The Haunted Palace

[heysunshine]

The moment before the ruin, frozen. The scent of captured glory, of glowing pearls and rubies, of golden sunlit joy and regal grandeur: red rose, Tunisian amber, blood orange, toasted vanilla, heliotrope, gardenia and red musk.

This review is for the Dark Delicacies re-release of The Haunted Palace
For me this is Red Moon with a crush of roses and vanilla tossed in. Rosy coloured scent. Edited May 8, 2008 by Shollin

[fairnymph]

In the bottle: Sweet, rosy cinnamon.

 

Wet: Sweeter, spicier. Still some rose but some other florals too; yes, I can detect the heliotrope. Definitely something giving this scent warmth - the amber and the vanilla? Amazingly, I still like it (vanilla doesn't usually work for me)! And the musk in this is nice, sexy. I'm thinking the cinnamony-smell is the toasted vanilla.

 

Dry: I'm getting some really yummy fruit now, must be the blood orange but it registers as apple to me - wow, delicious! The rose and heliotrope have faded and the gardenia is peeking out. Something in this has also turned woody on me, and it's providing great depth.

 

Summary: This is totally not a scent I would ever thing to try, with the vanilla and amber, and I don't even like it that much at first, but it morphs quite well on my skin. Overall, I'm impressed by its complexity and mutability. It's still not something I'd wear, but I have to admit it's yummy.

[grashopper8]

This is for Haunted Palace '07.

 

Woah, this is one of those scents where I can smell every note!!

 

At first, it's musky, rosy amber, and I can smell gardenia, and vanilla, and....

 

....and then, it quickly morphs to smell like incense. Specifically, myrrh.

 

I don't know if it's the combination of notes that cause this effect, or if there's myrrh in the blend and it's not listed as a note, but it just doesn't love me like it did when it was wet. It ends up smelling very simple, plain, and flat on my skin.

 

Cursed chemistry!! This started out so awesome!

 

3 out of 5

[ouch!]

Whoa what a winner!!!!

 

This reminds me of my beloved Red Moon 07 but with more red musk! *has a smellgasm*

This is fucking gorgeous (scuse my French)

Where do I start? This is dark and bright at the same time...the red musk (One of my favourite notes) gives it a sexy sultry personality and the blood orange brightens it up slightly.

 

This is the first time EVER in a BPAL blend that I haven't amped the vanilla like crazy so..I'm very impressed.

As it dries the red musk is really taking hold and not budging, the Orange is there too but only in the background.

 

This doesn't smell floral on me at all. It stays as a sexy musky orange..and I'm totally happy with that. It's sex in a bottle!

[Scanmike]

I bought this because someone said it was similar to Red Moon, which I love. I have to agree that it is very similar. I find it sweeter, fruitier and spicier though. The red musk does stand out, giving it the same feel of Red Moon. It starts off almost a bit too sweet, that I am a bit wary. However, it calms down, still remaining strong with a huge throw. My husband, who usually hates perfume, walked in and said "you smell good". An hour later, this is just gorgeous. The initial grape scent is now a warm spicey orange, musky blend. Not powdery at all. I don't smell any roses, although the initial scent was a blend of fruit with a hint of some undistinguishable floral. I don't get the vanilla. At least, I wouldn't call it a vanilla scent at all. The amber warms it up. While not the same as Red Moon, I really love this. I keep sniffing my arm, which has this lovely subtle cinnamon spice smell. I can wear this without fear my co-workers will think I am weird! This is a winner for sure.

 

Edit 9/29- I am really loving this. Not as sweet as the first time I put it on and I now get the soft vanilla amber in the drydown. May definitely need another bottle.

Edited August 30, 2008 by DeniseScan

[Dark Alice]

Wet: I get the blood orange and the red musk!

 

Drydown: Tunisian amber, red musk, and the vanilla come out!

 

It goes through this "red musk single note" phase on my skin, something that I notice that happens with most red musk scented bpal.

 

On the final drydown: the gardenia finally comes out. Not a fan, the gardenia has taken over all of the yummiest notes.

 

But I am still glad that I got to try the imp!!!

[angelicruin]

In the bottle, I mostly smell the orange and amber with a hint of rose.

 

Wet on the skin, orange, vanilla, and the rose and gardenia smells in the background.

 

As it dries, the red musk comes out and mingles with the orange and floral scents. Love this scent!

[mgrazulis]

In the Imp: Orange and a sweetness from the heliotrope, and red musk glowing with amber.

 

Wet: Fleshy blood orange rind with a strawberry overtone. Amazingly, the musk stays clean and warm with trickles of vanilla and rose. This is bright oranges, reds and golds at this stage.

 

Dry: A sparkling melange of amber, red musk, vanilla with a hint of orange. The throw is close and warm and the vanilla doesn't overwhelm. Not what I would wear everyday, but something to savor for a special occasion. Lovely and ambery!

