Angst

[Seajewel]

Charred sandalwood and cardamom soured by bitter caraway seed.

[Threemoons]

This one is a morpher  I got all 4 of the components for the Ginormous Lawn Skeleton, trying them top to bottom.  In the bottle:  Uh, oh, sour plastic note with a burnt note.  Might just be bottle tight (note--wore this 2 days in a row and yes, it loosened up a bit on the second day in the bottle).  On, wet:  The caraway really opens up nicely -- it's a note that I don't see a lot of in the Lab's work and I think it's really underrated.  I love the bitter, resinous, almost licorice caraway in this and in IRL -- reminds me of caraway seed rye bread from  my childhood.  There's also a bit of charred wood in the background -- not quite sandalwood but generic charred wood left from a campfire -- blackened but cold, not hot.  The cardamom is hardly there; I'm getting it more not as crushed cardamom seeds or pods but the papery green covering on the pods.  Drydown:  After a few hours, this settles into a really light, dry veil on the skin.  The caraway note stays the star player the whole time on me, even after sleeping in it overnight.  It mellows down though from its initial resinous pungent self to a dry almost dusty herbal thing.  Really nice; can't wait to layer this with some other things and try the rest of the Skeleton....

[Alaeidrel]

Caraway forever!!! The sandalwood is a little acrid when wet and it just smells like kind of sour spices, but it dries down more subtle. I think I'm going to have to retest this on a part of my skin that isn't quite so dry. Will report back.

[ShadowEtienne]

I hesitated over this scent at first, uncertain if I would like it enough to be happy with a bottle (and with no one in my circle of friends who also like BPAL who wanted to share in a bottle with me). I'm glad that I circled back and bought a bottle!

 

I love cardamom, it's one of my favorite notes, and I love that here, it is not a sweet note at all. The cardamom and caraway are a beautiful combination of sour spice, but sour in the best way. The charred sandalwood is a woody bitter note that accentuates the beautiful spice notes without overwhelming them. On my skin, it's in fact very subtle, and this is mostly about the cardamom-caraway duet.

 

This has been among other things an excellent layering scent for me when something is too sweet for my tastes but otherwise smells good. It definitely stands up to being worn alone as well though.

[zankoku_zen]

Caraway, green and a whiff of sandalwood. Caraway has a celery-like note to me, so this was a very green spice of blend. Good throw and wear length.

[DiZZysTARdust]

the caraway is strong af when first applied. i agree with the celery comparison, definitely a very fresh greenness. once the celery vibe wears away after about ten minutes, the caraway takes a back seat. this becomes a delicious herbaceous spiced sandalwood. almost like a sandalwood tea. weirdly addictive, i can’t stop huffing my arm

[Ennikar]

Very spicy, dry, and a little sweet in the drydown. It sounds like my impressions are a little different from most of the previous reviewers. For me, the caraway comes through primarily in giving the whole thing a "spiced bread" vibe, but the star is the cardamom. I say spiced bread, but that's more an impression, there's nothing else "yeasty" going on and it's not sweet in a way that would suggest pastry. I suppose I'd agree that if anything, it's sour/bitter, but in a good way - not like BO or spoiled food. Sandalwood is here, too, but stronger in the drydown, when it becomes a sweeter-spicy-sandalwood.

 

Other impressions: (in the bottle) "Something really spicy - cinnamon, I think? Ginger? I guess it could be cardamom, but I think cinnamon." ("It's cardamom, and caraway." "Caraway! That explains it.")

 

A keeper for me. It's not super complicated, but it's spicy and a bit woody without really being gourmand, and that's my jam. I imagine it would also be a good layer.