Dried Cherry Incense and Spun Sugar

[Seajewel]

No further description.

Edited February 22, 2023 by Seajewel

[abejita]

Perfectly balanced. The dried cherry is distinctly dried and has a concentrated, almost jammy cherry feel to it. The spun sugar brings out the cherry even more, and the incense draws it away from being overly gourmand. It's dark, sexy, and it's a keeper.

[starbrow]

This is going to be a fan favorite, calling it now.

 

The bottle whiff and first five minutes of skin application is all TART cherry. If you are adverse to the sharp almond smell from some of the GC cherries, this stage might be overpowering. With drydown, the tartness simmers down into a semi-sweet state, while still keeping a nice bite in the background. The incense part starts to sing. This is a classic almost red-musky incense (frankincense?) with a beautiful woody grain, almost like incense + wooden incense box. I can't tell what wood exactly, but there's a very slight rubberiness to it, which makes me think opoponax. I'm reminded a bit of High School Hair for some reason, too, which was my favorite of 2022!

 

The spun sugar is the faintest component to my nose, I really have to shove my nose against my wrist to get it, but it's a little crystally-sweet with just the tiniest bit of floof. I wouldn't call this a true gourmand, or out of the realm of possibilities for those who don't wear cotton candy or sweet scents. It's there to balance the sexiness of the incense and the tartness of the cherry, and it's perfect for that. (Reminds me a bit of the Gingerbread & Candyfloss effect.)

 

This is so old-school BPAL to me, sultry and sensual. My favorite by far of the Lupers I got, and I can tell I'll be keeping my bottle forever and a day. It's only going to get better with age. For fans of Blood, Hollywood Babylon, even Anne Bonny. 

[ND¢]

Fresh from mail. Wet, toned down reminds me of Cherry Red, but quickly I see the understatedness that is dried cherry... okay yes this broadens to a less billowy CHERREH and then I see where the... if this is incense this is an extreeeeeemely high quality incense, not brash, just a little curling up of the scent at the end to indicate that you are smelling incense not dried cherries. It is well blended. It doesn't smell like F**K but could be a cousin. It's... light? Cute? Doesn't smell so much like cherries at all after a bit. Definitely unburned light sugary dried cherry incense, resting in a polished wooden cup as your hands trace the engravings on the display while you're thinking about how sweet and richly sexy the atmosphere will be in your home after you light it. Verdict: definite keep and suitable for immediate wear!

[blueroses]

I tried this straight from the mail and then wore it the next day. Wet, it was predominantly a sugary dried cherry, not candy-sweet but the sugar was present. It’s a really nice tart cherry, not cough-syrupy on me at all. The incense only peeked through initially but becomes the essence of the scent as it wears. It’s not smoky but a light sweet rich incense. You definitely must like incense to enjoy this one, but I do find it more wearable (less intense) than other incense scents. I could still detect a hint of cherry throughout the day though its prominence faded. 
 

This immediately became one of my favorite cherry perfumes from any company, not just BPAL. And I’ll echo the poster above that it seems like classic BPAL, with its deep red cherry and incense-y base. 

[Viiinylflowers]

This is really pretty and def has that classic old style bpal vibe (like it smells like some very vintage scents I got to try once when a shop that carried bpal was selling old stock a while back)  ~ it opens with a tart (not super sour or anything) cherry - kinda  emanating darkish ruby red, a bit candied and syrupy at first but in the good bpal way not like an icky overly sweet or cough syrup way.  Like I’d prob enjoy this if it was a candy or juice, or some otherworldly and impossible ripe cherry fruit.  
 

Anyways, it does that - then it gets easier on the tartness as it sits for a minute, a little less candied too, and spread out.  
 

Then the incense begins making itself known.  It’s very very pretty and smells expensive, not like a cheapy ashy powdery vape store smoky spicy blemby incense stick quality scent (although I appreciate those here and there in the right places).  It’s recognizable but not exactly typical - which I appreciate because I have a lot of incense scents in my life lol. 
 

The best way I can describe it is at first to me it smells almost like it has a waft of a dry soft suede or something to it growing beneath the cherry  - like slightly indolic in a dry gentle way like that.  Then that aspect transitions makes itself known as champa to me, which makes up the bulk of the incense base on me.  
 

The type of champa it is, is like a very good quality imported champa resin, probably in the process of being actively burnt.  It’s emanating but not smoky.  It smells dry but not powdery, and it has that refined nearly suede thing to it, and good nuance.  It’s not cloying, and quite interesting.  
 

The champa is peppered and layered through with a variety of other incense wafts and resins I guess ~ think of “incense” and you’ll prob imagine correctly what kind I mean.  It’s the good kind though, like you bought a more expensive good traditional loose blend w dried resin blobs and crumbles and whatnot from an indie house and are burning it over a hot coal.  (I did that once and was surprised at how gorgeous and non smoky that kind of a blend can be). 
 

So I get that threading through the champa, it’s mid tone dark, complex, ethereal, and not too flat.  Emanating and maybe actively burning but not smoky/burnt, multi textured, kinda dry, powdery and resinous at the same time. And it retains some of that soft suedeyness on me.  It’s not super weird or different as an incense blend, but what does make it different is the fact that it has that fancy tone to it.  

