Review - Breath of God (B Never)

Originally posted on Dreamwidth, 5th January 2010

B Never Too Busy To Be Beautiful’s BREATH OF GOD is a perfume that is unique and beautiful for both men and women combining smoky scents, sandalwood, amber, neroli and patchouli with rose, lemon oil, floral notes and jasmine.
Perfumer Simon Constantine created Breath of God after a trip to Tibet wanting to create a perfume that was a return to the simpler way of Life. Breath of God was reportedly developed after Constantine created two separate scents on this theme, Inhale for women (uplifting neroli, refreshing bergamot, stimulating violet leaf and exotic jasmine) and Exhale for men (warming amber, soothing sandalwood and stimulating patchouli ) and decided they would work well combined.

I love B Never, in the same way I adored Cosmetics to Go, and grew to love Lush. Ginger by CTG is still one of my favourite perfumes and indeed I still have a bottle squirrelled away from *cough* 17 years ago (hmm, maybe I should replace). But B Never fragrances and I have never really got on. All of them seem to distill down to one very sweet B Never note, instantly recogniseable, but never quite what the perfume is actually supposed to smell like. The only B Never scent that didn't do that was Om... which smelt of curried cabbage.

However, with the news the B Never are going to cease trading, and a 5 star review of Breath of God from Luca Turin, I thought I'd give this a shot.

First impresssion THUNK, like being hit in the face with the entire B Never store in Carnaby Street. Its a massive, fluffy floral, and exactly the same feeling as most of the other range.

However, don't let that put you off, because after a while it settles down and becomes far more subtle, with the sandlewood and citrus notes shining through. This is not a fragrance for the fainthearted, as it is a bit "shouty" to start with but it becomes incredibly warm and the notes seem to shift continually.

The duality between the "inhale" and "exhale" shines through, it is both masculine and feminine, which means I would be happy to wear it for all sorts of occasions. I'd suggest that its applied very sparingly, a little goes a remarkably long way, but it lasts on my skin beautifully, after nearly 5 hours I could still smell it.

You can still buy it directly from the B Never site, alternatively, if you're not sure if you'd like it, you can get a sample here.