BPAL The Zieba Tree

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When I tried the Zeiba Tree I had expected a much woodsier fragrance than I actually got. While it does contain a bit of sandalwood, the majority of the fragrance depends on its fruitiness to get by. The Zieba Tree

In Bottle: Fruity and sweet, like lemons, peaches and–for some reason–a little bit of apple.

Applied: Perhaps it’s the citruses (particularly lemon) mixing together with the ultra fruitiness of peach because I smell a little bit of apple in The Zieba Tree. It’s odd, because it’s more of an authentic apple note than any of BPAL’s actual apple notes. I quite like it even as the sandalwood waffles in and out of the fragrance like it’s uncertain whether or not it wants to hang out or get out of there. The musk in this fragrance is a very light clean musk that makes me think of a tree that someone’s soaped up and scrubbed down. The rest of the fragrance isn’t too deep the resins add a little more of a tree-like quality to the fragrance but in general, The Zieba Tree is a predominantly clean and fruity fragrance with little hints of sandalwood.

Extra: The Zieba Tree, being a mythological entity was said to have housed bare-chested individuals in its branches.

Design: Bottled the same way as most of Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab’s other 5ml fragrances.

Fragrance Family: Fruity

Notes: Sandalwood, musk, resin, davana, lemon blossom, orange blossom, white peach.

I’m rather delighted at how fun the morph was when I first applied this and smelled apples. I’m not the only one who noticed as many other Zieba Tree testers have noted a whiff of Ye Olde Forbidden Fruit too.

Reviewed in This Post: The Zieba Tree, 2009, 5ml Bottle.

Demeter Thunderstorm

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Whenever I hear about Demeter, I end up hearing about a few select pieces from their collection. A few that always tend to come up include Playdoh, Dirt, and Thunderstorm.

Thunderstorm

Thunderstorm

In Bottle: Ozone and dirt. I don’t think I can expect to get anything else out of it than that.

Applied: To be honest, I always feel a little silly reviewing Demeter fragrances. Because aside from noting whether or not they smell like the thing they were named after, I can’t elevate it beyond that. Thunderstorm is a very convincing composition of ozone with a layer of wet earth. You’ll get blasted with the ozone first, making it feel like someone turned the dial up on the humidity. Then you get the wet dirt. This stuff could be convincing even on a bright, sunny day like today. Thunderstorm reminds me of how much I used to love stormy weather when I was younger. When life was a little more vibrant and time wasn’t such a precious commodity. So in terms of stirring up a scent memory then congratulations to you, Thunderstorm, you did it.

Extra: Poor projection and longevity but Demeter’s fragrances weren’t composed to last on the skin or evolve. They were meant to be fun trysts that you could enjoy in under an hour. I can’t justify owning a big bottle of any of these fragrances, but imagine the amount of business they could drum up if they sold this stuff in smaller containers and marketed it as a collectable. Heck, they’d have me hooked.

Design: Bottle in the same way as other Demeter fragrances. You can either get a small rectangular bottle of this stuff or a large cylindrical bottle. Both designs are pretty utilitarian but they, they work.

Fragrance Family: Fresh

Notes: Ozone, dirt.

There, knocking off another Demeter fragrance from the wall of scent. Though I really did like Thunderstorm because as a scent memory, it actually worked. I wonder what Playdoh will remind me of?

Reviewed in This Post: Thunderstorm, 2010, Cologne Spray.