Dead Leaves, Black Tea, and Tobacco Leaf

[ladymeag]

Every leaf tells a story.

In the bottle: French Tobacco meets October.

 

On my skin: We called this the perfume tour. Seriously, it was like touring a number of fantastic perfumes as it dried down - unfortunately for me, this means that at the end it dried down into a too-sharp tea scent that smelled like a number of perfume samples all stacked up.

 

On someone else in my house: Fortunately for my testing partner, this means it goes through a number of warm, tobacco-rich, vanilla-adjacent scents and then settles into dry leaves, warm vanilla tobacco, and a little bite of tea. Absolutely delightful.

[Ghost of a Rose]

Bottle fresh from the Lab. I chose this especially for the black tea. I've been on a quest for an authentic scent of black tea for years.

 

In the bottle: One thing I'm learning from testing BPAL fragrances is how different the same oil can smell not only on different people, but even in the bottle, to the same tester, at different times. Perhaps due to the temperature of the oil, whether it is settled or mixed, chemical changes in the tester, or even the tester's mood - a hundred different variables, most unknown. The first time I sniffed this, I picked up a very masculine vibe of realistic dead leaves in piles on a lawn, and faintly smoky and bitter tobacco leaves. I thought it was much too masculine for me to wear, but I'll try it anyway.

A few days later, I sniffed it again after rolling the bottle to mix the oil. That time, I had an immediate reaction; a sense of something utterly familiar. It took only seconds to identify - the bitter scent of fresh green citrus leaves. This is going to be interesting!

 

This time, I again pick up the bitter green citrus leaves. But as I continue to sniff, I also notice a classic-perfume background.

 

On me, wet: The citrus leaves quickly yield to something I can't identify. It's perfumey, but with an acidic sourness that reminds me of lemon, but isn't lemon. And then the citrus leaves are back.

 

At 5 minutes: Citrus leaves, perfume, and the not-quite-lemon. This is a very fresh and green scent, not like dead leaves at all, but fresh live ones. But too heavy in mood for a springtime fragrance. It's more of a year-round evergreen scent, like citrus leaves themselves. Warm, and - in spite of smelling like leaves that stay green all year - somehow especially suitable for fall and summer. The bitterness of the citrus leaves contributes to the fresh character, and is balanced by the perfumey note. This is so different and lovely. The citrus leaves note is dead-on accurate.

 

At 10 minutes: The bitterness has toned down some, and the background perfuminess has gone pleasantly warm, dry, and powdery.

 

At 20 minutes: The bitterness has continued to lighten up, but is still present. The classic-perfume note is gaining on the citrus leaves.

 

At 30 minutes: Now pretty much all classic perfume.

 

At 45 minutes: A hint of warm, rich, pipe tobacco has joined the perfume.

 

At 1 hour: The tobacco has acquired the slight smokiness that I noticed in the bottle, and which may be an aspect of the tea note. There is still enough perfuminess to keep this on the feminine side, but it seems to be progressing towards a men's cologne.

A surprising sharpness has suddenly appeared that is almost ozone, and which usually occurs as a top note in men's cologne.

 

At 2 hours: The sharpness didn't last long in any great degree of strength, so this never made it all the way into men's cologne territory. But it did leave behind a note of coolness, balanced by the warm richness of the tobacco which is still there. And maybe a bit of black tea. The perfume note is still around, but right now it is hovering on the brink between a woman's perfume and a man's cologne. I could see it being perceived either way. I guess that makes this unisex, at this stage anyway.

 

At 3 hours: Lighter, and the tobacco note is nearly gone. Now cool and definitely men's-cologne-like.

 

At 4 hours: The cologne note lightened up enough to let the tobacco note through again, warming up the scent and making it more unisex.

 

At 12 hours: The last faint trace smells like baby powder (usually the final drydown of white musk on me) with a hint of florals - perhaps unlisted things that were contributing anonymously to the perfume note earlier, coming out now that everything else is gone.

 

Verdict: This was surprising! Not at all the ultra-masculine scent that I expected, both from the description and from my first whiff.

And what happened to the dead leaves that I initially noticed? Blended invisibly into the other notes, apparently. Ditto for the black tea, which was barely present, if at all.

