Al Azif

[Beatrice33]

A sinister, sinuous incense of summoning, a herald and paean to the Primordial Gods of Darkness, Chaos, Madness and Decay.

Oh how I would love to know the notes of this one. My nose isn't good enough to figure them out, but I love this. People have mentioned benzoin, oppoponax, saffron, amber, sandalwood, and all of those could be in there. I swear I get a bit of coconut, too. It's smooth, sweet and faintly resinous on me. Its not sinister at all, more comforting and slightly exotic. I've only had it on for 30 minutes, but if the love lasts, this will be a bottle purchase.

[tasty]

MMMMM, this one is like a pancake wrapped in a hug dipped in maple syrup. I'm terrible at coming up with individual notes but this one is slightly smoky and maple-y.

 

It'll be good to wear in the fall. When people ask me what I smell like, I'll just say, "I don't know but it sure is gooood!"

[dorothy humbird]

There is no way I would ever describe this scent as unsettling. It's warm and golden and kinda sticky-sweet; it reminds me of the underlayment of both MB: Underbed and Haloa, somehow - though each of those has their own accent notes. Al-Azif is purer on its own; more interested in merely adding a golden glow to your skin scent than making you smell like a bakery (MB:Ub).

 

It's decidedly wonderful, especially since the others it reminds me of are LEs!

[Lethran]

It was so nasty and I think patouli laden that I deliberately sampled it two hours before my bath so I could (gratefully) wash it off.

[Dark Angel]

OK, now I am officially insane because wet out of the imp it smells caramel-y to me. Maybe that's the maple syrup vibe some others have mentioned but I swear it's caramel. Actually it kind of reminds me of the caramel in Gluttony, though not nearly so strong and sticky. I don't know what else is in it but it dries down to a lovely slightly sweet, slightly incense-y scent, not dark or evil at all. My husband thought he could pick out a bit of coconut, too.

 

This is a very comforting scent to me; I like it a lot. I find it rather odd that the only scents where the word 'comforting' springs to mind immediately for me are pretty much all in the Picnic in Arkham category. It just doesn't seem quite right. Maybe I am an evil outsider at heart....

[Northernskygal]

I also get the caramel-ish smell of this, though I originally had said toffee.. incensed sugared toffee. The oil itself isn't really dark, deep and scary.. I could see maybe.. a gothic temple or church smelling this way though. This would be an evening scent for me, as I find to be maybe.. a deeper scent. It is alluring and mysterious and intriguing. This would be a perfect scent to wear on a first date, it is strong enough to be noticed and interesting enough to be remembered. The description sounds a bit scary but this is really a very lovely scent.

[erraticprophet]

Initial Impression: spices and honey

 

On Wet: Umm.. Not to sound like a stoner, but this totally smells like pot resin. Just sayin'.

 

On Dry: green smelling, sweeter, like fresh-cut hay with a hint of spice.

 

Final Impression: pretty in the drydown.

 

Rating (on a scale from 1-5): 2.5

[metaldog32]

YBNB had frimped me this a while ago; I remember smelling it and falling head over heels in love with it.

 

I promptly bought a 5ml; today was the first day I tried it on for the official review.

 

Initial sniff from bottle: Since I really don’t have any idea what comprises this fragrance, what I think I smell is sweet…something akin to treacle??? Am not sure I register any incense just yet..but I do get a sweetness..kind of like a dark resiny type of sweetness..if that makes any sense.

 

For whatever reason..I keep thinking maybe there is coconut in here??? Am I nuts??? If I had to describe what I think I am registering..the closest I can come up with is treacle/incense/coconut..argh..I am terrible at this.

 

Applied wet on skin: Hmm…sweet wood maybe???? Sandalwood??? Sandalwood and treacle??? I keep thinking there is a dry coconut in there too. Kind of foody..but not super cloying or sweet.

 

It almost smells like fresh wood??? Then..the freshness of the wood has the treacle or caramel or maple infused with it along with the coconut. It baffles me.

 

Couple of minutes later:A touch smoky with the wood/sweetness /coconut notes.

 

Ten minutes later: Same as above but I think I get some sort of high thin floral..kind of sheer just floating on top of all. I wouldn’t say jasmine or rose..or even lily..but when I sniff my wrist..something makes me think of floral..even if it is just a sheer wash of it.

 

Twenty minutes later: Faded fast on me…so I am guessing at this stage it’s actually drydown time. Some of that treacle sweetness left and a smidgen of floral maybe. Very much a skin scent.

 

Lasting power on me comes in at about 4+hours with throw soft to average.

 

Bottom Line: Al Azif is indeed interesting; the incense and sweetness coupled with that tinge of floral make this interesting enough for me to keep around. I have to say though that the sweetness sometimes almost borders on me to be a bit cloying. Nevertheless, it’s original enough to warrant a place in my collection. I like it for fall/winter.

