Black Forest from Solstice Scents
The Official Description Sez:
Agarwood, Nagarmotha EO, Tobacco Absolute, Dark Chocolate, Milk Chocolate, Cocoa Absolute, Maraschino Cherries, Black Cherries, Hay Absolute, Sandalwood EO, Whipped Cream & a drop of Pink Peppercorn Essential Oil)
This is one of our first dual concept fragrances. It is meant to embody the luxurious decadence of black forest cake and the dark secluded imagery of the Black Forest in Germany. The focus was on rich exotic wood notes in lieu of conifer notes to represent the forest. Black Forest is very heavy on the woods. On initial application the cherries are detectable but they quickly fall into a chasm of deep dark notes that serve to tame the gourmand element of this blend. The agarwood and nagarmotha prop up the sweet notes and are the next to be discovered. Nagarmotha essential oil is a divine cross that strikes somewhere between vetiver and agarwood. It evokes a rare and precious wood note. The tobacco and hay absolutes are the next notes to emerge quickly after detection of the aforementioned notes. They wrap the other oils in a cozy, warm, dry and dusty blanket. This is the point where Black Forest turns most dry and smells like a humidor housing a very fine and exceedingly dark chocolate cherry pipe tobacco. The scent stays in this phase for a little while but as your skin warms it, the ethereal billows of the fluffiest whipped cream waft far in the background and sweeten the blend of woods to the point that it begins to smell like a wonderful unlit incense stick coupled with the pipe tobacco. The gourmand notes end up receeding tremendously though they are invaluable to the overall character of this scent. This is not a standard foodie scent. If you like dark fragrances with these notes, try this unusual and enticing fragrance. It is full of character and depth. After a few hours on the skin it turns a lot sweeter when the whipped cream note is most apparent but the woods keep it grounded and it stays a super delicious incensey scent.
TL;DR: It’s supposed to smell like the forest AND the cake.
After the fiasco with the Pharaoh scent, I was a little nervous as I was opening the bottle. Then it was actually open, and many of my fears subsided before the onslaught of CHOCOLATE that burst forth! Other smells swirled up around and under and through, but the chocolate was the strongest, central note. There was the sweetness of cherries and the scent of moist floury cake and the dry tang of freshly powdered sugar and holy crap you guys, this stuff smells GOOD in the bottle.
So I put it on my skin, hoping against hope that it wasn’t going to go sour the way Pharaoh did – because as you recall, that one was decent in the bottle too.
On my wrist, sugary cherries came to the forefront of this scent. Not like cherry syrup, but as cherries that have been lightly sugared. It was backed with a scent of dry cake, like a dark chocolate cake the second day after it’s been baked and cut. The chocolate scent faded back a little, though it was still fairly strong and central. It married well with the blossoming cherry notes.
As this scent dried, it faded to a sweetly powdery commingling of the cherry/chocolate smells – almost a floury sort of powdery. Hours later (and it’s now 10 hours later) the scent is still definite upon the skin, and retains that sweet, powdery scent. Looking at the product description, I’d imagine that’s probably the sandalwood playing nice with the tobacco and hay absolutes.
The OPD talks big about all the wood scents and wood oils, and while I’m sure they’re in there and offer strong backing, it’s the cake smells that are really at the fore of this scent. It was a delicious, indulgent treat to my senses, and a scent that, while I don’t think I’d have picked it out for myself (I tend to steer clear of blatantly sweet scents), I can definitely see wearing again.