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Showing results for tags 'Halloween 2017'.
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[No additional description provided.] Lately I have been branching out into different scent categories, and books/paper is one that I want to try more of. I got a decant of this thinking it would be papery, but now that I think about it, I am worried it will smell more like glue... Wet: Cucumber. That's..unexpected. Oh ok, a newsprint sort of smell is coming through. And something chemical. It's interesting. It smells more like...maybe a printing press? Like paper, but also machinery and oils/lubricants. And somebody's leftover cucumber sandwich. I don't really feel like this is working out for me. Dry: About the same - paper and chemicals with a hint of cucumber. Not my jam! But glad I got to try it. It does smell similar to The Manuscript from CP, if I remember right, so those who enjoy that type of scent might like this.
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[No additional description provided.] I got this one out of curiosity... and it was not my jam. I mean, to be fair... saying that kind of reminds me of in Arrested Development when Michael finds a paper bag in the freezer labeled "Dead Dove Do Not Eat," and opens it to see what's inside and then says "I honestly don't know what I was expecting." So, yes, this smells like the inside of a plastic mask. In the bottle: Lightly citrus and with almost a hint of straw On the skin: Slightly acrid, stale plastic Dry down: Just sort of bitter and hard to identify. My verdict is that I kind of hate it? INTERESTINGLY, I think it would be fun as a layering scent; it seems to have the ability to fake-ify whatever you put over it. Like for example, putting a chocolatey scent over it made it smell like a scratch and sniff chocolate sticker. Putting something with a strong strawberry scent over it makes it smell like a Strawberry Shortcake doll from the 80's.
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When I had waited a long time, very patiently, without hearing him lie down, I resolved to open a little a very, very little crevice in the lantern. So I opened it you cannot imagine how stealthily, stealthily until, at length a simple dim ray, like the thread of the spider, shot from out the crevice and fell full upon the vulture eye. It was open wide, wide open and I grew furious as I gazed upon it. I saw it with perfect distinctness all a dull blue, with a hideous veil over it that chilled the very marrow in my bones; but I could see nothing else of the old mans face or person: for I had directed the ray as if by instinct, precisely upon the damned spot. A dim ray upon the vulture eye: smoked violets and bulbous orris, threads of crumbling lavender, and wet iris butter. These are still settling from the trip to me, but I just had to review. I'll change this if the scent changes when it settles down. This is an incredible violet, iris, and lavender blend. Dark and spectral at the same time. The iris and lavender blend so perfectly that while I can smell both, I can't tell where one ends and the other begins. The violet (which I assume is also orris here) gives it just a hint of sweetness, but it's a darker and smokier violet than I've encountered in any BPAL violet scent other than Bruised Violet Compound. In fact, this is like a lighter but slightly menacing version of BVC. Throw length seems to be about average on me, but my skin likes to devour oils, so ymmv. Definitely pick it up if you like any of the three notes. It showcases each of them really well.
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Fermented apple juice, brown sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, clove, lemon zest, butterscotch liquor, and orange slices. Oh this is good....and I am going on a nose that isn't working 100% (thanks to a cold! ) Sniffing in the bottle, it is surprisingly....light. I sniff the butterscotch....apples... orange... lemon. It is a crisp cider to my nose. In my hair. it stays the same...it has a medium scent, not too heavy as I thought it might be with the sugar, clove, allspice and nutmeg notes, but this really is....sweet, not cloying, and a tad refreshing. You can totally wear this if you work in close range with people. After a few, the apples and butterscotch are prominent. But so not cloying. I will edit/add to this as my hair dries more and my nose is a bit better. But if you are worried this would be too heavy and spicy, it so isn't!! This, to me, is a year round wearable scent.
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Fear of Blood Crimson splatter, pulsating with blackened vetiver. On wet, I get red skin musk and almost a red wine note. The vetiver is not in your face at all. Just adds a subtle suggestion of smoke. I feel like this isn't straight up red musk but as it dries down, the muskiness comes out more. Almost goes a little powdery sweet but I don't mind that. I feel like maybe there is orris in this? Or at least something that does things similar to orris on me. That actually could be the vetiver now that I think of it. If so, than this vetiver is reminding me a lot of orris. All in all, a sweet earthy red skin musk. That's my impression. ETA - this reminds me a lot of blood pearl without the coconut
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Now this is the point. You fancy me mad. Madmen know nothing. But you should have seen me. You should have seen how wisely I proceeded — with what caution — with what foresight — with what dissimulation I went to work! I was never kinder to the old man than during the whole week before I killed him. Percolating with derangement: flashing spikes of orange blossom, neroli, lemon, and bitter clove in a bubbling mass of opoponax, patchouli, and thick, black vetiver. For now, neroli and clove are the stars of this scent, with a base of opoponax and vetiver. It's not a patchouli-heavy fragrance, though time might bring that note forward a bit more. I feel that the orange blossom and lemon make the briefest appearance when it's first applied. It's kind of cozy and appropriate for cooler weather, without a lot of throw, but it has good staying power on me. Even though there's no wood in it, I can feel the wooden floorboards that creak beneath the narrator's feet as he goes about the week before committing the murder. There's something familiar about this, maybe like a soap that I once used, and yet it doesn't actually smell at all soapy. It feels somehow more expensive than it is. I think it would suit all genders. I have to say that I don't get any impressions of madness, but maybe I'm just a little too familiar with madness to notice.