 

Despite the champa being a big part of the base - it doesn’t flatten and take over everything, it’s quite infused with everything else and I wouldn’t call it a champa scent overall or anything.  It’s definitely a darker ruby red cherry scent infused with expensive non powdery incense. 
 

Over top is the cherry in various states of blending and settling in.  
 

And I rambled a lot so yeahhhh : D  

 

edit: oh yeah I forgot - the spun sugar!   It’s delightful!  So that comes out as I wear it more.  It adds like a hot melty cotton candy note.  It’s very refined and basically just ever so gently sweetens the mix in a really addicting way that isn’t cloying, and kinda nestles in between the more raspy and flatter tones in the incense blend texturally, and makes me want to keep sneaking up close sniffs of it to study the scent over and over. (this is coming from someone that prefers scents to be less sweet overall) 
 

 

Edited March 14, 2023 by Viiinylflowers

[forspecial_plate]

On me this is pretty straightforward, it goes on with a burst of juicy cherry, and then gradually, seamlessly, the incense and sugar come in.  I can't really tell what kind of incense it is, but when I sniff up close I think "white incense", for some reason.  It's a clean, light incense scent.  It's pretty much just what the name says!  I like it and I'll enjoy this bottle.  Might be great when the weather starts to warm up. 

[Lion]

In the bottle -  Marashino cherries with a hint of smoky incense. Very sweet, the sugar blends with the cherries to create something akin to Cherry Red. Deep red. Headshop cherry incense.

 

Wet -  Very cherry, but also very smoky. That incense is strong and resinous. It definitely smells exactly like cherry incense from a headshop. The cherry is strong, but so is the resin. No real spun sugar on the skin, but I think it's going towards keeping that cherry full and bright and sweet. Yeah, the resin pops a lot. Cherry in a cloud around me, resin close to the skin.

 

Dry -  Dry, the cherry calms down a lot, leaving nice resinous incense. It's still got that cherry flavor though. Very sweet. The spun sugar keeps it so. Excellent scent.

[Weirdgirlpilled]

Straight from the mail, So will update after a couple day's rest.

 

Wet- Holy shit, that's COUGH SYRUP!

 

On skin- Ok, now it' a gorgeous tart cherry. No sugar, just bright, underripe dark red-cherry.

 

Dry- Whoa. This is not a lit stick of incense.  The cherry is still very much there, it's not at all hindered by the incense.

 

Verdict: Gorgeous, but not really for me. 

Edited April 1, 2023 by Weirdgirlpilled

[amoray]

I am sad that so far, the cherry does not stick around super long for me. It's such a gorgeous cherry note too....sigh. It's a dark delicious cherry.  It has a warmth from the incense but it's not very strong incense. When it dries I smell a light smokiness like I've just burned cherry incense and this smoldering hint is all that's left.  I wanted more ooooomph. It's pretty and easy to wear, but not *quite* what I am searching for. 

[dancingchair]

Wet, the cherry is strong and sweet. As it dries, the incense comes out more. It's not super strong, but it is dark and smoky. The spun sugar is balancing everything out and keeping everything light.

 

I didn't pick this up right away because I'm pretty picky about incense notes, but this is really nice.

[tinyvulture]

When I was an undergrad I loved to burn dark cherry candles in my dorm room and that is the scent here. Little curls of dark cherry smoke. The spun sugar only adds to the cherry’s sweetness. Really nice.

[doomsday_disco]

I was really curious about this and almost blind bottled it, but I decided to go with a decant since I wasn't sure what kind of incense this would contain.

 

It goes on as mostly dried cherry and incense on me (the cherry is not as intense as some other cherries). I feel like the incense may have a tiny bit of champaca to it, but isn't nag champa and may be more like a previously lit, but recently blown out stick of incense. Over time, the cherry fades, the incense sticks around, and the spun sugar comes forward, so that it's mostly a lightly sugared incense on me.

 

I really wish the cherry had stuck around, but I am glad that the incense wasn't nag champa. I'm going to retest this before it goes away to see if I can get some more longevity from the cherry, but at the moment, it's not my favorite from this year's cherry bomb collection.

[Jenjin]

I've been looking for a HG BPAL cherry for many years. This is what I wanted from Gothabilly. The opening is a mouth watering cherry punch! I am loving the intensity of this, its the same one from Cherry Bourbon which I also enjoy. After a few minutes, the cherry is completely overtaken by smoky, sultry incense, and this is a general term because it is difficult to pull out individual notes, it's so well blended. Very much like walking into a house that regularly burns sticky sticks of the best incense. 

Edited September 20, 2023 by Jenjin

[Larinessa]

I was most excited about this one as a cherry lover, but it's not quite what I was expecting. The cherry isn't the maraschino cherry of Ghoulish, nor is it the medicinal one of Bite Me. It's somewhere in between, dark, and the incense is far stronger then expected. I agree it reminds you of a burnt cherry incense stick. I like it, but I'm not sure it's the home run I was expecting it to be. I'll need to test again after it settles 

 

Given it a couple of days to settle, and dried I'm left with a faint scent of having stood in an incense shop and I picked up the smoke on my body. Faintly scented, very smokey. No spun sugar detected. 

 

I'm not sure I want to smell like this straight up, but I may use this as a layering note to add a bit of oomf to scents like Ghoulish, or even Bordello (which actually seems like a fantastic idea come to think of it. I'll have to try that layering and see what happens).

Edited April 30, 2023 by Larinessa