An Encampment of Shepherds

[galahad]

Tassili NAjjer, 4000-1500BC

Tonka bean, red clay, rose tobacco, and oudh.

In the Bottle:
Rosy tobacco and dust

On the Skin:
Definitely a dusty clay note, which I love, tobacco with a subtle rosiness and a little woody oudh in the background.

On the Drydown:
Seems like there might be a bit of whiskey in this. Overall reminds me of a cross between The Writing on the Slate and Flickering Lantern. It has low throw but is tenacious on the skin. Pretty - softly dusty rose tobacco

[Lucchesa]

Mmm, An Encampment of Shepherds is nice, and definitely unusual.  Rose tobacco is a beautiful note I would like to see more of -- it's that sweet blonde tobacco, and while rose is always iffy on me, it does not turn sour here.  Nothing indolic about this oudh, just a warm woodiness that balances the dusty terracotta note.  I really don't have anything else like this; I would not have thought of Flickering Lantern, but it is true this is in a similar vein but without the beeswax notes.  Lovely!

[Balame]

Beautiful blend. The best rose I've gotten from BPAL. The type I often smell is usually too heavy, sharp and overwhelming for me. Here it reminds me of gentle rose petals and mixes seamlessly with the tobacco, creating a sticky sweetness that's still somehow pure and light. The tobacco puts me in the mind of BPAL's rich, slightly citrus/caramel-ish French Tobacco, but it's not heavy here. 

 

Encampment feels religious somehow, like a rosy incense blend in a temple. It does have a slight mineral dustiness to it from the clay, somewhat reminiscent of the dust in The Mountebank or Aziraphale. It's not a funky, musty note but like a light, sun-warmed light layer of dust that gathers atop a stone pillar or old book. Comforting. 

 

I can't pick out the tonka or oudh individually here, but I would say they're contributing to the incense-like atmosphere with more resinous and vanillic attributes. 

 

Really, galahad got it spot-on with the first post. Soft dusty rose tobacco (with a touch of minerals). It feels warm, sensual and sacred. For those, like me, who are tobacco lovers and feel this might not be anything new, I'd say give it a go anyway.

 

Encampment feels both familiar and exotic, making me think of an ancient temple half crumbled in the midst of desert sands. 

Edited November 16, 2018 by Balame

[Mountaingrrl00]

My favorite of this year's Weenies. It's hard to pick out individual notes, but the overall impression is of the Southwest US, the scent of canyons and the rosy colors of the rocks and the sunsets. Pretty but not sweet. Dry, airy, earthy, unisex, sophisticated, unique.

[zankoku_zen]

Rose tobacco, oudh, and a touch of tonka. This is a rosy tobacco blend with oudh. It's much more accessible than I imagined, and the rose tobacco is amazing. Good throw and wear length.

[forspecial_plate]

I've been up and down with this one, at first I loved it (first brief test), then on a longer test I thought it was a little sour and weird.  Then last night and today I'm giving it a real full test.  It is unlike most other bpal scents I have tried.  It does go through a slightly sour and odd phase for the first hour or so, but then I think the tonka comes out more, and it really needed that underlying layer of warm almost vanilla-like sweetness.  This goes on for the duration.  It's a lovely warm rosey scent at that point.

 

I do smell the rose element but it's not like most other rose scents I have encountered.  It's like a wooly slightly woody rose scent.  I know there's no "wool" note listed but that's what it reminds me of.  I don't see myself wearing this in warm weather but I might need more than a decant for the cooler autumn and winter months.

[Lunasariel]

In the imp: A subtle, jammy rose and a dusty, vaguely organic scent that could be the clay, the tobacco, or both. Soft, elusive, and intriguing!

 

Wet: Oh man, that rose tobacco! I don't think I've ever smelled this particular combo before, and I love it! It's rich and syrupy like rose jam, but drier, less sticky, with a wonderful smoky element. Further from my skin, I also get more of the oudh and tonka, rounding it out for a glorious oriental. This is a rose-dominant scent for people who hate rose. The clay note emerges after a few minutes, blending wonderfully with the dominant rose (rose tobacco?) instead of just drying it out.

 

Dry: The tonka comes out a little more over time, as does the tobacco. The rose stays noticeable until the very end, though. It ends up with a sort of omnidirectional sweetness that's as much tonka as it is rose. I don't really get any clay at this point, unless it's whatever is reining in the rose and making it blend so well with everything else.

[Aveya]

Expectations: I've been in love with Tobacco notes lately.  Tonka Bean is a secret favorite of mine (thanks to falling asleep with Dee on my arm, and waking up to the warmest yummiest dreamiest smells) that tends to get mixed with items I don't enjoy. In this case I'm hoping for a warm womanly earthy scent. Rose amps on me but I usually love it anyways.

 

Initial Sniff: Dusty. Dry. Dead roses

 

Initial Skin: Curiously strange. Dusty but wet. Musty but warm. Clay is strange? Yeah, clay is strange.This scent doesn't blend for me as well as I hoped as quickly as I hoped. Instead of the heavenly tobacco I wanted, and wishful rose depth I was daydreaming of, I'm left with dusty musty clay made with dry crushed rose petals.

 

Drydown: It takes a little time, but there's this small window when the tobacco does that THING I love and it gets all smoky syrup (I don't know, it does though) it starts making steps to perfection. And then BAM Clay asserts it's dominance and that's it. Everything else has succumbed. Clay has won. All hail the clay.

 

Verdict: I don't like clay, oops. I'm not a fan of "dry" scents generally so this is no exception. However I learned that rose tobacco might be something amazing for me in the right combination. In this blend though, red clay became front and center for me. I mean it's 100% clay rolled in what reminds me of red musk (which also doesn't always work on me). I wish rose had amp'd and tobacco has stomped and clay was a minor player. - BUT, this scent matches that picture. I always underestimate how much BPAL can capture images into smell. Very unique. I'm jealous of those that don't get clay from this.

Edited December 15, 2018 by Aveya

[Minh Scent]

This is another big blind bottle win of the season. The rose tobacco is gorgeous! The other (beloved) rose tobacco scent I have is La Pierreuse which is more full on rose scent. In this one, the rose is more a background player, but certainly there. The oude is light and clay adds a softness. The main player on my skin is the beautiful tobacco. Mmmm!

[roseus]

Normally I'm not drawn to dirt/earthy scents but the clay in here is very gentle and pretty. The rose tobacco smells like a strong dried rose with just a bit of cologne-y tobacco underneath. 

[mishi-bear]

Strongly tobacco smelling, like the tobacco in the Lace blends. There's just a hint of a rose tinge to that tobacco note.

 

I do get a bit of the clay note which is nice. Earthy and sweet.

 

I get no tonka or oudh at all.

[rix]

Wow, I’m so jealous of all these reviewers who are getting the dusty rose oudh from this!  On me?  Maple syrup.  Strong, cloying maple syrup.  Think it maaaybeee lasted 4 minutes before I had to scrub it off.  Just really unpleasant.  So sad, I wanted to love this but no go.