Azathoth

[Janegodzilla]

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, I didn't get any of the tangerine. Instead, Azathoth smelled mostly like musk and dust, with a hint of something that reminded me of wood or chocolate.

The cedar came forward like crazy on my skin, though. If there was any tangerine there, I couldn't pick it up -- instead, Azathoth is all cedar, all the time, and I'm not sure whether that's a good or bad thing for me. On one hand, I really like the burnt, dusty sweetness of cedar. On the other hand, my sinuses seem to disagree. A lot.

Final Verdict:
I love love love Azathoth's burnt-wood smell, but it made my sinuses clang shut the moment I put it on. No bottle for me. Edited March 8, 2010 by Janegodzilla

[Venneh]

This is my first try at any of the Lovecraft scents. In the imp, I'm getting the vetiver and wood first and foremost, with maybe a hint of the tangerine in the back? On my skin, though, I'm getting a similar scent to Rumplestiltchzen; smoky wood.

 

I think I'm going to age this out a bit and see if the tangerine comes out at all; as this is at the moment, it's a clone of Rumplestiltchzen.

Edited October 19, 2009 by Shollin
Removed Lab description --Shollin

[Caerphilly]

In the imp: Heavy citrus dust and wood. Less masculine than I thought it would be.

 

Wet: All wood. I can smell the cedar becoming stronger.

 

Dry: Not my type of scent. Dust, wood decay. Very strong vetiver. No more citrus. There is something in the background though, maybe the amber, that is making this pleasant to my nose. I love amber, as it turns powdery on my skin. I think this is making this more feminine.

 

Overall: Usually such woody scents like this throw me off. I tend to categorize them all in the 'patchouli' category and have to immediately wash them off. But the amber is making this pleasant and familiar to me. I think I'll wear this again.

[Redillon]

This smells a lot like my beloved Devil's Claw. The vetiver screams HELLLLLLOOOOO. I like the ceder too. I get NO tangerine at all. It's just a bit more resinous than Devil's Claw and I like it. Right when you apply it to your skin the smokey, bar-b-que smell hits you, but it quickly mellows. I can smell the black amber but unfortunately it turns to powder on me. Luckily there's enough wood to balance the black musk so it doesn't go completely powder on me. My skin amps the wood scents and I love smelling like a tree so this gets a thumbs up from me!!

Edited January 14, 2010 by PuppetMistress

[loubric]

Hazlenut chocolate. Or rather a hazlenut chocolate bar you're grilling on the bbq!

Not something I would generally wear but it smells pretty yummy.

[xoe]

Azathoth in the imp is all vetiver and the dark amber.

It is pretty much the same on my skin. Much nicer than expected.

Definitely not a screeching scent.

[surf-tormented]

This smells EXACTLY like if I layered Kathmandu and Djinn on top of each other. It has the great BBQ smokiness of Djinn couple with the weird minty candy cigarette smell of Kathmandu.

 

I have both of these scents (Djinn, Kathmandu) as well as the imp of this scent.

 

I think I'm pretty set!

Edited February 26, 2010 by Madame Nyx

[angelicruin]

This is smoky vetiver and wood notes on my skin. A dark scent and quite masculine.

[Invidiana]

The other notes sounded so wonderful but the cedar...it ended up being The Great Cedar of Doom on me. In addition the vetiver amps it up to an even more woody and masculine fragrance, so I was basically getting all cedar with a vetiver background and a hint of spice. The mandarin and amber were nowhere to be found because they must have gotten choked by the cedar. The result was extremely masculine and impossible for me to wear. Cedar is obviously not my friend.

[impolight]

 

 

 

:::AZAZOTH:::

 

This wound up being yet another Frimp that got tossed into the goodie-bag from Bat's Day this year...

Hooray for this on multiple levels!

Azazoth is the blind idiot. Nuclear whatsit...

The Lab is capable of genius with anything that they do, but with Lovecraft especially, their work is impeccable!

From the Imp: Holy Crow! Gorgeous! Cedar gives the first strike; clean, powerful Cedar.

Right away, you feel almost as though you're encased in a fortress of sorts.

There is a wee nudge from Vetiver in this that makes it creepy in a delicious sort of way.

