Bloody Valentine - Black Baccara

Details: 
Bloody Valentine
Black Baccara

Notes: 
A perfume for those who like their florals with a hint of gloom and doom. Bloody Valentine is a story of aged papers and Victorian flowers enhanced by a tinge of the metallic and earthy. It is a strong, floral blend best suited for those who love the smell of "vintage" flowers and Victorian inspired perfumes. The scent here is from another time and place. The strongest notes are those of violets, followed by rose, sandalwood, a hint of red wine, a trace of soil, and clove pennyroyal, among others.

The dominant notes in this floral are violet and rose, and boy are they running the show. It's like Bea Smith and the Freak fighting for supremacy in Prisoner (the real one, not that travesty of a remake). This is a true head kicking perfumy perfume, and not for those who like their scents delicate. There is a sweet note that could be wine, and a sharpish spice note that might be clove or nutmeg. The dry down was like a mildly spicy soap, and once that soapiness made an appearance it stayed until the perfume disappeared about 4 hours later. No likey. 

Rating: 
1/5

Day 155!

Leather Rose - Black Baccara

 

Details: 

Leather Rose

Black Baccara

Notes: 

Leather rose had been in the works for some time, as I wanted to created a leather and rose blend that was deep, rich and evocative while at the same time not being too floral. This is not a delicate floral, and it is comparable to my Black Rose blend in regard to the darkness of mood. I also consider it the female counterpart to my popular men's cologne, Marquis De Sade. This blend contains four different types of rose including Hawthorne Rose and Tea Rose. The roses dance with a deep, dark leather. This blend goes through many changes. At the onset, the different rose varieties begin to bloom, seemingly one at a time. Soon after, the roses retreat and make way for a subtle leather whisper, which gradually grows in intensity.

Where is the leather? There is no leather in this that I could smell at all. I just got rose, rose and more rose. This smelled like Yardley Roses. There’s not much more I can say about it, really. 

Rating: 

1/5

Day 124! 

Catch Up/Round Up 2

Well, dramas are still drama-ing so yet again I'm forced to do a catch up post as I'm testing but struggling to keep up with writing the actual reviews. I hope to get all this sorted and get back on track very soon - I don't want to lose my momentum entirely. :-/

Solstice Scents Violet Mallow: Dark chocolate, violet, violet leaf and vanilla absolute. 
I'm undecided on this one - I've worn it a few times but I can't work out whether I like it or not. The violet is strong at first and it smells very floral. Once applied and it starts to dry down the chocolate and vanilla come out - it's essentially a floral gourmand, but it's very rich and quite strong. Lasted quite a while - about 6 hours before I felt I had to reapply. 3/5

Alchemic Muse Cloud Nine:  Victorian lilac, fresh cream, white raspberry, sweet jasmine, white rose, white violet, cherry heliotrope.
This is a Spring limited edition, but mine is from last year's Spring collection. It's a gentle floral, with the rose quite dominant on the skin for a little while. There's a zingy green note in it, and once the rose settles, the lilac and jasmine come out, making it very much a 'country garden' perfume - I don't really get the food notes at all. I haven't had much luck with heliotrope in general, and particularly in Alchemic Muse perfumes, but here is doesn't seem to come out on me, thankfully. There's nothing remarkable about this perfume, but it's very pretty. Doesn't last long - it was gone in a couple of hours. 3/5

Black Baccara Carnival of Ghosts: Pumpkin, kettle corn, apple, licorice, freshly turned soil. 
Yet another in my large collection of Carnival/Fair perfumes that I buy compulsively but never wear. This one smells like Lolly Gobble Bliss Bombs - is that what kettle corn is? On the skin there is a slightly astringent sweetness, like lemon sherbet lollies. This was quite strong at first but didn't last more than a couple of hours. 2/5

Firebird Bath and Body Brown Sugar: Brown sugar, coconut, vanilla bean. 
This is just a very simple burnt sugar scent. If you like the smell of those kinds of perfumes, you'll like this one. It's not bad, but it's definitely not my cup of tea - I don't find sugar scents interesting at all. Lasted about 5 hours or so but sillage is quite low. 2/5

Enchanticals Mysteire Noir: Blood orange, raspberry, dark chocolate, black labdanum, vanilla.
Fruity top notes, once applied the chocolate comes out but the fruit stays around and it's too much for me. This perfume is similar to Alize, except that one is more chocolate and this one is more fruit. Lasted quite a long time - I put it on at night and could still smell it on my wrist the next morning. 2/5