[gchris]

In Vial: Sweet, fruity, spicey

 

Wet: Sweet orange spice, kind of perfumey. Getting stronger.

 

Dry: Fades quite a bit, barely sweet with a slight hint of oranges.

[ami226]

So, I recently acquired a bottle of The Haunted Palace in a swap. At the time I hadn't looked at the notes in it (silly me!) but I got it anyways.

 

Normally amber scents seem to go haywire on me. They turn into a bad popcorn jelly bean smell on me. In fact, the Haunted Palace is the first scent with amber in it that I have fallen in love with!! (now starting to think it is the honey note that turns icky on me...)

 

Anyways, in the bottle, the Haunted Palace is a blue scent with bits of greens mixed in. I can definitely smell gardenia with a bit of rose. All the other notes stick to the background, but make this scent full of promise!

 

On me the scent turns floral (yay!) with a hint of vanilla in the background. So far I have been wearing it for... 3 hours and it is still going strong.

 

I think I am going to have to go hunt more of this one down....

 

--ETA--

Hmmmm, sadly it isn't quite what it used to be on me. The rose has turned a bit strange. Almost plasticky. Not for me anymore sadly.

Edited July 21, 2010 by Catseyes

[crebbsgirl]

Well, this certainly started out promising. The rose and blood orange were predominant notes while in the wet stage. During the drydown, the gardenia came shrieking around the bend, hauling the heliotrope with it. Finally the toasted vanilla and amber came out. And then, we went ROSE!! Which seems to happen to me when I try to wear any blend with rose in it. For the first hour, this scent was intriguing, until my skin chemistry effed it all up.

[Celestyna]

This has aged so nicely in its aging, sealed bottle over the years.

I treated myself to it the other night (third bottle, almost three years aged).

Lemongrass has completely faded and i can describe it as a nice, citrucy warm amber on me now.

This will be one of my top 5 scents forever.

[Dianora]

I got this bottle in a swap, unsniffed, based on the notes and what I was hoping it would smell like. I'd hoped it would smell of oranges and roses and have a hint of warm amber. I was deathly afraid of the gardenia, as it has meant the premature death of many other fragrances for me.

 

I got the swap in the mail earlier today and immediately opened the bottle. Heavenly! In the bottle, I smell delicious, mouthwatering orange and full blown roses. It's bright and scintillating, and perfect. Just perfect. I immediately put it on the back of my hands (my favourite testing/smelling location), and promptly tried to inhale my hand. The tang of citrus is full and juicy, and the roses are lovely and full while the amber in the background begins to temper it into something warmer. The musk lends a soft fullness to the scent, without detracting one bit from the freshness of it. As it dried, the citrus melded further with the roses and the other florals came out to lightly harmonize with the other scents. I can detect the heliotrope and gardenia, but they barely register as anything more than grace notes. Fully dry now, this is a subtle skin fragrance on me. I can still catch whiffs of oranges and roses, and I feel like I'm surrounded by a lovely aura of good things.

 

I'm very glad I went for a bottle of this. It's gorgeous, and I couldn't have asked for a more perfect citrus scent for my chemistry (which loves roses).

[lothien]

You know that neat compilation scent you get from your BPAL box that so awesome but there is no way to reproduce it?

 

The Haunted Palace smells like my BPAL box (Not exact, but close enough to make me recognise it at work and say "How did that get here? Oh that's Haunted Palace! ^^ )

Nuthin more to say. Winner.

 

[TrailerTrashPrincess]

how have i never reviewed this?

to begin: i hate gardenia. hate. loate. can't stand. and when "toasted vanilla" gets that coconut thing going i can't stand it, either.

sadly, as it ages, this gets more powdery. especially (for me) the throw smells more powdery than a direct skin-sniff. but if i huff my hand directly, i smell the lush red rose grounded with red musk, dusted with amber and with a hint of orange. it really just doesn't sound like it would work at all but it does. a lovely blend of unusual scents. i'll be sad when the last of my bottle is gone.

[Lamia]

90% of the time, amber = fail. This is one of those times. This starts nicely, a musky floral, but that doesn't last long. It becomes a warm scratchy scent (how else to describe it?), and eventually turns to soap.

 

Back in the bag.

 

Damn you, amber.

[Ishtar]

In the imp, I can clearly smell the gardenia, the heliotrope, the soft warmth of the amber and an undercurrent of heady red musk. No vanilla, rose or orange to speak of, at least to my nose.

 

Right after touching my skin, the gardenia goes on a rampage and beats all the other notes into submission. Thankfully, it calms down pretty fast, which gives the amber, the heliotrope and the rose a chance to come to the forefront.

 

As The Hauted Palace dries down, the red musk becomes more prominent, lending extra depth and sensuality to the blend. This definitely has a bright "solar" feel, especially when the vanilla and the orange finally come out to play. Yet, in spite of all its olfactory warmth, there is something remote, almost haughty about this scent.

