Inferno

[nancybridget]

The Dark Side of Fire: cinnamon, bitter almond, and neroli. Heavily spiced, torrid, and possibly conflagrant.

I must be too sensitive to wear this blend, because when it says Inferno, it means Inferno! The cinnamon burned my skin like no tomorrow. I had to immediately wash it away. It truly is the dark side of fire....

[sthenno]

First impression: maraschino cherries. This was not at all what I expected something called Inferno to smell like. Incredibly sweet cinnamon, reminiscent of Big Red gum. It turns into tolerably sweet cinnamon when it dries down.

 

There's something bright in here that gives the cinnamon lift. Overall, not bad, but not my kind of thing.

[korshka]

In the imp it is all almondy and cinnamon, very firey and smoldering, but I know before it even touches the skin what it will be. Scents with cinnamon are always pure red hots on me and not thing else. And that is what it was. Even as strong as the almond was in the imp, once on my skin it was all cinnamon. *pouts* I wish I could wear cinnamon.

[SeaMonkey]

Inferno is right. My neck looks scorched where I had put it on. It smells like almonds in the vial, but when it dries goes almost pure cinnamon. I had to wash it off because of the wed welts.

[fiddledragon]

Scent in bottle: Cinnamon and almond. Attack cookies!

 

Scent on me:

Wet -- Cinnamoncinnamoncinnamon...and just a hint of almond and neroli. Wow, my skin likes cinnamon.

Dry -- Cinnamon and almond.

 

Conclusion: It's not a bad scent, but there's no sweetness to it at all. This is definitely another in the "evil cookie" category. It wants to be layered with Sudha Segara or Alice or something. Though then I might just smell like a bakery.

[draconix]

In the bottle: I'm drooling. This smells like a freshly baked almond bun with cinnamon sprinkled on the top... it's delicious. Sweet and sticky smelling with just a hint of spice. It's yummy, but not sure how it'll smell on me.

 

On my skin: Wet, I just want to eat my own arm. It's just... so edible smelling. A few mintues after drying, it's like cinnamon candy, with an almond smell underneath. Spicy and completely yummy smelling. It's a very Christmassy kind of smell... I've got it! It smells like the apple cider we make at Christmas! The stuff we make at Oktoberfest has a different smell because of the mulling spices, but at Christmas we always put cinnamon sticks in it. And that's what this smells like. A cup of cinnamon-spiced apple cider and a plate of baked almonds.

 

Final Thoughts: KEEPING. It's too yummy not to.

[Nekomata]

Smells like yum. O_O Wet it's very almondy-cinnamon. It dries down to a cinnamon with hints of neroli. All notes I love!

[theseagrows]

smells pretty much like red hots on me. i think i smell the neroli but not the almond so much. i LOVE neroli, but am not a huge cinnamon fan, so this one isn't thrilling me. however, i must say it's the best bpal cinnamon i've tried, as all the others have turned to powdery-cinnamon, which i like even less than red-hot cinnamon.

 

red hots smell good, but i don't really wanna perfume myself with them, so this one's goin to the swap pile!

Edited May 1, 2008 by theseagrows

[PixieSkull]

Imp: Bitter almond + cinnamon + neroli = marzipan pastries

Wet: The marzipan is still there, but the neroli comes out a bit more to give a distinctive floral feeling to the scent. The cinnamon (thankfully) isn't coming out on it's own on me.

Dry: This became more and more floral as the neroli matured. The cinnamon came out a little bit more creating a spicy feel. It was hard to picture this as the dark side of fire when all I wanted was to pick up some marzipan pastries at the bakery.

 

Category: Marzipan/Cinnamon/Bakery

Rating: 3/5

Overall: I like this scent for it's gourmand properties but that's also why I'm not a huge fan. I love almond so I may give this another try, but I'm not sure. Conflagrant is a good way to describe this scent, so that will be my defining word on the matter.

[joiedecombat]

In the bottle, I smell the almond very distinctly, and it's smoother and more pleasant than I remember almond scent ever being.

 

On my skin, however, the cinnamon takes over and turns to red hots. And then prickles and stings, making it one of the very few BPAL scents I have ever gone so far as to wash off. So it's just as well the scent didn't work out on me very well.

 

On the bright side, realizing how much I liked the almond scent from the imp has inspired me to try out Dana O'Shee and Eclipse. Hopefully I can find something that retains that scent.

[Ryvre]

In the imp: Almond and cinnamon- but it's a light powdery cinnamon, not a hot harsh cinnamon.