Deep Midnight Perfumes Charis: Sandalwood, Vanilla, Musk. 
This starts off as a boozy vanilla but goes dusty on me within minutes and stays that way. It was gone entirely within a couple of hours.I don't know what happened but I tried it a couple of times and the same thing happened - something in it just doesn't work on my skin at all. 1/5

Twyla Perfumes Gun Street Girl: Bourbon vanilla, tobacco absolute, musk, leather accord, Russian rose absolute, blackcurrant, green cognac.
Another Twyla winner for me - I adored this one. It's a boozy, smokey, leathery, masculine vanilla with a dab of soft rose. This is one of her newer formulas and the lasting power has definitely improved - sillage was medium and I got about 6 hours before reapplying just because I wanted to keep smelling it. Gorgeous, definite full bottle. 5/5

Days 98-104!

Catch Up/Round Up

I have had some family dramas going on lately - nothing major or out of control, but it's sapping a lot of my time and energy so I've fallen behind on reviews and comments (and reading other blogs!). I'll catch up with comments in the next day or so but I have decided to do a quick montage of the perfumes I've tested in the last week to get up to date. I'm just going to put a few brief words about each - really just the impressions I write down as I am testing them. Sorry to do this, but I feel like I'm just going to keep falling behind otherwise, and I'm really into this project and don't want to abandon it. Hopefully I can resume normal daily reviews in a couple of days. I'm linking to the creator's description of each scent.

Twyla Lirrit - Sweet and candyish but not sickly. A fruity floral I don't hate - a very rare thing. Doesn't last long. 

Twyla Honekakala - Honeysuckle and tropical flowers. It's very pretty, normally honeysuckle makes me think of the American south, but this one reminds of somewhere like Hawaii. I imagine this is what a lei smells like. Again, didn't last more than about 2 hours, but most of my Twylas are the old formula and these have since been strengthened so hopefully longevity is no longer an issue. 

Twyla Bohemian Baby - This is one of the new formula perfumes, and it certainly lasted a while on me. Unfortunately it's mega patchouli so not really to my taste. If you're a patchouli fan it's definitely worth checking out. 

Possets Theodora - Resin, resin, resin. Very exotic and vampy, but totally not my thing at all. I’m not a big fan of frankincense and it amps on me like crazy with this perfume. The dry down is a strong, slightly masculine musk, but there’s something vaguely cheap-smelling about it. It makes me think of a men’s musk cologne that would be in a stack near the front counter of Chemist Warehouse and cost about $15 for a 100ml bottle. Sillage and longevity are fairly low – it lasted about 3 hours and I wasn’t sorry to see the back of it.

Possets Gingerbread Whorehouse -  In the vial, this smells like sweet cake with a dab of ginger. AGAIN WITH THE CAKE SCENTS. In my defence, this was a freebie – not one I chose even though I already have eleventy million cake scents. The ginger comes out a lot more when it’s applied to skin – I like the smell of ginger, but there’s something else in here that’s not very nice, a note of something that smells like turned cream. Thankfully, about 20 minutes later at the point where I was seriously considering scrubbing this off, that note disappeared and the perfume dried to a cakey, sweet vanilla. Oddly, given the name, the ginger doesn’t hang around. Sillage is medium, as is longevity.

BoondockG Vanilla Vanilla - Really strong, sickly vanilla toilet spray.

Delightful Rot Ravenclaw - One for the Harry Potter fans (I'm not). I like this but I don't love it. The pear is vaguely alcoholic - as pear always is to me, and the amberwood is soft and doesn't dominate. I don't get more than a flash of tea every now and then. It works well. It's just... not my thing. 

Black Baccara Old Fashioned Holiday Candy - I asked Noodles what this smelled like to her and she said pineapple and pina coladas. To me it smells exactly like Wonka Nerds, so I guess it lives up to its name.

Again, apologies for the half-arse catch ups, and if you want more information about any of these, please feel free to ask and I'll say more in comments.

Days 89 - 96!

Alchemy - Black Baccara

Details: 
Alchemy
Black Baccara

Notes: 
In this bottle is an Alchemist's lab strewn with bottles, jars, brews, and divinely scented, decaying cabinets of curiosities. A mysterious unisex perfume blend -deep and sensuous with notes of incense, honey, sandalwood, cardamom, and the faintest hint of plum.

This is a funny one - lots of weird things going on but I can't pin down anything in particular. When I read the notes, I was thinking, oh yeah - that's there, and that's there, and that's there... but without that to tell me I was lost. It's incense but not quite, spicy but not quite, woody but not quite. There's something in the opening notes that almost makes me dislike it, but then I kept getting drawn in to sniff past whatever that was (and I still don't know - something sweetly sour, like when a baby spits up milk). The whole time I was wearing this I sniffed it compulsively, even at work like a weirdo. It's so interesting, even though I can't decide for sure whether I like it.