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Presently I heard a slight groan, and I knew it was the groan of mortal terror. It was not a groan of pain or of grief oh, no! it was the low stifled sound that arises from the bottom of the soul when overcharged with awe. I knew the sound well. Many a night, just at midnight, when all the world slept, it has welled up from my own bosom, deepening, with its dreadful echo, the terrors that distracted me. I say I knew it well. Opaque grey amber and opoponax swelling up like thick smoke, pressed under the weight of baleful tobacco. The grey amber, opoponax and smoke blend really well. The tobacco gets strong for a minute and then it backs off and you are left with this mildly sweet tobacco and grey amber scent. This will age well and is extremely well blended. I love it!
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Pumpkin floss with threads of dark chocolate! Just got this today... also, forgive me, I am trying to get over a cold, so I might need to edit this later! But just can't wait to dive into it! In the bottle, there is a light chocolate to me, and something spicy... mildly spicy... smells a bit cinnamon-y. On skin, if you have smelled/tested Pumpkin V 2009, it reminds me of that, but more of the cinnamon coming out. It isn't overpowering, but my nose might be lying to me now. Dry down, I get more of the chocolate emerging, but it isn't crazy heavy.... it is light and the spice backs off, but still there. I don't get pumpkin from this. Doesn't last long on me...even as I am writing this, it is fading already. BUT again...might be my stuffy nose not wanting to cooperate. It is yummy and not too foody or pumpkiny.
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A gleaming auburn chypre shot through with streaks of pumpkin. This smells predominately like butterscotch, vetiver, and patchouli to me, with straps of gleaming black leather. It is the olfactory equivalent of drinking a tumbler of scotch neat, caramelized and raw with an aftertaste of peat. Or like eating candy in old study haunted by the ghosts of F. Scott Fitzgerald and Hemingway making out on the desk. Sexy, sophisticated, gender-bending. The far dry down of Pumpkin Chypre is gorgeously huffable, but I still think it needs aging to come into its full glory. Strong throw and wear length. I received a rather startled compliment for this one, perhaps because I dont have anything else like it in my collection, but it is in roughly the same vein as other warm, brown, sultry scents such as The Antikythera Mechanism, Perversion, and The Old Goblin.
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A sideways ode to Hitchcocks Psycho, by way of Bosco Chocolate Syrup. In the bottle: chocolate syrup, sweet and sticky and overpowering. I almost put this down, but decided to give it a go anyway. Wet: A light, milky chocolate that makes me think of a hot fudge sundae, honestly. It's pleasant, but not overpowering. The chocolate is there, and a bit of sugar and vanilla, but it's still overall that cheap sweet chocolate smell. Dry: It develops a lot more complexity beyond 'chocolate,' but it's hard to pin down. The chocolate loses prominence very quickly, but a 'warmth' remains -- some kind of musk, I think, but tempered so that it's still faintly sweet. All in all, it lasted about 2 hours before I had to reapply. Turns slightly powdery at the end. In sum: I'm a fan! It's a surprisingly less foodie scent than I initially expected from a sniff, but I'm a big fan, as someone who normally doesn't go for food scents at all. I wish I had a better nose to pick out some of the other scent stuff going on here.
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[No additional description provided.] So, lemon and I aren't friends, but couldn't resist something called "cream amber", so here goes! Mmm! I had not taken into account how clean this might smell!! I love clean HG scents for work. The lemon is really sweet, almost candied, and I am digging that. It's a light scent, with the dead leaves note a dry, subtle one. I don't know as I am getting the cream amber, unless that's the lovely sweetness I am getting. Anyway, this is a great, totally non-offensive clean smelling HG, and I will happily wear it to work.
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For spiking that latte. (We won’t tell.) I'm the first?? Ok then!! Here we go! Got a decant of this.... sniffing, lots of pumpkin spice... and, not getting much rum. Maybe a couple drops of it. In damp hair, this is really nice! It is very pumpkin spice...still not detecting much rum there, but that is ok. I am a nut for anything pumpkin scented. This has a medium throw on me and doesn't change much. It isn't a bakery pumpkin spice either... it has an edge to it, but at the same time sticks close. Now, I had tried the Pumpkin Spice Everything HG and that one was a bit too much for me, so if that is you, then try this because it is like that but on a much mellower scale.