[hkhm]

imp: burnt caramel. or maybe just deeply toasted caramel.

 

wet: this smells like toasted caramel and nag champa incense to my nose. there is this sinuous sweetness that just draws you in.

 

dry: okay, this smells like sandalwood with a hint of coconut. this is thick and rich and very long-lasting.

[theseagrows]

this smells like coconutty incense on my skin with a bit of powderiness to it. i get a coconut similar to what's in black pearl. when i first sniff the imp, it's even nuttier in the imp than on my skin, thankfully. this is very soft, warm and pretty, definitely a keeper.

 

i just re-tested this and it reminds me of the oscar de la renta my grandma wore....weird.

Edited April 14, 2008 by theseagrows

[jaeyne]

Love it!!! This reminds me of hindu grass and nag champa and is an uttlerly sexy incensy scent.

[valentina]

I've always been very curious about Al Azif due to my love of the BPAL incense blends, so I was naturally excited to try it. In the imp, it smelled like a dry incense with a bit of sweetness, but not stick incense. Instead, it smells more like the leaf incense of the sage variety.

 

On my skin, I get a shot of maybe maple or coconut sweetness with that incense underneath, and it's a very dry, almost musty incense. I keep thinking of a very ancient incense made of sage and wormwood leaves that were dried and crushed up. The sweetness really wears off after a 5 minutes, and I'm left smelling how I'd imagine an old underground temple would smell, with damp walls that have absorbed the incense smell. After a half-hour or so, that musty smell wears off a wee bit and a spicier, sweeter scent emerges alongside it that is a bit maple syrupy, but not in a Mrs. Butterworth way.

 

I know a lot of people find this scent foody and comforting and not ominous and creepy, but I'm going with ominous and creepy. I think I'm amping the creepy element of the scent, but whatever it is, it's kind of weird, but not in a "oh, that stinks!" way. I can't stop smelling it, even though I don't think it's fragrant. To my nose, it kind of morphs back and forth between sweet and musty. My body chemistry must be getting schizo with this scent! It's not a way I'd choose to smell when wearing perfume, but it brings many Lovecraft stories to mind by the aroma alone. Amazing!

[DARKBEAUTY28]

In the imp it smells perfumey. On it was not good. Not terrible but not something I would choose to wear...unless it is on my hair! It smells of hairspray. Not expensive hairspray either...like a drugstore hairspray in a pump bottle. I get a tinge of old vanilla but mostly it's cheap hairspray.

[Argentwolf]

In the imp: HELLO I WILL BE YOUR CARAMEL SMELL FOR THE DAY

 

Wet: Still very strongly of caramel, mixed with chocolate...it was almost too overpowering, making me feel as if I had glutted myself on forbidden Halloween candy and eaten myself sick.

 

Dry: It morphs from the crazy 'wtf?'-inducing candy smell to something...else. I'm wanting to say 'musky', but I don't think that's the right word. Yet it doesn't smell like straight incense, or straight florals. To accurately describe it eludes me...but this is not to say that it is unpleasant, now. In fact, it's a really lovely odor.

 

Personally, I realized that the candy-like smell actually smelt a lot like the very dregs of burnt-out incense...I am wanting to say myrrh, simply because that's what I've burnt in my house before, and the 'memory' of smell that I have is from that. (And wouldn't myrrh be appropriate, in this case?) Once I realized this, I saw the perfume from an entirely different perspective -- that of smelling an area where a ritual took place, long after the fact, with just enough sweet, seductive malevolence to draw one's attention and keep it.

 

Verdict: It's a very interesting scent, which I find works on several different levels (especially since the obnoxious caramelness has toned down quite a bit in subsequent days of testing). I don't know if it demands bottle status in my collection, but the imp is definitely worth hanging on to.

[Torrain]

In the imp, dark and smoky. Hits my skin and goes toasty sweet for a second, then dries out in a flash. Dark and faintly hot and gritty.

 

3 min: ...burnt honey? Burnt sugar and smoke with musk, maybe? There's a clearer note coming in...

 

6 min: that sweetness and... something refreshing. I'm looking at the reviews, and I don't think it's quite the vetivert someone mentioned.

 

8 min: vanilla? I mean, still that sweet almost gritty darkness, but I would *swear* that's vanilla.

 

10 min: okay. Clearing nose with coffee grounds.

...vanilla. Vanilla incense carried along on something dark and sweet. Musk in the background.

 

15 min: dark sweet musk; or sweet musk in the dark, whichever you prefer. Almost like black musk and tonka?

 

20 min: sweet musk in the smoky dark.

 

25 min: the sweetness is becoming a little more pronounced, but the overall effect is the same.

 

30 min: getting a little fainter, otherwise the same. There's a sweet refreshing note in there; some kind of sweet resin? If this sticks around, it's going on the bottle list. If not, I'll still hang onto and possibly pick up more imps.

