Haunted

[sarada]

A mournful, poignant scent, thick with foreboding. Soft golden amber darkened with a touch of murky black musk.

Oh yes, this is a classic.

Haunted must be comprised of the same base notes that I love in many other blends. Amber and musk are a classic combination and one that works very well for me, personally, staying on my skin forever and turning into a very mellow, soft, resinous scent. It dries down to almost the same fragrance as Black Forest, strangely enough -- the amber dominates and sticks around, with the musk mainly just acting as its shadow. That's about right...a golden, regal amber walking down a dusty corridor, shadowed by musk. This is also similar to the background fragrance in blends like Spellbound that I love, but it's much less overwhelming than that scent in particular. It just settles down on my skin, takes up residence and hangs around for a long time, like a room where incense has been burning. The smoke is gone, but the scent lingers. This is a good thing to be haunted by. I will have to get a big bottle of this eventually.

[arachne]

Yum!

 

Musk+Amber=Love. That's about sums it up. This is a hypnotizing scent that sends both me and my husband into a frenzy. It dries down to a soft, powdery, sweet dream that lingers for hours. If I were to describe it in musical terms, this would be the sexiest Enigma song that you could think of.

[warmfuzzies]

i have to say up front that i am not usually a fan of this type (angel is the only heavy oriental i like), but got this as an extra in a swap. in the vial it smelled lovely, fruity or yellow? but wet on my forearm it almost instantly turned cinnamon-y...then like an opium/obsession clone and after about 10 minutes or so, was the "grown-up baby powder" that so many BPAL oils morph into. if the idea of big red chewing gum mixed with baby powder does it for you, you have indeed found your holy grail.

[Imbrium]

In the bottle: I smell musk more than amber, which is unfortuante, because I love amber scents so very much.

 

On: It's pretty much all musk on me, and unfortunately, black musk seems to really disagree with my body chemistry. This is the first scent that I've had to wash off because I couldn't take the forming headache.

 

How sad - I was excited to try this one, too.

[dreadeddragon]

In the bottle: Mmm... amber & light musk

 

Wet: Um...what happened to the amber?

 

Drydown: *cough*musk*cough*

 

Unfortunate, because while I don't generally like musk except for egyptian musk, I love amber. Back to the swap pile.

[Gin]

This is soft and sweet. I can pick out the amber, but instead of "murky black musk" it seems almost lemony. This doesn't seem dark at all. Instead, it's buttery yellow and cozy.

 

Edited to say that by the time I had finished writing down my thoughts on it, Haunted changed on me. It intensified and got darker. I like this quite a bit. Haunted is a perfect name for it as well. The scent lingered for quite awhile on my wrists and on the sleeve of my sweatshirt and even longer in my mind.

Edited October 1, 2005 by Shollin

[Electra]

Baby powder. That's all she wrote, folks.

 

Sigh. Stupid body chemistry.

 

Editing to update my review - trying it again, Haunted was a frimp from a lovely swapper .

 

GAH! LEMONY baby powder this time. Amber and I do not get along.

 

Actually, it smells just like Shalimar Eau Legere on me. Go figure.

Edited January 15, 2007 by Electra

[shelldoo]

beautiful and fragile feeling, much lighter then i expected.

the amber is very light, there is a citrus hint but it is super light and fleeting, i am not detecting musk really, i also am picking up something a bit vanilla like, this is a very sophisticated scent very very nice

[byrdie]

Note ~ From a swap with the wonderful lavinia!

 

Vial ~ Lemon caramel. Sweet and thick, yet citrus bright.

 

Wet ~ Wow, powerful and deep. An almost chemical strength intensity, but not painfully so. I kinda slathered it, though. The fruit (apricot? peach?) is rising, but is thickened by a languorous candy scent (the caramel, perhaps). It's heady, but neither floral nor otherwise sickening.

 

Drying ~ Wow. Something else came through the thick base scent like scattershot. It was piercing - some sort of spice -- and then it galloped past me into the sunset, leaving me with a merging of the apricot and caramel scents. I think the main trace of the spice for now is an overlying powderiness.

 

Drydown ~ Argh! The powderiness is more like detergent than flour. Oh, this would have been a perfect food scent otherwise. I think the near-chemical sharpness finally came into its own. Drat.

 

Dry ~ The powder has lost some of its sharpness and has the impact of baby powder now. The sweet scent is starting to fade and has lost its thickness, taking the overall oil from "foody" to just "sweet."

 

Fade ~ It's taking a few hours, but it's holding at sweetness with a vague memory of foody.