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Polished mahogany blanketed by myrrh. This is smooth mahogany with silky myrrh. So good. So glad I bought this from the lab. It's just lovely. This will age well.
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[No additional description provided.] this is my favorite out of the three DL scents I got. The pink peppercorn in it is similar to the one in Fake News. it has that tickle-your-nose, sweet-but-spicy quality to it. Combined with the DL note, it is truly lovely and innately autumnal. A relatively simple scent, only two notes, that does not morph or change on the skin. Beautiful on it's own but I'm very much looking forward to layering it.
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Wild plum, fig, and blackcurrant pumpkin floss! Plum, pumpkin and a touch of fig. This one is an odd pumpkin to me. It's got a heady dark plum note, and then you get the buttery pumpkin underneath. Low throw and wear length.
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I smiled, — for what had I to fear? I bade the gentlemen welcome. The shriek, I said, was my own in a dream. The old man, I mentioned, was absent in the country. I took my visitors all over the house. I bade them search — search well. I led them, at length, to his chamber. I showed them his treasures, secure, undisturbed. In the enthusiasm of my confidence, I brought chairs into the room, and desired them here to rest from their fatigues, while I myself, in the wild audacity of my perfect triumph, placed my own seat upon the very spot beneath which reposed the corpse of the victim. A jubilant and deranged lime absinthe. The lime is particularly prominent on wet, and it reminds me to the limes you find in margarita mixes, and then you get the same absinthe note that you get in Pumpkin Spice Absinthe. This is a very lime Absinthe, and I LOVE IT. For all of you that love absinthe-based blends, gives this a whirl. It's like absinthe decided to go to Mexico and adopted limes as a component. Medium throw and wear length.
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When by thy scorne, O murdresse, I am dead, And that thou thinkst thee free From all solicitation from mee, Then shall my ghost come to thy bed, And thee, fain'd vestall, in worse armes shall see; Then thy sicke taper will begin to winke, And he,whose thou art then, being tyr'd before, Will, if thou stirre, or pinch to wake him, thinke Thou call'st for more, And in false sleepe will from thee shrinke, And then poore Aspen wretch, neglected thou Bath'd in a cold quicksilver swear wilt lye A veryer ghost than I; What I will say, I will not tell thee now, Lest that preserve thee; and since my love is spent, I'had rather thou shouldst painfully repent, Than by my threatenings rest still innocent. Quicksilver-cold and heartless: white sandalwood, immortelle, zdravetz, and oudh. I've never been one to pick out the individual notes and from the bottle and fresh on skin I was fretful. In the bottle I get fertilizer after being watered into the soil and some crushed greenery. However since I've smelt this before in a number of things I gave it a chance and tried it on. On my skin, wet, I was hard pressed not to wipe it off and go scrub with a peppermint bar. Dirt, soil, fresh from the bag and still high with nitrogen. Laziness won out however and I left it on. Settled and dry, it smells like my step-father on his way to work. He has a natural musk to him that smells a little dirty. It keeps me between interested and repulsed depending on his last shower. Anyways, it also smells of a somewhat masculine cologne he and I have. Its soft, earthy, and a little sweet. Very close to the skin with the fainest throw (could be due to the small dab i put on however). All in all I like it enough to keep an imp but the bottle may be out the door at some point. As for a gendered use of it I'd suggest masculine moments but given the right chemistry it really could go a number of ways.
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Crystallized glittering shards of lightly spiced pumpkin sugar. In the wet stage, this is a very sugary, lightly spiced (not buttery) pumpkin note. To me, it smells almost exactly like the Pumpkin Candyfloss note used in all the different scents of that name. As it dries, it smelled like lightly spiced white sugar with a hint of pumpkin. Yum!
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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.
