LizziesLuck

Mmm! This is so dark and rich! It smells a lot like cola, in a way that I love (opoponax often does to me). The spice from the carnation is perfect. Ya I totally love this way more than I was expecting. It`s sweet, resinous, a bit spicy, almost effervescent in a dark syrupy cola sort of way. Fantastic. I want it in perfume form too! Wish there was an equivalent, but I have never smelled anything like it. A keeper, and I am wishing I had more than a little 5ml decant.

Wet: Iris (which smells almost identical to violet, on me) mixes with lavender, and the whole thing is sickly sweet and powdery. There's something a touch sour in there too. Overall, so far this is extremely unpleasant on my skin. Blarg. Dry: Mostly iris once dry, with hints of lavender. I don't get the other notes. It's very sweet, and a bit powdery the way violet/iris often are. I actually don't hate it once it's dry, but I know it's not something I would wear.

Wet: Sweet, sticky labdanum wrapped around chewy, slightly gnarly patchouli. Dark, sweet musk. This is a strong, heady scent. I like it way more than I expected to. Lovers of dark, sweet scents ought to give this a shot. Dry: I really like this. The labdanum is dominant - very sweet and sticky. The musk and patchouli swirl through it. There`s maybe a slight kick of saffron (but very subtle). I bet this will age fantastically. A dark, sultry, slinky scent.

The Hellish Tattoo of the Heart - AMAZING red musk scent. Just putting it out there for the other red musk lovers...

I didn't even know I liked ozone until I tried Stormclouds Over the Midway! It's soooo good. And Crack of Thunder HG also.

Groan of Mortal Terror, y'all!! And In Hideous Darkness. (One can never have too many tobacco scents!)

Wet: Oooh, that's kind of interesting. I love the aquatic note that's in this. It's not overly clean, more...ozoney. It does give an impression of dark brooding seas under stormy skies. The resin in this grounds it and keeps it from being high pitched like a lot of aquatics are. I like this. Dry: Blarg. There is something in this that is not specifically listed...it smells sort of vegetal? Maybe a moss? It does not agree with me and ruins the scent on me. Too bad! Loved the seaspray note with the resin.

I adore My Little Grotesque, so I thought this might be along the same lines only with pumpkin! Wet: Mmm, that's so yummy! I don't do many gourmands anymore, but the ones I do love are often cake. This is gooood cake. HOWEVER, something buttery is amping up and making it weird on me all of a sudden!! Booooo...... Dry: OK it settles back to being awesome. I may need to test it against My Little Grotesque to see if they are different enough for me to need both - I actually don't smell the pumpkin in this at all. It smells like cake and spice. Maybe a TINY bit of cinnamon with the cardamom? Anyway, it's delicious.

Wet: Dear lord I love red musk, and this does not disappoint!! Deep, dark, sexy red musk, with a big dose of sweetness from the almond (man is that ever a great combo of notes!!) and a healthy kick of spice from the pepper. Those who loved the Soldier would also love this I think (the Soldier is a red musk fave of mine). Oh ya, this is hoard worthy. Dry: EVEN BETTER. It's sweet and spicy and musky and just utter YUM. Getting a bottle. Or several. Decent throw. Good strength, but not "knock you over the head" red musk. It's basically perfect.

Gah, I am having such a hard time keeping up with all the updates, I have a huge back-log of testing, and am trying to figure out (quickly!) what Weenies I need to add to my anniversary order!! This is the scent from the weenies I have most hope for. Wet: Mmmm. Yep. I was right. Opoponax and tobacco and happiness in a bottle. This is rich and eyes roll back in your head good. Dry: I knew I was going to love this, I should have just blind bottled it. I always have this inner turmoil about how many tobacco scents I REALLY need. I should have learned by now the answer is "all of them!!". This is a scent for tobacco lovers (the tobacco is akin to French Tobacco) and also a scent for opoponax lovers. It's awesome.

Wet: Mmmm!! You know how Penny Dreadful is like dirt with pretty, feminine perfume? Well this is like dirt with sexy, down and dirty cologne/perfume. The mahogany gives and almost chewy, sort of tobacco like note that I am LOVING. Yum. Sexy dirt. I love to wear earthy perfumes with a twist while I go hiking, this smells like it would be perfect. Dry: I really like this. This is the best earth scent I have tried in a while. It's spicy, rich, a bit sweet. The earth note in it is gorgeous. I really do like it. Not sure if I would reach for it enough to justify it - I need to have a think about how many dirt scents I've got going on and how often I wear them. This one is really good though and I encourage dirt scent lovers to give it a shot!

Wet: Blarg! So much cat-pee-pine!! I hike in the woods almost every day. I LOVE trees. Pine - why you always gotta do me like that?? YUCK. Dry: An hour later, the cat pee is gone, to be replaced by soapy opium poppy. This scent was doomed on me from the start. *sigh*.