 

Final thoughts ~ I don't know if this one is screaming "big bottle" at me, but it's certainly interesting. I find myself reaching for it between disappointing reviews as a sort of palate cleanser. It could be that I like this scent more than I think I do, though I suspect that I should apply it further down on my body and hope to catch occasional whiffs. The drydown may be less painful that way.

[Digital_Hypoxia]

Haunted really took me by surprise. I received it as part of an imp lot on ebay. In the bottle it was not very impressive. I almost put it in the sale pile.

 

Then, just to be sure, I tried it on.

 

Wow…

 

It’s so soft and feminine but dark and sexy too. Sweet and spicy and very reminiscent of Calvin Klein’s Obsession (but without the cloying heaviness). It’s just warm and powdery enough to be subtle without crossing over into bland-probably due to the complexity of the amber and musk

 

Musks don’t generally work on me; Haunted seems to be the exception.

 

 

I will definitely be getting a big bottle-this is pure infatuation!

[Elanya]

Every once in a while, I'll go to put on a scent that I love and the through will strike me... 'have I reviewed this?"

 

In the case of Haunted, apparently not

 

Well, here goes then

 

Right out of the bottle, I get a scent of amber(gris?), and lemon, and musk, and something really sweet and sharp. I should that my nose cannot tell the difference between amber and ambergris, which is maybe not that surprising

 

It is a dark heavy scent, that doesn't change a whole lot on me (although the lemon fades), but I really like it , and it is on my 'bottle list'

[regyt]

I don't know why, I don't know how, but this smells like Coca-Cola on my skin. The extra-sweet variety made with sugar instead of corn syrup for Passover, even. Argh.

[kmasden]

I had the great experience of getting to try Haunted on while in Black Broom today. I've been wanting to try it and had just found out my job is ending in two weeks, so feel good shopping spree was in order!

 

Haunted is lovely. Not yet for me, but lovely. I'm still learning notes and finding what works and why and needing to revisit everything I tried when I first started bpal because you can appreciate it in a different way and I think Haunted will be like that.

 

The ambers seem incredible to me. I also get the sweet lemon smell...kind of like lemon powder, not too sweet, not too citrus, just beautiful lemon sitting amongst warm, powdery, glorious amber. It is really lovely. Simple yet so not simple all at once.

[Sara]

The initial sniff is of something deep and not exactly what I'm looking for in the springtime.

 

In the wet swipe this scent comes alive with an almost "dark, fizzing cola" quality - totally weird. It's not like, unpleasant or anything, again "just not what I'm looking for."

 

Unfortunately, what ever nice feelings I began having towards this blend were squashed on the drydown. Holy playdoh horror Batman. Sometimes, I really hate what my skin does to oils and certain notes. Perhaps it's time to try out using alcohol.

[MondoMacabre]

I do not think "Haunted" is the right name for this. Unless you have some sort of tragic memory involving lemons.

 

First sniff = pure lemon cleaner. I smelled like a Glade Plug-In for a good long while. After a few hours it dries down to a powdery, very soft lemon musk. Sniffing my arm now is making me think of clothes washed in lemon detergent and hanging outside to dry in the country air. This is the colour Yellow. Not what you'd expect from a Funereal Oil.

 

This would definitely make a nice room scent. Would be nice in soap as well.

[cricketshay]

I received Haunted in a swap. I accidently pulled the cap off unwrapping my imp and spilled half the vial. I rubbed some of the spilt oil on my wrists and hated it. I decided to give it another shot(with a small dosage)

 

In the vial: Very clean smell. I bet this would smell great on a guy. It does remind me of my dad's after shave when I was growing up.

 

Wet: Not the same scent I sniffed in the vial. It reminds me of fresh cut lumber at the saw mill. Not repugant but not good either. I don't want to smell like a construcion site. Maybe it'll get better as it dries down. *crosses fingers*

 

Dry:I still sorta smell like lumber but that scent it fading into the background and a musky note is coming forward. This might not be that bad after all.

 

After an hour or so: I'm no longer smelling like a saw mill and what is left is a sweet amber scent. I don't hate it but I don't love it either. I'm sending this imp on to my cousin.

[cormeretrix]

yet another scent that will teach me to read the description before i put it on; for some god-unknown reason, i thought i was putting on something that was supposed to be more ethereal and light. imagine my surprise when it turned out to be a dark floral scent! it's a very nice floral scent, deepened by the amber in it. on me, it dries kind of powdery, which i didn't like, but it was still a neat smell.