Tangerine crawls right over the top of this, just like an electric-orange vein of energy that moves across a blackened expanse of burning paper... The miniature ring of fire at the very edge of a lit cigarette when its being puffed.

The Lab's Black Amber is spellbinding! Sweet and lustrous as Amber usually is, but with a smoldering, charred texture that makes it completely unique.

The Saffron is hard to identify for now. The description of this being simultaneously dark and bright couldn't be more accurate.

Azazoth is like dancing blind in a magnesium flare...

Or shielding your eyes from the glare of a volcanic vent in an ocean trench... Surreal.

Skinwise: By Jove, this is a smash! The Cedar still leads the pack, but it is exquisitely measured in with the Tangerine and Vetiver and, finally, the Saffron to unleash something quite Wintergreeny... Perhaps, Sasparille-like!

This has morphed wonderfully! Wow!

Azazoth is unbelievably good!

In both incarnations, Azazoth is a force to be reckoned with, but on the skin chemistry, it takes on all new life!

Azazoth could be unisex, but it's woodier qualities have it much more suitable for Him.

Azazoth is quite the impressive feat of perfumery.

The entire Arkham collection has proved itsself worthy of purchase, and boasts a tie to one of the greatest authors of our age.

Azazoth earns a 5 out of 5 without even trying.

Great stuff, BPAL, great!!!

[SophieCedar]

Wow. This is great! The vetivert and tangerine leap out at me as soon as applied. The saffron is actually notable as well.

Drydown: cedar and black amber are more prominent, and the 3 other notes recline. Much more well balanced and seductive than I thought it would be!

[Ryokumuji]

Oh my, this is definitely not my kind of scent. It's very woody in the imp, and woody on my skin. In fact, it smells like burnt wood! I don't detect any tangerine in this at all, but there is something sweet to it. Sweet, burnt wood. It definitely feels more masculine to me than feminine. Unfortunately, this one doesn't do it for me at all.

[zmulls]

Smelled very intriguing in the bottle. Got a good hint of the tangerine and vetiver when it hit my skin.

 

And then.....it vanished. I can barely smell it. Mere minutes after applying it, it faded away, and I can only get vague whispers of what it was trying to do.

 

I reapplied a couple of hours later and.....it disappeared again.

 

Shoot, and I loves me some vetiver most of the time. Azazoth is a little too high pitched on me, though -- so high-pitched that only my dog can smell me.

[Lethran]

In bottle only: Strong, smoky vetiver mostly. It’s making me think of the volcanic Ash in one of the old tiki LE scents. Further sniffing will turn up the more delicate notes under the ash. Tangerine is the strongest of these, with cedarwood next. This smells like the aftermath of a catastrophe, a volcanic eruption, a forest fire. It grew on me rather, but would be impossible for me to wear. If smoky vetiver is your thing, this would be it.

[jmscripsi]

This was a frimp in a lab order, and I have to say...I'm glad I didn't purchase it. It reminds me VERY strongly of a marinade I use for chicken and my roommate immediately said "beef jerky." I have to agree. I honestly don't know what hits me in this oil, but it gives me a really visceral, negative reaction. I tried it on my skin after reading the reviews, hoping it would change, but it was so strong and so uncomfortable for me that I had to wash it off. I wish this had worked. Alas, into the swap pile it goes.

[mxtine]

I don't get anything other than smokey vetiver here. Well, a bit of tangerine which is out of place and it makes me a little ill.

[Helas]

Like all of the Picnic in Arkham scents that I have tried so far, Azathoth is surprisingly friendly-smelling. I get a little dry saffron, but this is mainly a cedar and vetiver blend. I went on a hiking trip in an ancient evergreen forest as a teenager, and this makes me think of that place, where the cedar trees were totally unlike the tiny ones that we grow in the city, with branches so tall that in some places they obscured the sun. Although I don't get an evil vibe from this at all, it does smell ancient and primeval. Unfortunately, I get no tangerine at all, which is disappointing since I was looking forward to the contrast of such a light, sweet note with the spicy woods.