The dry down is sandalwood, and it smells musky even though that's not mentioned in the notes. The base is more of a classic scent than the unusual opener. I've probably been of no use at all describing this one, but it's a mystery to me, even though I wore it for a couple of days in a row trying to get my head around it. Sillage is lowish, but longevity is good - 10 hours at least.

Rating: 
3/5 I might come back and make this higher eventually. I'm not entirely decided.

Day 85!

Belle Epoque - Black Baccara

Details: 
Belle Epoque
Black Baccara 

Notes:
Inspired by Marchesa Luisa Casati, one of the most fascinating women of the 20th century and the Queen of the Belle Epoque. This blend captures the decadence of the time period and the sensory delights that might have surrounded the eccentrics of high society. A feminine yet bewitching blend featuring an unusual combination of florals and gourmands. Deep florals of hyacinth, geranium, carnation and a touch of rose make up the floral bouquet, which is blended with a decadent brew of tobacco, chocolate, vanilla, anise and black pepper. As the scent unfolds on your skin, you may also catch glimpses of strawberries and rum as it settles into a complex chocolatey floral. Belle Epoque is a soft, yet extremely seductive and enchanting blend reminiscent of vintage perfumes of days gone by.

This perfume is so tightly blended that I struggled to pick out any specific notes. It smells like an expensive, slightly old-fashioned perfume of the type I could buy in the less tizzy section of the David Jones perfume department. One of those ones that has a classically heavy cut glass bottle. In the vial it's floral - nothing stands out, just a bouquet, as the decription says. Once applied I thought I could detect vague snatches of something smokey now and then, but every time I tried to sniff it properly, that note disappeared. After 20 minutes or so the perfume deepened - I guess the chocolate and vanilla warmed it up, but I honestly could not detect either of those notes in themselves. It was just... a warmer, deeper floral than it had been minutes before. Several hours later they become more apparent - it's still a floral blend, but the chocolate and vanilla are there, faint though they may be, and the rose has finally dominated the other flowers. I did not get either strawberries or rum. Sillage is quite high when wet, it almost made me a bit headachy at first, and I don't know whether this was more caused by the cold I am currently getting over, but for the first 10 minutes or so after I applied this I was sneezing like a mofo. It lasts quite a long time - I have had it on now for about 6 hours and it's still chugging along. It's definitely an 'older' perfume; I could see this being more suitable for someone 35+ than a teenager or young person.

Rating: 
3/5 I do like this, but it's nothing amazing.

Day 80!

Black Rose - Black Baccara

Details: 
Black Rose
Black Baccara 

Notes: 
Perhaps the deepest, darkest, most brooding rose that rose fans can experience. This blend is the signature scent of Black Baccara, its namesake. A deep rose, but not too sweet, with a depth that lingers on the skin and grows deeper in time. Imagine a rose dying and coming back as a zombie, and you can start to imagine what is going on in this blend. It is extremely dark while at the same time being clearly rose. The faintest hints of two kinds of vanilla and sandalwood linger in the background to balance out the very deep rose aroma. A very unique, memorable rose blend.

Rose haters, run away now. I applied this lightly to one wrist the other night before going out for dinner with my ex, Ben – a perfume hater who gets headaches from strong florals. I was sitting outside on a still night, opposite him at a fairly big table and he still complained about the smell. This is a perfume that likes to beat you about the head in case you dare try to forget that it’s there. I am quite fond of rose perfumes, even though when it’s in a blend the rose note tends to amp on my skin and dominate everything else, and I’m also quite fond of head kicker florals, but this one was just a tad too much even for me. As I said, I had only lightly applied it and that was just for the intention of testing it – I wasn’t ‘wearing perfume’. Hours later I was still painfully aware that it was there, and I can only imagine what it would have been like had I done my usual slathering with it.

Although the notes state that there is vanilla and sandalwood, all I really got from go to whoa was that rose. It didn’t change much at all from vial to dry down, although the following morning, it had (finally!) mellowed to become a faint musky vanilla scent with the rose just mingling in. 

Rating: 

3/5 The scent of this perfume is lovely if you like roses; the strength is really the only thing it's got going against it. And I never thought I'd say that about a perfume...

Day 66!