The combo of ambergris and frankincense (like in The Mirror and A Specific Aberration) is a HUGE fave of mine. Hoping this is just as good. Had to Google what cade is though - this is what I found, "Cade oil is distilled from the young twigs and wood of more mature plants. The oil is resinous, a darkish brown colour, and has a strange wary smell which is even caustic and tar-like" Hmmm. Wet: A bit like creosote - like that note in brimstone that is sweet and smoky. It's different than that though, there is also something sort of mentholated, like eucalyptus? But not quite. It's not a smack you in the face scent or anything though, and despite my weird description, it's quite pleasant. It somehow feels both wintry and warm to me. It has that, "is that cola?" kind of vibe you get from some resins like opoponax. The cade, whatever that exactly is, is for sure the strongest note on my skin. I think aging would likely assist with that. So far I don't have a clue how I feel about this. Dry: This dries to a lovely soft skin scent, ambergris and...something ineffable. It's like a wintry sort-of-but-not-quite tree smell. It goes through a lot of stages before it gets there. It's a neat scent. Not sure how I feel about it. I will likely test it again before I make any decisions.

Wet: This smells exactly like those red cherry suckers. This is so spot on. Cherry candy, all the way. I don't get any hint of cough syrup/drops, which is what cherry usually does on my skin. Pure candy. Yum! I don't want to wear it as perfume, but it's super fun. Dry: This honestly smells so good! And coming from me, someone who really doesn't like candy scents, that's saying a lot. If you have always dreamed of smelling like cherry candy, you should try this.

I hadn't realized this was a re-release! I never took note of it before. This is the 2017 version. Very intriqgued by the immortelle, and I adore white sandalwood. I had to look up zdravetz - this is the description I was able to find of what it smells like, "a rich, green-herbaceous, earthy, sweet-woody aromatic profile with a radiant warm roseaceous-woody undertone which is both delicate and tenacious". Even more excited to try this now! Wet: Ooh. That's some nice sandalwood right there. It's a tad masculine. I for sure get the green herbal notes from the zdravetz. This is really nice. Very outdoorsy. It's quite a dry scent, not as sweet as I usually prefer, but I am still enjoying it. Dry: Sadly this goes through a phase where it smells like generic cologne, and then it fades to almost nothing. I had high hopes, but this is not for me.

2017 version (I have wanted to try this for a while, was excited to see it's return! Wet: Wow, this is great! It's a really dark, damp earth mixed with the dead leaves note I love (the one that really smells like dead leaves to me). Sadly then the vetiver amps up and overtakes the earth and it's not as pleasant (weird, as my skin doesn't usually amp vetiver, so it must be strong in this). I don't even see vetiver listed in the notes, but I sure smell it, it's unmistakeable. Love that maple leaf note though! Wish the honeyed fig was detectable to round it out. Dry: It dries down into a leaf, dirt and tiny bit of ivy incense scent. I never get any of the fig, which makes me sad. It's a really nice scent. Not sure if I need anymore dirt or leaves scents, but it's good!

Wet: I was hoping this would be a red musk scent, and it is. The vetiver doesn't have that sour-smoky aspect, this one is more earthy. Smells a lot like a dry dirt note, actually. It's overtaking the red musk, but then the red musk amps up again - they sort of swirl in and out like that. Dry: This settles really nicely into a dark, musky, incense, earthy kind of scent that's tough to describe. I like it, but I don't know that I would find myself reaching for it.

This sounded so interesting, likely this year's DL scent I was most excited to try! Wet: Shit, it's that cologne dead leaf note, I was not expecting that. The DL note is fading quickly though. The mix of coconut and champaca is sweet and incense and different. One of the least "head shop" champaca scents I have tried. Dry: The cologne aspect of the dead leaves notes totally fades - actually I can't detect the dead leaves at all. I get a champaca coconut combo that reminds me a lot of Keichu Nyoetsu Warai Dogu, but without the opium that eventually ruined that scent for me. I enjoy it, but I don't think I would wear it.

Clean is my new jam, and I often enjoy wood-but-not-trees scents, so giving this a go! Wet: OK, so this scent doesn't just smell like "clean" it smells like cleaner - lemon cleaner, to be precise. It's quite pleasant! If you love that "just cleaned bathroom" sort of smell, you really should try this. The lemon is lovely. I should clarify that few cleaners actually manage to smell this good - maybe the "all natural" ones. This has no harsh chemical undertone at all. Yes, lemon lovers should give this a shot. Dry: As this dries it turns into the more classic BPAL "clean" scent that I enjoy in scents like Boober. That clean/soapy note is mixed with a very pleasant lemon. Unfortunately for me, for some reason I just really don't want to smell like lemon, but if you do and you love clean scents, give this a try!