 

Azathoth has a warm, homey masculine strength, halfway between the lumberjack camp and the spice cupboard. (I'm thinking of Monty Python's Lumberjack Song right now; for the X-Men geeks, I could also see a Wolverine connection.) Who would have thought that Azathoth would be so soft-hearted underneath his tentacular exterior?

 

Four out of five stars.

[maoric]

In the vial: Deep, earthy wood with a sweet spike, reminds me vaguely of some sort of soda concentrate.

 

Freshly applied: Burnt wood! Not necessarily charred, but it definitely has a smokey edge to it.

 

Drying: Cedar is coming out, but not overpowering so far. I hope it behaves since another cedar scent I tried went crazy on me.

 

Later: Faint woods with a smokey tone to them. The cedar is behaving in the background and all in all this is reminding me of a slightly sweet burning wooden incense. I'll have to come back to this after trying more scents to see whether I want to get it in a bottle or not, but it is a nice scent.

[achromance]

In the vial: It's very smoky ad heavy. I'm not quite sure what creates the scent, the black amber and cedarwood perhaps? While I like it, I do wish that it morphs into something less smoking camp-firey.

On my wrist: It's still very smoky, I wonder how? I really want the tangerine to come through, now it's just dry and serious, but no. All I get is smoke. Mysterious are the ways of my skin.

[Suu4LC]

Hmmm...I was getting really excited seeing tangerine and saffron, two notes I really like, but had to stop dead at vetiver. It is my doom note. I am always looking for a blend where vetiver works on me, but I still haven't found it. Amber has the tendency to go powdery on me as well, so something tells me this won't by my magical vetiver blend. But bpal constantly surprises me, so I have to give it a shot!

 

In the imp, I pretty much just smell vetiver Boo-urns!

 

Grrr...yeah, on my skin, same thing. Just straight vetiver. I really don't get any of the other notes at all

 

Same on full drydown-basically, this was just a straight, slightly sweet vetiver scent on me. So vetiver haters, beware, this probably won't change your mind. Vetiver lovers-check this out! It may be far more complex on you than on me!

[ladyflash]

Prologue: I received this as a frimp from the lab.

 

Intro: Cedarwood in the bottle, and nothing else.

 

Exposition: Hellooooooooo, cedarwood. I don't really smell tangerine, but instead it smells more like orange marmalade, the very sharpest & bitter kind. There's a mix of the scent of tobacco on clothes & something sweeter. Strongest oil I've ever tested. The tobacco does come out more, but not in a good way. After 15 minutes, it smells like...cigarette ash. I had to wash this off after it turned into...that! Oh my goodness, I can't believe that happened.

 

Epilogue: I wanted to give the tangerine/orange marmalade a chance to morph into something sweeter to take some edge off the wood & tobacco elements, but the cedarwood & burnt tobacco was giving me a headache. And I really like that sweet tobacco smell, too. So disappointed!

[Kayah]

All I get is cider and vetiver.. it does smell kind of spicy, maybe the saffron - can't tell for sure I haven't smelled it on its own to identify

The tangerine, if there at all, is very dry and almost like rind only. Also not sure if I can pick out the amber.

 

I actually don't find this screeching at all (Ultraviolet, now THAT was screeching). This is dark and menacing but in a very very nicely scented package.

[lilyliza]

On me, this is a darker version of Aelopile (they do share amber, citrus, and cedar notes). The darkness is especially prominent in the beginning, when the vetiver is strongest. The vetiver eventually calms down a lot, and the scent becomes primarily cedar. Tangerine is always there, beginning as an odd brightener of an otherwise menacing scent and developing into a really nice, full but not overpowering note. By the time it's dry, it's almost sweet on me- mostly cedar with a heavy dose of tangerine and amber. I never do get much saffron. It's an interesting scent, but I think in a death match, I'd go with Aelopile.

[ami226]

Bright tangerine with a dirty vetiver. Reminds me a bit of Ravenous. This one, weirdly enough, starts to smell like dog treats on me. Huh. Not like Ravenous at all at this point. Not for me at all!

[asciident]

Wet: Almost purely cedar.

 

First on: Vetiver and amber laid over a cedar base.

 

Dry: Unchanged. Not a big fan, since cedar inevitably reminds me of hamster bedding.