 

It is beautiful, sophisticated, even surprisingly delicate for a red musk blend (red musk tends to be less than subtle on me!), and the amber in this is particularly gorgeous. But there is something about the mood of The Haunted Palace that may prevent me from wearing it very often. I might need to re-test it a couple of times, or I may just pass it on to the next person who'd like to try this remarkably skillful scent.

Edited November 23, 2009 by Ishtar

[Invidiana]

First of all, I'm a rabid Poe fan and this is among my favorite poems of his. That said, I think Beth did a fantastic job with capturing it. The florals are not overpowering, and the velvety rose blends deliciously with the other notes. It's something of a reddish-orange scent (forgive my synaesthesia). The blood orange gives it a certian dark fruitiness and the vanilla a sweet warmth. The red musk actually makes it very sexy along the lines of Mircalla (not the same at all, just a similar note). A darkly beautiful blend for a darkly beautiful poem

[violetblue]

I forgot I had this on my w/l and wondered why two lovelies recently frimped me with it. I bet reading reviews with Red Moon comparisons made me add it.

Well, sadly I get no Red Moon, just spicy STRONG florals, mainly rose and gardenia - and no vanilla. I don't get the orange either. Sad bc this has notes of win. Too heady for me, but thank you ladies for the frimps.

Edited January 22, 2011 by violetblue

[JLH]

I received a bottle of this from a lovely forum member, after it was recommended to me by a different forum member. My bottle of this is cobalt blue, and so I'm thinking it must be the old version from 05 or 06.

 

And I am so glad that said forum members recommended and gifted this to me because WOW. This is everything I hoped it would be. Wet on my skin I get a ton of warm amber and musk mixing with the tangy sweetness of the blood orange. As it dries, the florals begin to come out as well; they're very well blended together, although I can detect the red rose, and some gardenia as well. I can't specifically smell the vanilla, but I'm guessing that it's just adding a bit of sweetness to the oil. As it dries, it becomes mostly a tangy but sweet amber.

 

This blend has a gorgeous timelessness. I love amber, and this is the amber blend I've been looking for. I'm sure I'll have to hunt down more.

[Vega]

Sniffed: I smell a whiff of red rose, orange, and other florals, before they're drowned out by gardenia.

 

On skin: Wet on skin, I can smell a well-mixed blend of clear red rose, sweet orange, dry amber, and maybe a hint of red musk. I'm really trying to get a good sniff of these, but this dratted gardenia is waving its arms, screeching shrilly, and preventing me from clearly smelling them! What a mighty shame, because that blend is something complex and lovely and good! Much to my relief, gardenia tames with drydown and now mixes with the other notes; it still asserts itself, but less aggressively than before. Now The Haunted Palace is a fruity-floral mix upon a discreet, barely discernable backdrop of red musk; unfortunately vanilla is nowhere to be found. A dry yet rich and vivid blend, faintly feminine, with a colour impression of silky crimson and vermillion. It is a dry fruity-floral in the same league as Harlequin and Columbine, and Changing the Shadows.

 

Verdict: The Haunted Palace is perfect scent embodiment of its namesake in Poe's poem, captured in glory right before its ruin. It is also one of those unfortunate blends that would've been perfect if not for one single aspect. In this case, gardenia is the culprit: while I'm glad that it doesn't ruin the scent completely, the drydown really wasn't the most pleasant of experiences. I'll have to let this go.

[inurbanus]

I was really hoping to get amber and musk from this but on me the florals were the strongest notes, especially the rose. There was a little flurry of orange at the beginning which I really liked but it disappeared quickly, as top notes are want to do. I guess I hoping for more complexity from this. It smells like tons of others rose-scented blends from the Lab and while I like rose, I was hoping for something special from this.

[milo]

This is kind of jasminey with woods, so I was surprised to see neither in the description. After peeking, though, there is definitely vanilla and red musk, and I suppose I could be smelling the gardenia as jasmine. In spite of my distaste for heady florals, this is kind of pretty and soft and powdery. Oh, there's the rose too. Nice to try, but not really me.

[donkehpoo]

(2007 Version)

 

Wet: An in-your-face rose, with a lot of musk.

 

Dry: A heavy floral. Rose and gardenia are the easiest notes to pick out, along with the musk. It almost has a woodsy quality to it. I'm not getting any vanilla or blood orange out of this, which I'm kind of bummed about.

This scent is lovely, just not for me.

 

 

3/5

[OctoberGwen]

This smells really nice one me; I get a lot of gardenia and amber and orange, plus a bit of red musk and rose. It is so well blended that it has a very classic feel to it. I definitely get the 'rich and regal' aspect from this scent and I think it embodies the poem very well.

 

I don't find it terribly memorable on me, though, so I don't feel any need to track down a bottle.