 

Cabaret - Black Baccara

Details: 
Cabaret
Black Baccara

Notes: 
Inspired by the romance and decadence of the cabaret. A sexy, feminine scent blending the aroma of vintage perfumes with rich merlot and the faintest hint of cigar smoke tempered with sandalwood. This perfume encapsulates the essence of an old time piano bar or cabaret theatre; decadent ladies and gentlemen, wisps of smoke and libations, and hints of romance on the horizon.

In the vial I smell red wine. On the skin it's wine and smoke, with something woody in the background. The first part of the dry down goes weirdly fly spray-ish - it's quite strange. Thankfully, that doesn't last too long - eventually the sandalwood comes out and it's just a warm, comforting base with a bit of woodiness. I like this quite a bit outside the fly spray phase, but probably not a full bottle.

Rating: 
3/5

Day 61!

Victorian Garden - Black Baccara

Details: 
Victorian Garden 
Black Baccara

Notes: 
Victorian Garden is a vintage-inspired floral, created with visions of labyrinthine stretches of green bursting with romantic blooming flowers. Rich soil is the backbone of this blend, from which rises up sweet carnations, dogwood, sandalwood, daffodil, hyacinth and roses wrapped in English ivy. A complex, old fashioned type floral blend reminiscent of perfumes of the Victorian and Edwardian era.

This is the perfume that made me pull out Jazz Funeral the other day, though when I compared I realised they are nothing alike. Jazz Funeral is much deeper, richer and melancholy. Victorian Garden is quite light and bright, despite its soil note.

In the vial and when first applied, this smells like damp earth and flowers. There is a watery element as well - it makes me think of a lily pond. There are no particular floral notes that stand out - I can't distinguish carnation or rose or any of the others, it's just a blend. As it dries down, the rose comes out a little more prominently than the other flowers - though could just be me, as rose tends to amp on me a lot of the time. Mostly it's a pot-pourri floral blend once it dries. It's nice, but it's not especially interesting or at all unique. The sillage is quite low for a floral - it stays close to the skin. Longevity was medium, maybe 4 hours or so.

Rating:
3/5

Day 24!

Black Lace - Black Baccara

Details:
Black Lace
Black Baccara

Notes: 
Dangerously sexy, Black Lace is a unique and incredibly seductive blend. It has a heavenly backdrop of vanilla which dances with amber, tobacco and cinnamon. Timeless and captivating, this blend stands out for it’s vanilla augmentations; a vanilla which is more seductive than it is sweet, more sexy than confectionary. 

In the vial I smell vanilla, but as the notes description says, it's not a sugary sweet kind, more of a deep, warm vanilla. Once I applied this I could not stop sniffing - it's delicious.

Once it dries down it deepens (the amber, thankfully not jumping out and going nuts but staying well in the background), but it doesn't change all that much. I can't smell the cinnamon, there's just a warm, slightly sweet spiciness to the vanilla.

There is, however, one problem I have with this perfume:

See that redness? It's hella itchy. I assume it's the cinnamon, though that's odd because I'm not normally sensitive to perfume ingredients or really much of anything, and I have no allergies that I know of (other than hay fever kind of things). I thought (hoped) maybe it was something else, but I tried Black Lace again on the other wrist and it did the same thing. So sadly, as much as I love the smell, this is not meant to be. :-(

Rating:
4/5 High score for the fragrance - a lovely warm, grown up vanilla.

Day 20!

Alice's Tea Party - Black Baccara

Details:
Alice's Tea Party
Black Baccara

Notes:
A peculiar and curious scent; sweet but hinting at something surreal. The atmosphere and magic of tea time with Alice is captured in an apothecary bottle. Hints of freshly brewed green tea mix with tart wild cherries, oranges, pomegranates, honey, marshmallows, whispers of vanilla and the faintest hint of baking bread. Comforting and delicious with the perfect dose of strangeness.

I recently received an order of 10 samples from this shop, and this is the first one I've had a chance to try. As I mentioned in my last past, with the last few sample orders I've done I've tried to branch out to things I would not normally try, and this is one of them. I don't like fruit scents generally, but I figured I could at least test this out and then pass it on to Noodles, who loves them. And that's exactly what I've done.

In the vial this smells like cherry advokaat - that cherry smell that is almost like children's cough medicine. I can also smell the honey and a hint of orange. Once applied it smells pretty much the same for a few minutes, until it begins to dry down, when it becomes a fruit cocktail - very sweet and syrupy. I can't smell marshmallow or vanilla (and definitely not bread) but there is a sugariness there. Once it dries down the tea comes out, but it still smells like fruit tea. This is definitely not for me, but Noodles likes it.

Rating:
2/5 Not awful, but not at all my cup of tea.

Day 18!