I grieve and dare not show my discontent,
I love and yet am forced to seem to hate,
I do, yet dare not say I ever meant,
I seem stark mute but inwardly do prate.
I am and not, I freeze and yet am burned,
Since from myself another self I turned.
My care is like my shadow in the sun,
Follows me flying, flies when I pursue it,
Stands and lies by me, doth what I have done.
His too familiar care doth make me rue it.
No means I find to rid him from my breast,
Till by the end of things it be supprest.
Some gentler passion slide into my mind,
For I am soft and made of melting snow;
Or be more cruel, love, and so be kind.
Let me or float or sink, be high or low.
Or let me live with some more sweet content,
Or die and so forget what love ere meant.
Inspired by the tragic, ill-fated love of Queen Elizabeth I and the Earl of Leicester. This is our modernization of a 17th-century perfume blend favored by British aristocracy: rosemary, orange flower, grape spirit, five rose variants, lemon peel, and mint.
twopeople007 –
Lives up to it’s name. Hard to put a finger on, or describe as any way other than “dark”. Too sweet to quite be called woodsy, too woodsy to quite be called sweet. Makes me think a little bit of a noir office somehow. Lasts me a good few hours.
bottlejoss –
genuinely my favourite scent, and is usually my signature and/or every day base. It has a subtle sweetness, the cocoa is dark and beautiful. Fades down to a vaguely earthy, woodsy scent that is lovely as well. My absolute favourite purchase from BPAL to date.
Jae –
This one is cool, spicy, tart and damp earth. Very lovely spring scent!
artimisia –
This one is a morpher. When I first applied it, it hit me very strongly with the cocoa and fig. Very masculine. It settled down pretty quickly, though, and became unisex. The chocolate faded to a background note and the “shadowy wooded notes” came forward. I smelled like a cedar chest doused in chocolate. As the day waned, it changed again. The cedar smell went away and I was left with a comfortable spiciness.
I was torn about what star rating to give this one. I spent the whole day trying to decide if I liked it or not. It’s such an ODD scent. But it does smell exactly as advertised, so it’s on me for being adventurous. I am definitely going to keep the imp and use it… I Liked it well enough not to give it away. …And I can be picky. But I don’t think I’ll buy the bottle. It’s getting four stars because, even though it wasn’t EXACTLY my cup of tea, you have to give BPAL props for creating an utterly unique scent. It would definitely smell good on a guy, or on an adventurous woman who likes chocolate scents. So four stars.
KatRampant –
Spicy cocoa and obvious fig in the bottle. Cocoa steps back a bit application and I’m left with something woody, earthy, dark, and just a tiny bit tart. There’s sweetness, but I would not call this one at all foody. There’s something really damp and cool to it.