 

On my skin: Marzipan! I am so craving marzipan now. I want to devour my own wrist.

 

Drydown: Old, dry marzipan. It turned weird and bitter.

 

I really liked it wet, but the drydown was just terrible on me.

[n0thing]

Initially - very, very bitter. Bitter almond, and harsh cinnamon that's like chewing cinnamon bark!

 

Once dry though, the bitterness goes away completely, and it's like lots of people have said - sweet cinnamon marzipan/red hots.

 

Sadly though, I only seem to be able to put this on my wrists, if it goes any higher up my inner arms, or on my neck, i get red welts (and this was a huge surprise - i have the least sensitive skin in the world & i'm allergic to absolutely nothing).

 

It's nice, and i'll definately use up the imp, but it won't be a big bottle due to the burn factor, and that it's quite a simple, sweet cinnamon smell, i much prefer the more complex cinnamony things like 3 Witches & Bengal. It also, strangely, doesn't seem to have much staying power on me

[Elrianra]

In the bottle this is sweet, sticky, and has an odd spicy-nutty smell. I am definitely picking up the almond and cinnamon off the bat. Candy-ish and rather unpleasantly like a nutty cough syrup. Once on my skin, the gammoning takes a nice step into the foreground, making me smell rather like a box of Red Hots or Hot Tamales. Ironically, as this one heats up, the smell cools down a little. The almond is in the background, barely detectable unless I stick my wrist right under my nose while the cinnamon is a nice spicy flare in the foreground. Wikipedia describes neroli as "a refreshing and distinctive, spicy aroma with sweet and flowery notes" which accounts greatly for the sweet undertone in this blend, though I don't detect any floral. The neroli and cinnamon are blending quite nicely. Over all, this really does smell like a cinnamon candy but not in an objectionable sort of way; it's insolent and proud, but not mean.

At the end of it all, I still smell rather like hot candy, but it's a beautiful and ironic twist in a blend. I find it delightfully wicked.

 

After a repeat wearing, I found that neroli attacks my sinuses and I wind up with a very evil migraine for my troubles... so I had to nix this one from a repeat purchase.

[littlefarmgirl]

In the bottle:

Creamy and spicy.

Wet:

It smelled kind of like a posset, really nice.

Dry:

All the creamy went away, and it was just cloves.

 

Definitely a keeper.

[urbanruralferal]

This was a very strong almond when wet, but that almost immediately disappeared and a cinnamon-clove took it's place.

I really smell more clove than cinnamon. like the above poster (who happens to be related to me!) and I do like a spicy scent, but this one does not go deeper than that, and I already have other scents to fill that niche, so this is off to swaps.

[WidgetAlley]

Lagniappe from the Lab.

 

In the Imp: Almonds! Almonds and spice. Mmm. Smells like a wonderful holiday cookie or something. There's a touch of neroli hovering in the background, bitter and powdery and floral-orangey. It lends a bit of depth to something that might otherwise be straightforward.

 

Wet: Cinnamon... leaf? Hang on, now I have to compare! *runs off to her oils cabinet* Yup! It's got the same brightness. Cinnamon bark EO smells drier and dustier to me. So, cinnamon leaf, almond, and maybe, as some others are saying, clove. The neroli seems to have died away.... honestly, though, I can hardly smell this! I only put a tiny drop on, thinking it was going to be uber-strong, but I'm thinking maybe I need another slather.

 

Ah, that's better. On second application, the almond comes through a little more strongly, and-- hey! Wait a minute, it's vanishing again! Come back here!

 

Dry: This is surprisingly light... as in, almost gone already! What's left is primarily cinnamon, with faint hints of almond and other spice. (The neroli never really put in an appearance.) It's nice, but nothing I feel the need to hang on to.

 

I've now tried all the Dark Elements, and of all four, only Hurricane seems to have any staying power on me. And it's also my least favourite. Figures.

[quinctia]

I picked this because I knew it had the same almond note as my beloved Eclipse (bitter), the other two notes are ones I know I get along with, and I wanted to find out what exactly goes powdery on me in Eclipse. Also, I've layered Eclipse with Chimera before, so almond + cinnamon = win.

 

In the imp: YES, my beloved almond.

 

Wet: ALMOND. Then the cinnamon comes out...and out...and out. (Part of me is going "Oh no, what if I smell like Big Red forever," and the other is going "YES, better cinnamon for layering than Chimera RIGHT HERE.")