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[No additional description provided.] Imagine you’ve invited your 3 favorite people to eat dinner with you on Hallowe’en. All three are smart, interesting and attractive and you’re excited because you’re sure they’re going to love each other. But unexpectedly something goes awry! When the three arrive, not only are they not talking, they aren’t even acknowledging the others. OMG! Is the moon in Mercury? No. You’ve just sniffed your bottle of Dead Leaves, Lemon Verbena & Cedar. At least that’s how the blend affected me. Individually, the 3 notes are among my Top 10, especially the BPAL earthy, green-spiced dead leaves (as in Pile of Fallen Leaves). It can be mid-August with temps in the hundreds and murderous humidity but a sniff of the SN tricks my brain into imagining mushrooms, rain-soaked earth and drifts of maple leaves outside. The smooth, soothing, spicy warmth of cedar seemed like a natural complement to the bite of green, maybe adding a subtly darker spice to the base. I wasn’t so sure about the Lemon Verbena, even though L’Occitane Lemon Verbena soap is almost always in a soap dish somewhere in my house. At best, I reasoned, it would work with the green spice of the leaves to enhance their invigorating rush. At worst I worried it might sink the boat. I’m not savvy enough to know if that’s where this Dead Leaves blend veered off course. But that’s my guess since I “got” the references to Lemon Pledge I remember from reviews of other blends. Color me Sad. Hoping time would encourage the notes to cooperate, I was about to store my bottle. Then, on a whim, I decided to try a 50/50 mix with some of my beloved Pile of Dead Leaves. The result is a greener, spicier fragrance that seems more grounded (or rounded) than either blend alone. I’m completely delighted with my serendipitous concoction. Earlier, I had tried layering the two but being in the same bottle enables them to enjoy each other’s company more fully.
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ALL SOULS A day of remembrance and intercession. Without the prayers and sacrifices of their families and loved ones, the faithful departed may not be cleansed of their venal sins, and thereby cannot attain beatific vision. On November 2nd, prayers are sung and offerings are made to aid lost souls in transcending purgatory. An incense blend that invokes the higher qualities of mercy and compassion, mingled with the soft, sugared currant scent of offertory soul cakes. When I first put this on, I could mainly smell soft incense. I thought that it was my imagination until I re-read the description. I can smell buttery cake notes in the background, but mostly I smell soft incense and what I think is the currant note, rather sharp coming out from behind the incense. My skin will tend to amp the sweet, but maybe others will smell more of the foody notes. I think that this is a lovely combination of foody and incensy, which for me is the best of both worlds
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We do lie beneath the grass In the moonlight, in the shade Of the yew-tree. They that pass Hear us not. We are afraid They would envy our delight, In our graves by glow-worm night. Come follow us, and smile as we; We sail to the rock in the ancient waves, Where the snow falls by thousands into the sea, And the drownd and the shipwreckd have happy graves. Thomas Lovell Beddoes Yew berries and cypress boughs, ropes of kelp and sea spray. I haven't tried any of BPAL's other sea/themed scents, so I can't say how this stacks up to them for comparison. I tried this at New York Comic Con with no plans to make a purchase, but I ended up buying a whole bottle because I couldn't think of any BPAL scents I've tried that smelled like this! In the Bottle: saltwater. Wet: Salt and cut greens. There's an astringent quality on the edge of the salt that immediately reminded me of The Beer from the Marshwoman's Brewery -- which made sense when I looked up the notes, because they both have yew berries. Dry: The cypress comes out here, but it's wood drenched in salt water -- like standing at the edge of a dock in the winter, or being underway on an old galleon. If you've ever been to a maritime history museum which recreates historical boats and their construction, this will immediately put you in mind of that. For lack of a better word, it smells nostalgic. In Sum: A unique scent that stands out for me among all of BPAL's products that I've sniffed over the years. I would recommend it more as a room/atmospheric scent than for use on yourself, but it's immensely refreshing and bracing. If you want a little bit of the sea to keep in a bottle, this would be the scent for you.
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Almighty God! no, no! They heard! they suspected! they knew! they were making a mockery of my horror! this I thought, and this I think. But anything was better than this agony! Anything was more tolerable than this derision! I could bear those hypocritical smiles no longer! I felt that I must scream or die! and now again! hark! louder! louder! louder! louder! A pulsating dragons blood and blood musk bath fizz. Vegan, handmade, cruelty-free bath bombs crafted by Dream Drop Bath Bombs. OMG FIRST? I will take the plunge (heh heh bath joke) simply because right now I'm just completely fakakakakakata verklempt over this scent! I am massively regretful that I only bought two ... I had a very good feeling about the combination of dragon's blood and blood musk fizz, but you never really know what something will smell like until you get it. I will try to describe ... it's shmexy, sensuous, ever-so-slightly sinful smelling. The musk is, indeed, somehow fizzy and bloody and the dragon's blood (which often to me smells like a lush hothouse white flower, which is not a bad thing at all) just blends with this to make it smell like ... well, a spicy hot incensey resiny boudoir that you never ever ever want to stop sniffing. This is maybe the single most truly huffable scent ever ... The bath bomb itself is GORGEOUS ... with little tiny "droplets of blood" I think on top LOL ... If you love your bath smelling sexy and sensuous and kind of the way I'd imagine Theda Bara's baignoir would have smelled, and you can get your hands on one or more of these babies (or perhaps Puddin' will consider taking this amazing scent and offering an entire line of bath goods in it ... bombs, bath oils, lotions, candles, you name it, I'll buy it!) DO NOT HESITATE ... and I promise you that if you get it and don't love it, I'll take it off your hands
