Azathoth

[Kimbernunk]

Azathoth is the blind, idiot god who sits on a black throne at the center of Chaos. His scent is high-pitched and screeching, both impenetrably dark and searingly bright with the clarity of madness: tangerine, saffron, vetiver, black amber and cedarwood.

In the imp: Vetiver and cedar, mostly. I can smell a hint of the saffron, but no tangerine.

On skin, wet: Vetiver and cedar, both of which are going nuts.

On skin, dry: It takes about half an hour to settle down and I end up with LOTS of amber. It's a slightly smoky amber, but amber nonetheless - amber and my skin ADORE each other with lots of screaming loudness. All in all, this isn't a bad thing. I got one whiff mid-afternoon that had a strong scent of saffron in it. I never smelled any tangerine at all.

Throw: average to strong

Overall: Not great, but possibly nice in mid-autumn. I'll keep the imp. Edited July 30, 2008 by Kimbernunk

[milo]

I cheated and looked at the notes because I can't figure this one out. It must be the cedar in this that is smelling quite bitter on me, and I'm not liking it one bit. Cedar, in fact is all that I'm getting, this is really a yuck blend on me.

[Saya]

YUCK! Reminds me of Lear - wood chips and pencil shavings.

[OhioSky]

I really can't quite pick out very many of the notes as I'm not familiar with many of them, but this strikes me overall as very herbal, to the point of being headache inducing. I really can't come up with much else to say about it.

[Razoth]

Honestly, although the ingredients say "tangerine, saffron, vetiver, black amber and cedarwood", I didn't even get a HINT of tangerine in this. There was perhaps a small hint of saffron in this, and I could smell a bit of the amber and ceder, but the vetiver was OVERWHELMING. A dark and bitter scent with sharp slivers interlaced.

[zankoku_zen]

Smoky cedar. Which to me means... burnt pencil shavings.

 

Oh tangerine, where are you?

[milica]

first few minutes I get tangerine with strong vetiver. this one is very strong, so it needed about an hour or so to settle down into interesting mix of cedarwood, vetiver, bit of amber and a bit of tangerine, on me mostly woody. not what I would wear all the time, but I think I should have worn it on morbid angel concert last night because the scent really matches the name. dark, demonic smell but at the same time very close to skin and wearable. will be sticking to my imp.

[Shadowdawn]

The first BPAL scent i really really disliked, not unbearable but certainly not in good graces with me.

In the bottle: BITTER and powerful, smells like ashes.

On skin wet: TUMERIC!!!!!! exactly and totally and percisely tumeric. Which to me smells like and outdoor campfire... but only the sulfur of the campfire none of the other things that accompany it in the wild. No other tones, just tumeric.

Dry: softer version of the tumeric, with a slight hint of sweetness concealed by the bitter tones.

[rayvn1]

Oy Overwhelmingly sharp and bright tangerine mixed with the litter box shavings I often get from cedar. Drat! Very strong and sharp though, seemed to have great staying power.

[SensationalGrendel]

In the imp: Whoa, saffron! Smells dirty...literally, like dirt. There are no florals listed, but this kind of reminds me of flowers at the end of summer, early fall. Fresh earth and wet, dead things.

 

On me: It has that "sex" smell, but in a bad way. It smells stale, dirty with a very masculine background. Like a gross old guy in a bar. Nasty!

 

This one is not for me.

[Ajila]

In the bottle – Cedarwood and vetiver

 

Wet on me – Black, smoky vetiver and the pencil shavings of the cedar

 

Dry on me – Mostly there is the dryness of the cedar, but there is a soft fruitiness around it that makes it intriguing. There is a similarity with Event Horizon there I think

 

Overall – It’s a subtly sexy blend in the dry down, but the initial stages would put me off wearing it

 

[WidgetAlley]

Frimp from the Lab!

 

Imp: Ridiculously strong, smoked vetiver-- the same kind I get from Baron Samedi-- with a touch of dusty cedar and saffron. Pungent, earthy, and masculine, but in a good way. There might be a little brightness from the tangerine. It smells scorched... not a pretty blend but definitely an interesting one. I think I'm learning to like even the heaviest of vetivers; it makes me feel very grounded.

 

Wet: Whoa charred cedar wood! Like campfire smoke. VERY hot; the cedar, vetiver and saffron sear the nostrils and take no prisoners. There's some amber in the back, too. Unfortunately the cedar is going a little bit suffocating and salty on me. Hopefully it will calm down. It smells like a cross between Baron Samedi and Tombstone, but without the sweetness that either of those has to temper them.

 

Dry: This dries down to a pleasant, spiced-citrus, woody and masculine cologne smell. For straight up vetiver, I think I prefer the slightly sweet edge of Baron Samedi, but this would be really gorgeous on the right man. I may slather my boyfriend before I pass this on.

Edited March 3, 2009 by WidgetAlley

[septima_pica]

Picked an imp of this up at Will Call last night, on the basis that I've had some really good luck with the Arkham line, and I'm not disappointed.

 

Wet: Immediately a strong vetiver, but not a bitter or unpleasant one. The "tangerine" is a distinctive dried peel smell, there is a faint high weirdness (the saffron, piping?), but mostly this is the Vetiver Show.

 

Dry: Now the other ingredients come out. The whole thing unites into a very nice, if rather weird, dark incense. I'm not sure what "black amber" is, but it seems not to be doing the Very Bad Things that amber usually does on my skin. This is really good stuff! I can see why other reviewers could find it a bit cologney, but on me it's not so predominantly cedar that this is a problem. I also agree with the poster that thought there was something turmeric-like going on in here, that odd dry-bitter-sweet vaguely gingery smell it has.

