulling of the senses, it just keeps giving on my flat skin!

 

The lace element is subtle but also present very early. It is a soft cognac cloud, like sheers behind the curtains of plum, so old-fashioned in the best of ways. It has a faint whiff of tobacco flower, but it is beautifully delicate. I think this element presents best with A Savage Veil, which hits a little sharper but dries down to a similar tobacco-threaded cloud. If you love that one, Shadow Lace is a MUST!

 

Similarly, if you love Euterpe's Eukelele, this gives the similar plum oudh but with more sensuality thanks to the tobacco lace/cognac vibe. I think it is very much a cousin and needed if you love anything in this line of notes.

 

Essentially, if you are just a BPAL Lace fan, I don't know that this is needed. If you are a PLUM OUDH fan, this is NEEDED. It billows in spades. It is from a truly artisanal time period of BPAL. I just need one, because I use it at the gothiest of times and then stow it away for safe-keeping. My favorite Lace!

 

[Amoraexcena]

Plum is a note I have very fond memories of. I was pretty adverse to fragrances growing up (my father hated them). The only thing I used with fragrance were fruity Body Shop butters, and their scent dissipates quickly. When I started making adult money, and started to frequent department stores, I usually avoided the overwhelming scent clouds of the fragrance sections. One day though, I caught a whiff of a fruity-floral-musky scent that I really liked - Mediterranean, by Elizabeth Arden - and I learned that one of its main fruit notes was plum. I went through a short department store perfume phase after getting that one, and then a year or two later, was introduced to BPAL. 

 

BPAL's plum is fantastic, and this is one of my favourite iterations. On me, Shadow Lace is a musky plum oudh, sweet, dark, mysterious, and utterly gorgeous. Something in it also suggests lightly floral too, maybe it's a floral vanilla. I get a similar creaminess to Sugared Lace under that dark purple veil. 

 

Really, really lovely.