 

Dry: Faded cinnamon. No powder, though, so bitter almond is not a powder culprit. I will try this in my scent locket, because the wet seems like even more pure almondy goodness than Eclipse, even.

 

I don't know if I want a bottle, but this is perfect for layering...and I think I like it better than Chimera and Three Witches.

[edenssixthday]

Inferno - Yowza, it’s all cinnamon! Nothing but cinnamon! This is a rush of spicy and fiery hot cinnamon. I don’t usually care for cinnamon in oil blends, but I can’t stop smelling this one. It’s so heavily spicy and fragrant and reminds me of my favorite black tea with orange and cinnamon in it. (I can’t help but wonder if the neroli is contributing to the slight orange scent I’m picking up on.) As the oil dries, the rushing swirl of cinnamon begins to mellow out a bit, and I detect something fleshy beneath it. In fact, as I was sniffing my hand, I said to myself, “It smells meaty – like a pistachio!” Well, I didn’t think I’d ever seen pistachio in one of Beth’s blends, so as soon as I could, I looked up the scent description, and no, it wasn’t pistachio, but it was another nut, bitter almond, that was giving this blend the fleshy scent of meaty nuts. This is a truly fabulous scent. As with most cinnamon and almond blends, it doesn’t last long on me. It had faded significantly by the end of hour one, and by the 90-minute point, it was gone. However, I think this is going to layer phenomenally with some of my favorite oils that could occasionally use some pizzazz like Snake Oil, Smut, and Scherezade. It’s going to be fun layering with this one!

[feline.by.design]

I smelled the almond note before I was knocked away by the cinnamon. Whoa! This scent is the closest one I've found to resemble fireball candies! The cinnamon is sweet, almost syrupy, which could be the influence of the almond.

 

Inferno isn't something I think I'd wear, but it makes me have a craving for some Red Hots right about now. I think it would irritate my skin too much, as I've been noticing some cinnamon scents have been doing lately.

 

Definitely something for the bold!

 

-doreen

[sofiaviolet]

In the imp: Cherry Twizzlers. Pure sugar.

 

On me: It's now a cinnamon Red Hot.

 

Verdict: Cinnamon burns my nose. Off to the swaps.

[Meg]

In the bottle: Very strong almond.

 

Wet: The almond is immediately warmed with cinnamon, which slowly becomes the dominating note.

 

Drydown: It's... interesting. At first it's relatively foody, with almond and cinammon working together to smell like biscuit dough. Then the neroli turns up, giving a slight orange blossom smell to the rest, and bringing a fresh breeze into an otherwise hot blend. It also ends up smelling quite bitter, more like cyanide than like foody almond.

 

Overall: I can see how this works as the dark side of fire, it's hot and cold at the same time, and very bitter and angry. It's not really a pleasant scent, and it has a bit of a plasticky scent to me from the almond and neroli combination. It certainly has throw and personality, but it's not really me.

[columbus]

This review is going to be very similar to many that I've read... I guess this is a straightforward blend!

 

In the bottle: Straight up, delicious almondy joy.

Wet on the skin: Still almonds, with just a hit of cinnamon. I love this stage.

Drying/dry: Wait? Almond? Where did you go? Hey now, cinnamon. No need to get violent.

 

Once the almond goes away, the BURNING begins! I know, I know, it's an inferno.... ;p

Sadly, my skin cannot handle this blend, which is a shame, because I really enjoy it. This guy's destined for the oil burner, or maybe I'll make a room spray...

 

Overall: 9/10, even with the welts.

[RaeiNarcissus]

Upon opening the cap, it smells really good.

 

Putting it on myself, right after, my nose itched, so I rubbed my nose. Withing 60 seconds of rubbing my nose, it felt like it was on fire. Rubbing water over my nose helped severly, but, they weren't kidding about it being possible conflagerant.

 

On me, it went cinnamony.... and then died. A very lonely death. Did not leave any welts though on my wrists, which I am happy for.

[gypsybaby1]

wet: spicy almond - then it smells like Red Hots! As it dries, the spice blends nicely with an edge of bitterness... then it morphs into a deep sweet cinnamon candy.

 

not for wearing, but works wonderfully as a car scent!

[jenleigh]

This was all red-hots candy in the imp and on my skin. Unfortunately, my skin started burning right after I put it on, and it's starting to get blotchy now. It lived up to its name, I think!

 

This was a frimp from the Lab and is now going off to a friend who wants to try it, so there's a happy ending to it all.

Edited September 29, 2006 by jenleigh