House of Night

[voorishsign]

A sorrowful graveyard bouquet of somber blooms, funereal boughs, dismal green and laden with grief.

Frimp from a forumite

In the imp - sweet floral. I don't know about this.

On wet - sweet flowers and greenery.

Drydown - Massive, massive florals. Nope. Not working for me. If you like green, aquatic florals, you will love this - needless to say they're not for me.

[elinox]

First Sniff: Smoky, with a bit of a tang to it.

 

Wet: Soft and still smoky. It’s very light on me, even wet.

 

Dry: As it dries it becomes even lighter and it’s very flowery. I think I can detect a hint of lily which is pleasant.

 

My Reaction: I like it and I like what the poem evokes, however this scent is just too faint on me and flowery for my tastes. It also faded rather quickly and it also turned to baby powder after it dried, which is nice but not what I'm looking for.

 

Rating 1-5: 1.5

 

[Alchemy21599]

Frimp from a Forumite.

 

In the imp: floral spiciness and greenery.

 

wet on skin: floral spiciness and greeery. Complex, but not too heavy.

 

On the dry down: The green goes away and this scent became a overwhelmingly floral. There must be lillies in there cuz it's giving me a headache.

[sarielswish]

In the vial, heavy white blooms and ivy are dominant to my nose. I have a feeling this one is going to be too much for me. Color, white.

 

Wet on my skin, fresh cut ivy is the first note I catch. That *very* wet, green note that almost drowns out everything else initially. Flowerwise, I'm getting maybe gardenia and carnation, because I'm smelling something similar to Euphrosyne and I know it's not jasmine or rose and I'm getting a spiciness that I can only associate with carnation. Not a favorite of mine.

 

10-15 minute drydown - Ok, I don't know what flowers are in here, but I was wrong and I am in love. They're the same beautiful sweet flowers from Worm Moon and I want MORE.

 

30 minute drydown - Whew... phenomenal scent, but I don't think I need a bottle of this one. An imp or two is probably MORE than sufficient. It's just THAT strong.

[mryan66]

Sadly I can only review this one through memory, since I lost the bottle in May, while taking my daughter to the airport. I started out really ambivalent with this one, it just didn’t seem all that exciting, some purple, some smoke, yeah yeah. Fortunately, my efforts to ditch it were unsuccessful, and after it sat unloved for about two months I took it out and started testing it again, and lo and behold, this was NOT the same stuff. First of all were the reactions I was getting from my two daughters. They could tell from all the way across the house when I opened the bottle, but neither of them smelled the same thing; the general opinion was that it smelled like cinnamon bread baking in a brothel full of purple flowers and smoke stained silk curtains. Wet, it’s definitely tobacco infused fabric, wine and faint gardenia, but these aren’t too overpowering because they are tempered by cold night air, and a beautiful, deep dusty purpleness. This lasts for quite a while on the skin, and then its cassia and nutmeg mixing with the smoky purple, and soft night blooming flowers [i think I did smell a little jasmine] at this point there is a faint woody element too, something aromatic I can’t identify, but wet like its been rained on. I don’t smell anything particularly green though, like other people have, maybe just a bit of crushed grass or stems. After a few hours, what’s left is a cold, faintly sweet smokiness over an earthy night garden. So, overall, this is a dark, smoky, earthy purple scent, laced with night flowers, with the night air sort of adding a melancholy feeling to it. I would guess, the longer this one ages, the better it gets. If you get it and don’t like it, don’t give up on it! I can’t wait to get another bottle of this; It’s haunting and weird, and absolutely magnificent. I hope they don’t discontinue it before September.

[raisin]

While I was initially getting a lot of green and florals, I now seem to be getting more spice. This sort of reminds me of carnation blends, in that I get cinnamon-but-not-cinnamon. I could believe there are some lilies in this one, as they sometimes give me that spicy-floral vibe. I think I might also detect a bit of the smokiness others have mentioned.

 

Initially, I'd tossed this on my swap pile, but this stage makes me dig it out. Close call, House of Night!