 

As it dries down, the high notes disappear and the incensey cedar starts to dominate, sweetened by something or other. It's still good. In about three hours it's gone. I didn't put much on, though, so there is hope that it lasts longer than that.

 

Still going strong with the Lovecraft scents...

[Spork]

Mmmm, tangerine! A nice smoky one...uh oh, there's cedar...ah! Cedar's going to play nice today! After about 5 minutes *ack* that's why cedar's playing nice, there's VETIVER!!! Hmm, vetiver's playing nice, very unusual, since it usually likes to take over and become SN Vetiver regardless of it's playmates. One hour later, yep, that's what it did! But, if I could keep re-applying it, the first hour is quite yummy so there is hope, at least for the imp

[Jammies]

A gerbil ate an orange, then peed on his bedding. Very not me.

[catattack]

Imp: Thick brown resin. Must be the black amber and vetiver?

Wet: Thick smoky resin. The vetiver is definitely there. But it's very good in this blend so far.

Drydown: Thick, heavy, smoky resin.

Overall: Wow! This is a serious resin blend! It is so smoky and dark, it invokes an image of a cave where a dark formless creature stands in front of a pile of orange smoldering coals. This stuff has throw. A little goes a long way. I'm happy that this blend didn't go sour or "liquid smoke" on me like some resin blends do. This is a scent to keep me feeling "grounded".

[LizzyLies]

In the imp, it smells like cedar and hotel room to me. Not dirty, nasty hotel room, but recently cleaned because you've just checked in hotel room. When wet, it reminds me of a sterile room--or more precisely, my memory of sticking someone with an IV and getting stuck with an IV as well--and then once it dries down we've got tangerines and cedar. Vetiver is playing surprisingly well with everyone else and I'm glad, because when I hear 'black vetiver' my mine automatically goes, "It's going to eat everyone else!" It really is both dark and light at once and I don't think my poor little brain is having an easy job of making sense of it. It's different, and more wood than anything else thanks to my weird skin chemistry, but not bad.

[ouch!]

Stronnnnng vetiver and cedarwood. There's a slight minty tinge to this when it's wet but that fades and I'm lef twith just the vetiver and wood.

 

Tangerine? No maam! This isn't for me...

 

[Iceblink]

Wet: vetiverrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr! Nice vetiver, though.

Dry: cedar!! And a faint hint of tangeriney citrus. Dry and tangy--not bad; not really me, but not bad. More of a masculine blend.

[isisonearth]

Imp: Vetiver & cedar with something herbal.

 

Wet: Hard to place. Powerfully stinky like hot asphalt.

 

Dry: The asphalt scent just lingers. Azathoth is one scary god.

[bubblefish]

Something about this combination of notes, which I'd ordinarily love separately, has spawned a monster that smells of tobacco/cigarette smoke.

[redward]

Azathoth

 

in the imp:Well, I'm not really to sure what I smell. I know what vetiver smells like in theory, but not in actual fact. I get the tangerine, but it is not a bright, fruity citrus. It is rounded out and darkened by the other notes I guess. My nose isn't trained enough to tell the other notes apart. This is masculine and somewhat fresh, not dark smoky/incense like I was expecting.

 

wet: The citrus is pretty much gone. Geez, does my skin ever eat scent. Everyone else is saying how strong this is and I am sticking my nose right up to my wrist to smell it. So, warm, a very little bit of smokiness. I'm not really able to distinguish the different notes. I thought there might be some spice based on the description, but it isn't spicy at all.

 

dry: It seems to have sweetened up some and is sticking very close to my skin. It's not really doing much for me. Smells nice, but not really my thing, I think. It might be better in the winter. I think this will go into my swap bag.

 

A man-scent for sure. Warm and woody, the DH smells the spice, but my nose isn't getting it.

[Diva Urd]

In the imp, I get the tangerine and something that initially smells almost like patchouli - in that combination, it's probably the vetiver.

 

On me, the tangerine... vanishes immediately into the background to make room for VETIVER! and CEDAR!. Once it fully dries down, the musk and amber take the edge off these two combatants and add a bit of powderiness. The tangerine has completely fled the scene. The scent stays that way until it vanishes. It has quite a bit of staying power - to be expected with base notes with that much oomph.

 

Overall, I don't mind it, but I was hoping for something that would turn out a bit more complex on me than VETIVER and CEDAR. Will keep the imp, but won't need more.

[voorishsign]

"Azathoth is the Greatest God, who rules all infinity from his throne at the center of chaos. His body is composed of all the bright stars of the visible universe, but his face is veiled in darkness."

- Gary Myers, The Web

 

My mother doesn't like this one, she thinks it smells too much of burnt wood, but that's actually part of the reason I love it.

 

God, this is rich. Rich, luxurious and very, very dark. In the bottle it's pure tangerine, saffron, amber and (oddly enough) some kind of distant dark chocolate. It's incredibly enticing. The moment it hits skin the cedarwood and slight scent of burning wood and ashes begin to come through. It reminds me of a bonfire on an autumn night, but the tangerine, amber and saffron stay with it.

 

A few minutes on, and only ashes and dark musk remain. I do like it, more than I thought I would, but it's sadly not an everyday scent, as I'm sure there are many like my mother who don't appreciate a nice ashy smell.

 

Edit: bizarre. After a few months, I decided to try it again and all of a sudden it feels like I'm smelling a completely different perfume that behaves much better. Dark amber, dark chocolate, dark vetiver, but then there's this bright spark of what I swear smells almost like mint that disrupts it and allows the tangerine and saffron to bleed through. I love this more than I did before now. Very, very nice.

Edited January 2, 2010 by voorishsign

[sirensea]

Wow, this one is DARK. It reminds me a lot of a man's cologne, mixed with burnt wood, incense and something a little sour, which must be the vetiver. Very interesting blend.