[Shollin]

I’ve been wanting to try Haunted for donkey’s years, and it always got pushed out of my order by shiny new things that caught my eye… plus I was never quite sure the black musk would work on me… and then I got an unexpected imp in a swap (thanks, clover!).

 

First sniff: Oh, it’s pretty. In a very unusual way. It hints at spice without ever quite getting there, and the scent-colour is a tingly greenish-bronze. It’s a lot fresher and lighter than I expected.

 

Wearing: There’s a breath of citrus somewhere in here. Haunted doesn’t strike me as a sad scent at all, or a spooky one, but it’s beautifully mysterious and was perfect for surviving the end of my twelve-day week.

[wickedgoddess]

Origin - tested at Black Broom

 

Preconceived Notions - I have seen a lot of rave reviews of this scent, and I love both amber and musk, so I was looking forward to trying this out.

 

Wet Baby powder with a touch of dirty diaper.

 

Dry Well thankfully, the dirty diaper smell went away, but it's just a powder on me. Obviously this goes on the list of scents I can't wear. I wonder if it's the black musk?

 

On the wickedgoddess scale of 1 to 5, with 5 being the best, this rates a 1.

[slave1]

In Bottle: Musky but kind of simple.

 

On Skin: The amber and musk combination seem kind of plain and generic at first. The musk is strongest and there is a bit of a sour tinge. After ten minutes the scents begin to bloom and fill out with depth. Very sexy and primal. It is a bit to incensey/musky for me personally, but I think I’d like it on someone else or maybe on a man.

 

**EDIT**

I just got another imp from the Lab and I LOVE it, I mean drop dead love it... hmm... the formulation seemes a bit different. This one is still musky, but sweeter not sour at all. It does remind me a bit of Obsession. Now I want a bottle!

Edited October 1, 2005 by Shollin

[Ardisian]

Haunted is simple but wonderful. I love both amber and musk (most of my favorite lab scents use them as a base). They are essential for making a scent smell like me.

 

This goes on a *perfect* soft musk sweetened by the amber - it remains true through drydown, while deepeneing a little (but never to the point of being strong or "perfumey").

 

I love this - i recall reviewers using the term "skin but better" to describe their favorite scents and this is absolutely that for me - not a mood scent - just clean and feminine.

[AlectoNox]

I was gifted with some Haunted by SyringiaVulgaris, or SyVu as I affectionately call her. First sniff gave me the impression of lavender...not lavender essential oil, but the softer lavender fragrance oils that I like. When I actually got it on I could tell there wasn't any lavender, but it had that same soft, fresh scent that I love. It had great lasting power, and the smokiness/musk was awesome. This clearly wants to be one of my regular scents, so I obliged and got another bottle of it in a forum auction. Conclusion: love it! even my picky mother loves it! I'll be wearing this one a lot.

[Medici]

In the bottle at first whiff a few days back I'm pretty sure I shrugged it off, terming Haunted as "nothing special".

 

I was very very wrong.

 

The onset: Heavy musk, very foreboding - as it settles in I thought I caught a whiff of spice. There's nothing fluffy about this whatsoever... though I do consider it ethereal, or otherworldly at least and as such, its name suits it perfectly.

 

Drying off: Incense - roiling, tumults of cloudy smoke lifting and the remnants of extinguished candles. Not just one stick in a burner either - this is years and years of incense smoke that has settled into everything and anything and renewed every day in offerings. It smacks of my local occult shop - a scent that brings up images of dried herbs, the altar set up in the corner at Imbolc with hundreds of votives being put down for the night, the warm spices of the oil counter and the books that have been permeated with the incense set up at the front counter.

 

At the tail end it sweetens up a bit - I can only assume that's the amber setting in. Overall, a lovely lingering, smoky fragrance.

 

I *love* it.

[any_old_actress]

FIRST SNIFF: spice & amber

 

WEARING IT: the musk comes out more now, it is a dark scent but not in an overbearing way. it's actually quite smoky and light on me. at first i didn't think it was something i was going to like, but it's growing on me.

 

VERDICT: the more it dried, the more i liked it. very nice!

[paperdoll]

Initial Sniff: Mmmmm... warm amber and dark murky musk. This fragrance is deep and viscous.

 

Wearing: The amber and musk are very well-balanced, and remain so throughout the day. The blend does sweeten slightly as the day wears on. This one lasts ALL DAY.

 

Final Impressions: I think this is what my last intake of breath would smell like if I was being trapped in amber. That really isn't as unpleasant a thought as it sounds!