[DANALEACH]

I smell some lovely kinda sparkly florals and greenery when first applied. As it is drying, I smell a hint of pencil shavings...LOL! OH NO!

But you know what this dries down to on me... a blonde tobacco smell.

 

I am kinda diggin' it!

[ianastar]

Minty florals, it dried down to a soft floral. Just not for me.

[patina]

Oh wow. This is night time. This is great big dripping boughs of greenery and huge swaths of purple flowers. There's something like tobacco smoke (a wood?), and a breath of gardenia. Other than that, I can't pick out individual florals.

 

This is not for people that don't like wood or are absolutely opposed to florals. I'm not a huge fan of floral blends myself, but this is probably going to be my go to nighttime scent. It's that good.

 

Edit: I can't get the idea of a very posh funeral parlor out of my mind with this one.

Edited September 9, 2011 by patina

[Venneh]

Herbal, green florals. Will probably not end well. On my skin, swampy green florals. Urgh.

[OctoberGwen]

I love House of Night; for me it conjures up an abandoned farmhouse, surrounded by wildflowers and full of ghosts.

 

Starts sharp green, deepens into dark florals, and finally softens into a woodsy scent haunted by faint floral memories.

 

Beautiful, evocative, elusive. In my Top Five.

[achromance]

The Garden of Death (Hugo Simberg, 1906)

NOTE: Image is public domain.

 

In the vial: Amazing! I have never smelled anything sad before, but this has such an effect on me. I honestly get somewhat sorrowful smelling this. Laden with grief is right. Other than that I get some green and, well, somber blooms. The lab description is spot on.

On my wrist: I have to repeat myself here: this is just a sad scent. But beautifully so, reminiscing of the good times.

Sadly, as it dries down it quickly turns into the same flower powder (whoever coined that term, props to you!) I'm used to from promising florals. Maybe it's an issue with my skin chemistry, I don't know.

[Corvidchaser]

I adored the poem that accompanied this scent, so I had to try. I seem to love the graveyard smelling types.

I get literal wooden door frames and an old house from this straight off from the Imp. Once it begins to dry on my skin the "funeral boughs" become more obvious but very gentle and relaxing. As though theyre blowing in a breeze.

I'm not very good with pin pointing florals but I think this is a dried, old flowers not new fresh ones.

Overall, the notes in this relax me and it instills a feeling of peace.

Edited September 8, 2011 by Corvidchaser

[jkfagtongpun]

Oooh, not at all what I expected. I don't usually go for florals - they either go powdery or give me a headache - but thought, what the heck, right?

 

First on it is a sweet smokiness, an almost buttery smokiness (similar to the smokiness I get from Hecate, that also smells buttery and smokey to me). The smokiness sadly fades but it then goes a bit carnation (I like) and eventually to a really comforting floral. What the florals are I have no idea but they are lovely nonetheless. I only wish the smokiness would stick around a bit longer and that the scent as a whole didn't fade so quickly. After only a few hours, it was pretty much gone.

[mymymai]

ITI: It smells strongly of light, almost powdery florals, like carnation and perhaps faint lily. On second sniff, there is a faint greenness to the scent, like fern or something along those lines.

 

Wet: Hmm, not what I was expecting. Carnation, daffodil, some heribness and just a touch of medicinal green notes. It’s rather pretty.

 

Dry: Sweet, light floral. There is nothing sinister or foreboding about this scent in my skin. Perhaps I would liken it to Ophelia’s flowers if I had to stretch, but the scent is innocent and unassuming.

Edited May 31, 2012 by mymymai

[stellamaris]

Amazing, this is just glorious. It does not smell sad to me, it smells like gorgeous. Flowery, I surely smell violets, there is a tangy, sparkly thing that runs through the center. This smells like yes. My notes say "Buy this! Now!"

I must obey the sticky notes...

[Quillifer]

I love this but I don't find myself reaching for it often. I will definitely get a bottle when my imp runs out but that will be a while yet.