 

1 hr: Hasn't faded much more, and still has a hint of that sweet resiny note that's rather refreshing. Still has dark and smoky vanilla^W tonka-like qualities. It's seeming more a cosy darkness than a sinister one, but the rest of the description stands.

 

1:45: faint sweet tonka, which sticks around; I've mostly lost the darker notes. Lovely while it lasts, and pleasant on the drydown.

 

Love and coffee,

Frances

[KaliVerra]

Toasted coconutty/burnt sugary/Indian foody... I can't get a handle on it... but it is OMFG GOOOOOOOOD

 

Next wearing: Jai Majal at bathtime... SLATHERING OF AL AZIF!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! YUMMERS

 

For teh WIN @ bedtime, BTW...

 

5/5

[Phaedra]

Wet this is soft and powdery- musk? and maybe amber? When first on this is soft and almost watery with a very faint hint of spice. After a few minutes it almost smells like gardenia? I don't smell any incense at all This becomes a sweet and warm scent. I think there's amber in it. It really doesn't smell like incense to me which is what I was hoping for. It does't feel dark or sinister either Oh well, I guess this one's not for me.

[voodoocatwoman]

I had such high hopes for you, Al-Azif.

 

In the imp: maple syrup, the kind you get in Vermont that is not as processed as the grocery-store-bought variety.

 

Wet: Uh oh. Did someone just sprinkle cedar shavings on my syrup?

 

Dry: Here I go again... HAMSTER CAGE. Can you say Ick? I knew that you could.

[naeelah]

I'm a big fan of incense blends, so I'm always collecting and comparing them. I tried both a lab fresh imp and a decant of the original Springtime in Arkham version of this, on each arm.

 

In short, this strikes me as an evil version of Cathedral. For me, Cathedral is true resins, a little smoky and a little sweet, with a hint of something like cypress.

 

Fresh from the lab, Al-Azif is very similar. It starts out very sharp, and it's obviously very young. It's not so pleasant in the beginning. After maybe 30 minutes, it morphs into something a lot smoother and a little sweet. I find it very nice at this stage. It seems sweeter than Cathedral, but only slightly darker.

 

The aged, SiA version is *much* darker and richer. From the moment you put it on your skin, it's dark and smoky. It seems a little bit more woodsy. As with the fresh version, a sweetness emerges as you wear it, but I felt it actually got darker and more prickly as it morphed, so it evens out. Hours later, some of the darkness and prickliness fades, and now it's more similar to the fresh version.

 

For both, the throw is about average. Wear life seems good.

 

I think it's a wonderful true incense blend. No obvious fruits, no obvious woods, but richer than pure resins (such as Penitence). Definitely try this if you want a dark incense fragrance. If you want something like a sweeter Cathedral but not much darker, then I recommend trying it fresh.

Edited March 11, 2008 by naeelah

[twilighteyes]

This one smells VERY sweet, almost maple-y, in the lab fresh imp. Yum! In a more aged imp it smells more incense-y and sharper, but still sweet.

 

[porcelina]

dark and murky. like a darker version of oblivion but with an unpleasant acrid note that really puts me off.

[vividdreamer]

I absolutely LOVE this.

 

I've gotten imps of this a few times, but I think I always sent them as frimps before giving Al-Azif a proper try.

 

It's sweet, caramelly, delicous incense. I don't get any smoke or vetiver or anything harsh to this. It's sheer gorgeousness on my skin, and I love that the sweetness lingers on and on in contrast to the resins.

 

Big bottle, STAT. (I so should have tested those other imps a LONG time ago!)

[donnatron]

Imp: Maple syrup. I knew about the incense-i-ness of Al-Azif but had never read any of the reviews and was just like "bah? WTF? Where's my incense?"

 

Wet: Hyper sweet maple-burnt sugar-caramel scent.

 

Dry: Maple and caramel. Instensely sweet.

 

Throw: Pretty intense for the first half hour or so and then settles down.

 

Overall: Totally not what I was expecting. It's pretty but doesn't have the complexity that I usually like in scents that wind up smelling foody on me.

[skittisheclipse]

I, uh. Smell like evil pancakes? Served in some incensey den of perdition. Unfortunately for Al-Azif, I don't particularly like the smell of maple syrup. Off it goes!

[windbourne]

Initially, this had a very sweet and bitter scent. There is a touch of the maple/caramel that many others have found, but primarily burnt incense. As it fades, it goes almost entirely nag champa -- heavy sandalwood and dust. It smells not unlike a mystical-type bookstore, the kind with heavy curtains and a lot of Indian imports and books on tarot and previous lives.

 

It's not an offensive smell on my skin, but not one I want to wear, either. This is one imp that is heading straight for the trade box. I'm not sad to have tried it, but I've never been that fond of nag champa, and this isn't going to change my mind.