Wet: Artificial blueberry (like those blueberry scented dolls) and sour/burnt cream. We're not off to a good start here, but to be fair, my skin chemistry REALLY struggles with gourmands and a lot of fruits these days, so I don't really know what I was expecting...as I go back for further sniffing though, it actually starts to smell pleasant, and familiar in a different way. Like....sunscreen? Huh? Almost like there's some coconut lurking in there. Dry: This goes through several phases (some are OK, some I don't care for) and settles back into that "burnt cream" note on me. Not a fan.

Myrrh and I are not always a good combo, but I adore mahogany, so I wanted to give it a whirl. Wet: Interesting!! This is one of those "way more than the sum of it's parts" sort of scents. It's sweet, and almost...effervescent? Maybe there's a polish note in here. There's something at the very heart of this that gives me the same feels as Antikythera - don't mistake that for "this smells like Antikythera" because it doesn't, there's just something that subtly reminds me. The wood, likely. That is gradually overtaken but something that smells, sadly, like a generic cologne. Dry: I amp Myrrh, so eventually that becomes more prominent than the other notes. Warm, sweet, woody incense, with this other unfamiliar note that's almost-but-not-quite effervescent - or maybe boozey would be a better word? Hard to describe. Anyway, I enjoy this, but it's not really "me" and therefore I won't be needing a bottle. It's really different though, to any Myrrh scent I have ever tried (they all tend to go single note on me) and that's noteworthy for sure. Worth trying!

I have a new obsession with pink peppercorn, so I had to try this, even though you never know which dead leaves you're going to get... Wet: I identify this as the "cologne" dead leaves scent. For reference, it was in Dead Leaves and Sugared Cardamom. I can smell the pink peppercorn - it's such a neat note. Combined here though, it smells exactly like a craft store, for some reason - Michael's, to be exact. That's not bad, I always rather like the way Michael's smells, but I don't really want to smell like it. Dry: Once dry it doesn't smell like Michael's anymore. It actually reminds me quite a bit of what I remember Dead Leaves and Sugared Cardamom to have been like - spice plus cologney slightly aquatic dead leaves. It's actually quite a pleasant smell. Unisex. Sort of a spice-clean scent. I do like it, but I can't see wearing it. I think it reminds me a bit of Pageant Queen, too? That commercial sort of feel? I could be crazy. Either way, good, but not for me.

Mmmm! This immediately reminds me of an even sweeter snow angel! And the more I smell it, the more I do wonder if the fruit is maybe a bit of lemon, and then some sort of stone fruit like peach or apricot. It has that "slightly tart" but still sweet aspect that I really like. This is total yum! Light and sweet and just totally pleasant. I feel like I could easily get away with wearing it to work. Who could be offended by the scent of sugar and fruit? I hope the perfume is this good (I can't believe this is the first year I am trying it!!)

This could go all kinds of wrong on me, but also has potential to be great (hello, musk!) Wet: Oooh!! That's gooood! It's reminding me of something...maybe like Unicorn and Ram without the cardamom - it's a very soft, suede-like leather, and a really snuggly sort of musk. Those are the dominant notes on me. It's REALLY good so far. A light skin scent. Leaning masculine. Subtly sexy, but somehow snuggly at the same time. This is nose-stuffed-into-the-crook-of-my-elbow-like-a-dork good. Dry: Oh yes yes. This is indeed my favourite type of leather note, and I do love this musk. Very glad I tried it! I keep catching whiffs and just loving it. I'll have to evaluate whether I have enough scents similar to this already (it does remind me of both Unicorn and Ram, and Hochelaga to some extent) but it is for sure bottle-worthy. And would it ever smell amazing on a man, too!

Mod Note: There is a review topic for Samhainophobia release years 2006-2007, 2011, 2013, and 2016 located here. Per our Review sub-forum topic policy, a new review topic has been created for the 2017 release due to an inexact match with previous release scent description. To be specific, the word 'Haitian' is missing from the 'Haitian vetiver' verbiage used in past scent descriptions. This callout does not indicate knowledge of formulation and is simply provided for transparency on review topics. Fear of Halloween Menacing vetiver, patchouli, and clove with a shock of bourbon geranium, grim oakmoss, and dread-inspiring balsams pierce the innocuous scent of autumn leaves. Would you believe I have never tried this before? I tried Samhain ages ago. It was horrendous on me. Like, shockingly bad. And somehow in my head this got lumped in with it and I avoided it like the plague. BUT THEN Ajevie started doing half decants, and, well...what can I say, I like to try all the things! Wet: Wow, menacing really is a good word for it. This is HEAVY. Ominous. DARK. I don't hate it, but it's not my thing, yet. It's actually starting to do a burnt plastic thing on my arm, so I'm not really a fan of that. Dry: Tons of vetiver. It must be pretty strong, as my skin often eats vetiver when it's in among other notes. I actually can't really smell the other notes in this. I am guessing some aging would help everything even out, however I am fairly certain this is one of those scents that is just not for me. Glad to have finally tried it though! (And I do wonder if this was a formulation change this year, or just a word omission.