 

On me this is lots of greenery and flowers - kind of flowery without being sweet. I don't get an air of sadness from it but it's very poised and grown up. It isn't uplifting or jolly, that's for sure. Something I would wear when feeling very confident in myself but not in an effort to draw others in. It smells a little of a very upmarket flower-shop.

 

Edited later to add: I doubt I will get a bottle tbh.

Edited October 23, 2012 by Quillifer

[PixieSkull]

Wet - slightly dirty-earthy. Graveyard, yes.

 

Drydown - A bit of white florals come out with more of the sweetness over dirt. VERY evocative! I picture soapy-white and sweet blooms growing from black soil. It's not rose but a mix of flowers, simulating the funeral boughs.

 

Dry - and the soapiness increases as the florals settle. I can smell a subtle nighttime scent. The dirt is definitely hiding under the sweetness. Deepens out a bit and becomes a bit spicy.

[WidgetAlley]

Imp: Thick, spicy greenery and sharp florals. No dirt, sadly, or at least not yet.

 

Wet: Wet green deciduous leaves, lemon cleaner (what?), jasmine, and soap. Maybe a little juniper, and something quite soft and fuzzy-- musk or sandalwood. It's got kind of an effervescent tang in there somewhere, which makes it more interesting.

 

Dry: A pretty green floral with an interesting element of... wet dust? Like dry soil when the first rain falls. This is really interesting.

[strahlend]

I love this scent. I get the sense of ivy, leaves, maybe amber, maybe just a touch of lily. I keep thinking of Samhain's musky-leafy quality while sniffing this blend. I also keep thinking of softly spiced apples.

This doesn't strike me as resonating with graveyards, funerals, or grief in the least. I don't get much of a floral impression either. A lovely walk during autumn would be more fitting to my impression of this scent.

Edited November 24, 2012 by strahlend

[neuilly]

Honestly, this smelled a lot like floral pipe tobacco to me. My grandfather smoked pipes and it smelled a lot like one of the notes in here. But there's a little sweetness, and definitely floral in here too. I like it more and more every time I smell it but it's definitely not a *me* scent.

[mymel0dy]

Between the imp, wet on my skin, and hours later this one did not change much for me. All I kept thinking of as I sniffed my wrist was flowers left to dry on a grave or in an old Victorian house.

 

It is a pretty darker floral than I would normally gravitate to. Then again the scents I find that I graviate to because of the description go soapy or powdery on me and House of Night did neither. It stayed true to it's darker floral nature. I will definitely revisit this one again. I like it enough that I am glad I got the imp, but not enough to buy a bottle.

[Deliciousness]

In the imp: Floral, with a green/earthy tone

Wet on skin:same as in the imp, but with less green and more of a pretty floral

Dry on skin:A light incense with a floral background

 

Wow, this is quite pretty! I'm glad I got a chance to test this as it was a frimp from the lab - thank you labbies

At first I thought this would be too floral, but there is a wonderful base of incense - probably the "funeral boughs" and "dismal green laden with grief". Pleasantly surprised by this blend.

[ringmaster-red]

In the vial: very fresh white florals

Wet: Still fresh white florals. The smell dewy and wet. After a few minutes, it gets a little bit spicy and dusty. Maybe a touch of fir? It gives me a headache. It becomes woody and fresh and I’m pretty sure there’s fir involved.

Dry: Same, but it’s become sickeningly cloyingly sweet and woody. It’s really not me.

[lucycat]

This was a frimp from the Lab.

 

In the imp: This smells like the inside of a florist shop: many different cut flowers in water. It’s green and cool.

 

Wet: That same green cool floral smell. I can’t identify which flowers might be in here.

 

Dry: This really changed. When it dried, House of Night became warm and slightly sweet and spicy. Other reviewers have mentioned carnations, and I think they’re part of what I smell. I think my skin is also amping any wood note that’s in here.

 

When it dries down even further I get a very vanillic sweetness. It’s really pretty.

 

House of Night is pretty, but if I could get to the drydown without going through the green floral stage, I would like it more. I don’t really do florals. I think it needs to go to someone who will really appreciate it.