I'm not too disappointed, though. I've never found a realistic black tea scent, so my expectations for that were very low. I may be too picky. As a lifelong drinker of all kinds of black teas - all day, every day, and usually freshly brewed by me - I have a very precise and exacting idea of what black tea smells like. Which may not be reproducible in a perfume.

 

Predominant notes: Citrus leaves, perfume. Tobacco is present, but only late in drydown, and much weaker.

 

Character: A real transformer. Fresh, green, and bitter at first; next like a classic women's perfume; later almost a men's cologne

 

5 out of 6 stars: Interesting, lovely, and very unusual

Edited October 19, 2018 by Ghost of a Rose

[puellacaerulea]

In the decant, I get all the tobacco. Lots of warm, rich, slightly spicy pipe tobacco. Can't really make out the black tea or dead leaves as yet.

 

Right after applying, the tobacco stays front and center, and the slightly spicy note dies down some. After drydown, the dead leaf note comes out a little more, giving the tobacco a slightly green bite. I have a hard time differentiating the black tea note from the leaves and tobacco, but there is something to the combination of those notes that reminds me of freshly brewed black tea. If you like tobacco but tend to find the dead leaf note too strong in other Pile of Leaves blends, this might be one to try -- the dead leaf note is detectable on drydown, but tobacco is definitely the dominant note here.

 

Overall: very warm and rich; fall-friendly; definitely unisex; medium-ish throw and good wear length. Definitely getting a full bottle of this.

[VetchVesper]

I picked this one up b/c, a few years ago, the lab did a Dead Leaves and Tobacco perfume, and I quite liked it, so I was curious what the addition of the tea would do for the fragrance.

 

This is somewhat reminiscent of Dead Leaves & Tobacco, but the sweet, black tea tempers the sharpness of the dry leaves, and makes this a gentler and less masculine perfume. The black tea is the variety that smells licoricey, which I love, and is the dominant smell on my skin. This reminds me of NAVA's Egyptian Licorice Tea, but is a little darker. Something in the background comes across to me as a light vanilla. Very pleasant. Sort of fresh, but with a titch of darkness appropriate for winter. Comfortable and work appropriate.

Edited October 24, 2018 by VetchVesper

[zankoku_zen]

Chewy tobacco and a whiff of dead leaves.

[Lucchesa]

DL, Black Tea and Tobacco Leaf, or as I like to think of it, Leaves³, hits my skin with a strong rich black tea note dominant. "Enjoy it while it lasts," I tell myself, as my skin invariably eats up tea notes the way my daughter devours honey nut cheerios. So I settled back and waited for the tea to disappear. And waited. Drove half an hour, still there. Taught a class, still there. It was as if the tobacco and dead leaves were pinning the tea to my skin, making it impossible for it to leave. So while I didn't get quite as much of the French tobacco note I was hoping for from ladymeag's review, I did get an unexpectedly long-lasting tea note that was beautiful with a ground of tobacco and dead leaves. Of the leaf pile blends I've tried so far this year, this one has the least powerful dead leaves note.

[torikitty]

This immediately smells perfumey to me. So much so that I've been hesitant to try it out. During drydown, the perfumey-ness starts to calm down, but acrid sweetness makes me expect to not like this. It takes about 10 mins for it to completely go away, then I can smell the dry, crackley leaves. The sweet tobacco starts to make an appearance, or maybe that's the tea? Yeah, it's more tea. Like a mix between Earl Grey and black tea. So a mix of dry leaves and dry tea leaves with a hint of sweetness at this point. Eventually the tobacco warms up, and brings an earthiness to the pile of leaves we've got swirling around here. However, the sweetness ends up feeling like a masculine version of a cologne. It could be unisex, but my chemistry doesn't make this enjoyable for me.

[artisjok]

My experience of this little number is quite like Lucchesa’s. Primarily a slightly sweet black tea with a touch of the other two earthy notes making it an outdoor fall experience.
The only difference, perhaps, is that the dead leaves howled their way into my senses upon application, then lessened their throw and meekly went to sit next to tobacco leaf in the background. 

 

I have a bottle of Dead Leaves and Chai, and I can now pick out the tea note with this to compare with, rather than just creamy spices. 
 

It is pretty low throw, yet yummy to huff, and now I’m drinking some hot tea and dreaming of changing leaves and cooling breezes.